Author: lizardek

…to the gills. Yesterday: mayo herring, tomato herring, onion herring, fried pickled herring, gravlax, warm-smoked lemon salmon, hard boiled eggs, deviled eggs, tomatoes and cucumbers, red cabbage, brown cabbage, 6 kinds of cheese, knäckebröd, bread, crackers, grapes, christmas ham, meatballs, prinskorv, jansson’s temptation, boiled potatoes, rice pudding with strawberry syrup sauce, christmas cookies, coffee, cognac Today: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, broccoli, haricots vertes, gravy, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, christmas cookies, coffee, cognac, eggnog

It’s Christmas Eve in Sweden (well, the morning of). Anders is slicing potatoes for Janssen’s Temptation. The kids are watching cartoons. Mom, John and Simone are eating breakfast. I thought I’d put up a quick entry and then go shower. Anders’ parents are arriving in time to watch Kalle Anka and Tomte is expected to arrive sometime afterwards. 🙂 A friend of ours is playing Tomte again this year as we couldn’t use any family members due to the fact that the kids are a little too sharp and would have recognized any of the usual suspects immediately. It’s been...

How many times in two weeks is TOO many times for Julbord? 🙂 John and Simone arrived safely and on time, despite rain mixed with snow and a take-off that John described as “if the plane was a windshield wiper.” eek As we drove home from the airport, the snow became dominant until it was giant huge puffy flakes, like we were in the middle of a cosmic pillow fight. Hung out at home for a couple of hours and then it was off to Julbord at a fancy restaurant with 4×4 kinds of herring to celebrate Anders’ mom’s 75th...

I get the feeling that even though people are posting, they’re not reading or at least not commenting, because everyone is so busy. I know I’m barely managing to post. Today is the 7th anniversary of my father’s death. It’s a grey day outside and we have enough-for-a-small-army grocery shopping to do for the food we need for the next several days. Then we’re going into Malmö for dinner somewhere and finally to Anders’ sister’s house for her husband’s birthday cake & coffee. I’m dreading hitting the stores on Monday for the last few Xmas presents, as it’s already insane...

The sun is shining in a blue sky. Today is my last day of work for 2.5 weeks. My mom is here! My brother and his girlfriend arrive in 2 days. Nearly all of my Christmas presents are wrapped (up until midnight last night). I only need to buy a couple more things. There’s an inexplicable smell of almonds in the little bathroom that we can’t find the source for (mmmmm!) The tree is decorated. I have homemade gingerbread cookies from my grandma in my freezer, hand carried all the way from Michigan by my mom. Conversation at lunch yesterday:...

My Mom is here! 🙂 I left work at 3 p.m. yesterday and headed off to Copenhagen. It was the crappiest weather all day, piss-rain as the Swedes say, and a bit windy, but apparently didn’t affect her flight from Innsbruck hardly at all, and her connecting flight from Amsterdam was only 10 minutes late. I drove over a completely fogged in Öresund bridge, which was a little weird as I reached the high point and saw the pylons disappearing into nothingness above me. Then into the tunnel and completely forgot that the exit to the airport is IMMEDIATELY as...

I HATE being late. Hate it hate it hate it. I’m almost pathological about hating to be late. To the point of usually being early. And I hate waiting, because it means that SOMEONE else is late. And I hate it even worse when someone else makes me late, because I get SO stressed out. argh All my positive thoughts are going to 2 things today: that my mom’s flights won’t be delayed by this horrible weather and that idahoswede‘s husband is okay. Busy busy at work and have to leave early so gotta gooooooooooooooo!

You would think that having a sugar factory in the vicinity would lead to lovely smells wafting through the air and giving you the feeling that you’re living in Candyland, wouldn’t you? Nope. Uh uh. There were a couple of chocolate factories on the south side of Chicago that did that. They made everything smell ambrosial if the wind was just right. Sugar beet processing just releases the nastiest rotten boiled rancid smell that hangs over everything like the sickly sweet sister of street tar. There’s a Danisco mini-Gary, Indiana-factory just over the highway and while it’s up and running...

It’s snowing! Blizzarding, even! SNOW!! Finally!! woo hoo! 🙂 I just called Anders and before I could say anything he said, “I know. Winter tires.” LOL Everything is already totally covered in white! I don’t have boots with me. I love the first snow! Snow drifts, snow angels, snowball fights, catching snowflakes on my tongue! Sledding, frosty coated mittens, picture postcard snow! Edited to say 1 hour later the sun is shining. If you don’t like the weather in Skåne, just wait 5 minutes!! heh