Tagged: holidaze

31
Dec
2005

SAYONARA 2005!

Another batch of Rice Krispie Holly Bars and Moose Poop (Caramel-Filled Chocolate Cookies) are packed and ready to go. A bag holds Trivial Pursuit, Balderdash and 2 decks of cards for playing Colorado Crazy Eights, otherwise known as the “the funnest game on the planet,” and a tall package of rockets and various firecrackers is propped by the door. In an hour we are heading south to spend the evening with our good friends, Angie & Kristian, and Emily & Martin. The very happiest of Happy New Year wishes to all my friends, near and far!

25
Dec
2005

FILLED UP

We’re replete with good wishes, goodwill, good food, present satisfaction both on the giving and the receiving end. Tiny Lego pieces are strewn from one end of the playroom to the other. Martin has already finished an entire book of maze puzzles from Grandma Linda. Anders is cooking: a turkey in the oven, it’s American-style tonight! Hayley Westenra croons from the living room, earlier it was Lilla Melodifestivalen from Karin’s shiny new space-age boombox. I’ve cleaned up and taken a nap. The sun shone bright in an amazing blue winter sky all day, not a cloud in sight. To all...

24
Dec
2005

LEAN YOUR EAR THIS WAY

Nearly all the presents are wrapped in shiny red, green and white paper. There are still some stocking stuffers to do, but that won’t take long tonight. Presents are under the tree for opening today, or carefully hidden away for “American” Christmas morning tomorrow. Tins of cookies fill up one entire corner of the kitchen, and a bowl full of clementines provides a bright spot on this rainy day. Rain on Christmas! It’s a true Skåne holiday. Farmor and farfar are on their way, they’ll be arriving just in time for Kalle Anka, the traditional Swedish Disney hour…and after that...

22
Dec
2005

THERE GOES THE HEALTHY EATING PLAN

Yesterday, I made Rice Krispie Holly Bars and Buttercream Almond Sandwiches, plus prepared the dough for today’s cookies: Iced Sugar Cookies, which the kids did a bang-up job of decorating, and ms_hackman‘s every-bit-as-delicious-as-advertised Caramel-Filled Chocolate Cookies. I still have Fudge Puddles to make but need to go get a mini muffin pan. We also have Grandma’s Gingersnaps and Chocolate Chip Cookies, plus my Snowy Chocolate Chips in the pile…not to mention those AWC Cookie Exchange cookies that are still left in the freezer. Yesterday I called my mom who is at my sister’s for Christmas and she came on the...

19
Dec
2005

WHAT A BRIGHT TIME, IT’S THE RIGHT TIME

Much as I love my little village, I suspect I’m a city girl at heart. I still miss Chicago with an ache every time I really think about it. It’s not very often that I get into town these days, and even less often when I get in with a decent amount of time to just walk around taking in the sights, taking in the pulse, and shopping. I had an agenda of sorts today, but I had plenty of time to deal with it, and walked around the center of Malmö people-watching and absorbing the city atmosphere, in a...

18
Dec
2005

COUNTDOWN

New computer to play with, and MAN, is it fast! Flat screen, and the very sleekest of cool scanner/photo printers as well. Anders spent most of the day hooking everything up after removing the old computer which is now the kid’s…and the kid’s old one is soon to be put on the block to see if we can sell it, along with a printer and a flat-bed scanner. I took the kids to the mall this afternoon, and holy christmasmadness, were there a lot of people out shopping! We managed, despite the crowds, to find the “Christmas” outfits we were...

13
Dec
2005

MANY TIMES, MANY WAYS

Why can’t I think of anything to write about other than the half-finished tasks, all of which seem to be Christmas-related, that I can’t seem to settle to? Anders is gone to Italy for 3 days on a business trip and I’m restless without him. Tomorrow is book group and if Karin doesn’t turn the cough she was threatening me with tonight into a full-fledged cold I’ll have to take them with me. I didn’t get the book re-read either, because Sherlock keeps hanging on for just a few more chapters, a few more pages. It’s taken me FOREVER to...

12
Dec
2005

TOO BIG FOR OUR BRITCHES

When you put more food on your plate than you can possibly eat, we say that your eyes were bigger than your stomach. When you take on a task that is too much for you, we say that you have bitten off more than you can chew. What do we say when we find out that the perfect Christmas tree is THREE FEET TOO TALL for our living room ceiling?

11
Dec
2005

ROCKING AROUND

The surface of the desk is strewn, STREWN I TELL YOU, with the detritus of Christmas: cards, postcards, envelopes, pens, lists, address books, newsletters, photo pages, school photos, a stapler. There is a small stack, slowly growing, of sealed and addressed cards. There are no less than 3 address books. Underneath it all somewhere are the final shopping lists of gifts yet to be bought: a niece, a nephew, my husband, my soon-to-be-sister-in-law, my own. The mailing date for cards overseas is the 16th, I’ve been told, and I still have a package to mail after those final gifts are...

05
Dec
2005

STICK A FORK IN ME, I’M DONE

3 julbords in 5 days is just way too much. I’m julborded out and it’s the FIFTH of December. The Swedes eat basically the same feast for every holiday but they really pile it on for Christmas. Julbord, for those of you who have never been initiated into this particular Swedish extravaganza, is, literally, “Christmas table.” It traditionally consists of a fish course of up to THIRTY different kinds of pickled herring (herring in tomato sauce, herring in mustard sauce, herring in cream sauce, herring in dill, herring in garlic sauce, herring in onion, pickled FRIED herring, herring with you-name-it....

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