As a pre-pre Christmas dinner, Nicoline invited us over tonight. It was meant to be all three of us but, unfortunately, Denise was not a happy bunny all day, her head trying to rid itself of a kale induced migraine. Mind you, a good sign was when she didn’t respond when we left because she was asleep.
My day, on the other hand, started off with a delightful walk up to the ICA for a last minute shop before tomorrow’s julbord. And, I have to say, it was a much better experience to yesterday. In fact, it was all back to normal.
In an unexpected link to dinner tonight, I was served by Stina. Who I didn’t know until Nicoline showed me a photograph. Okay, she’s been on the check out a few times but, basically, beyond a few ‘hejs’, ‘tacks’ and ‘hej därs’ we haven’t really talked.
And yet again I’m surprised by how many people Nicoline knows. I have been told that the next time I get served by Stina, I have to swap Nicoline stories with her.
Having bought eggs and various other necessaries, I had a few moments talking Christmas cheer with my old friends in the cemetery before trudging home through the snow.
At home, the house and stuga were both still fast asleep so, with dogs on my lap and behind me on my chair, I wrote yesterday’s post before heading outside to dig Max out of last night’s snowfall. While I was shovelling through the small mountains left by the grader, the woman who lives two houses before us, came over with her snow plough and asked if I needed a hand, as she was doing hers. It was a very kind offer and, I might have taken her up on it, only I had almost finished.
Fingers and toes suitably frozen and head sweating with the effort, I finished then headed inside to make a start on festive food preparation.
Today, I made my Christmas ham and bread sauce, as well as taking Trevor out of the freezer. Trevor is the turkey. He’s not as big as some of the turkeys we’d had over the years, but he’s still hefty enough to need a few days to defrost.
In between making food, I jotted down notes and timings for the next couple of days just to reassure myself that it would all go well. And to make things as easy as possible. I’m back at the single oven stage of my cooking life, so an organized reversion is required. Which is why it’s extra good that Trevor isn’t massive.
While I busied myself in the kitchen, Mirinda took the girls for a lovely long snowbound walk, taking the Baltic route into town. Three hours later they returned, eyes ablaze and cheeks all flushed with joy. Obviously, it was a very good walk.
Eventually, there was nothing to do but drive over to Nicoline’s for a lovely meal of reindeer, rice and mushrooms. We had a splendid night of serious chat, silly laughter and an important discussion about the fact that you can buy reindeer meat at the ICA. We also discovered the importance of hugging only after the palaver is over.
