Long Time, No See

You've probably wondered why it has been so quiet on the blog. The simple answer is a busy work schedule as well as social calendar. A recap:

Thursday 4 December - Preparations for Céline and Diego's visit from Barcelona; tidying up and baking for Friday's gathering (though I did blog that evening)

Friday 5 December - Céline and Diego arrived just before our other 15 or so guests for a glögg (mulled wine or Glüwein) evening.

Saturday-Sunday 6-7 December - As Céline and Diego have been to Stockholm before they wanted to see a new part of Sweden. So we chose an overnight stay in Tällberg, Dalarna (Tällberg is probably most famous for Tällberg Forum, an annual international conference). We visited a couple of traditional Christmas markets, looked at local handicrafts and stuffed ourselves from a huge julbord (Swedish Christmas buffet) as well as enjoyed a swim and a facial/body treatment at the hotel's spa. Most importantly, Tällberg was covered in snow, something we don't see in Stockholm too often these days. We even slid off the road on one of Tällberg's hills - note to self for next trip: don't bring a back-wheel driven car.

Monday 8 December - We dropped of Céline and Diego in Uppsala on Sunday night but Monday night they came back to Stockholm. Peter and I cooked some meatballs and mash for them, very traditional, and I have to say, better than the Ikea version! :)

Tuesday 9 December - On our visitors' last night in town I accompanied them for some souvenir shopping before we met up with Peter for a dinner at one of the local Thai restaurants.

Wednesday 10 December - Not an exciting evening at all; had to do the wash. Like many Stockholmers we don't have our own washing machine make use of the building's complimentary laundry room. We only manage to book it every ten days or so due to its popularity but with three washing machines, two dryers (though the one is usually broken) and one drying cupboard, we can easily do our washing in three hours.

Thursday 11 December - Time for my work's julbord, which I had organised, from 4 o'clock onwards. Unfortunately I had to leave already at 7pm since my mum was coming to spend the night ahead of our trip to London. Although after all the food I had consumed I was pretty tired anyway.

Friday-Sunday 12-14 December - Long weekend in London designated for shopping, eating and enjoying each other's company. Unfortunately I got a migraine and had (for some stupid reason) only brought this new medication I hadn't tried yet and it turned out not to work. So Saturday and Sunday I was a bit down but Friday I was still fit-for-fight - and quite a fight it is to do your Christmas shopping in London less than two weeks before Christmas. Saturday was really rainy so we went to the brand new super-size shopping centre Westfield in Shepherd's Bush. A great place to shop plus there's a very nice Italian deli near the entrance by Waitrose is located, where I had a very nice English breakfast and my mum had salmon and scrambled eggs on toast. All felt very freshly produced and the staff was very friendly.

Monday 15 December - Did nothing in particular except recover from landing late at 00:40 the previous night

Tuesday 16 December - Worked late; did an evening presentation for a bunch of teachers

Wednesday 17 December - The annual Christmas party at work with the usual after party in the work pub (didn't stay too late but sometimes 11pm on a work night feels pretty late!)

Thursday 18 December - Tried to do most of my remaining Christmas shopping

Friday 19 December - Dinner at Peter's cousin and her fiance who have just moved to Hammarby sjöstad. Very nice evening with glögg marinated pork tenderloin as main course and ginger cookie cheesecake for dessert!

Saturday 20 December - We were supposed to celebrate "little Christmas" with my relatives (aunt, uncle and cousins with families) but my parents, the hosts, got sick and it had to be cancelled. So I spent the day tidying up and cleaning and wrapping presents instead and in the evening our friends Maria and Daniel came over for dinner.

Sunday 21 December - After a well-deserved lazy morning I met up with Helena, Tommie and kids for a late lunch before going to a Christmas carol service at Sofia Church. Helena used to sing in one of the participating choirs and her sister still does so it has sort of become a yearly Christmas tradition. In the evening Peter and I attended a little glögg do at his sister's before it was laundry time again!

Monday 22 December - Last night I had meant to blog as I had the whole evening to myself while Peter was out with the lads! But I ended up wrapping presents, watching TV and weeding and posting photos on Facebook instead. Things that were also necessary of course! :)

So this brings us today, Tuesday 23 December. My last working day for five days! I left the office already at 3pm actually and picked up one last present. Then packed my bags and made sure I had all packages with me before setting off to Södertälje. Peter and I will spend Christmas Eve and most of Christmas Day with our respective families but on Christmas Day I'll go over to his parents for dinner with his sister + boyfriend, grandmother and uncle + cousins. Last year we spent Christmas in South Africa so everybody is happy to have us home this year.

So with the last few weeks' of hecticness (is that a word?) I haven't even had time for Friday Show & Tell! I did spend some time weeding old recipe collections around the time of the cookbook theme. I have four huge binders with recipes that I subscribed to in my late teens, early 20s, but since I have hardly used them (what a waste of money!) I have set a target to myself to reduce the collection of recipe cards to a size that fits into one binder. I have done pretty well and am now down to 1½ binders. I figured that I would only keep those that I know I will actually cook/bake.

When it comes to dream travel I will need to come back to that. It does remind me though that I still haven't blogged about the last legs of our US trip this past summer. I will simply have to make that one of my New Year's resolutions!