Life in December, 2021

I bought an advent calendar full of pens this year. Given how much I love stationery, the 1st December really couldn’t arrive fast enough. Here I am with bed hair and my first new pen of the month…

We picked up our Christmas tree a few days later. My toe was sprained and I had trouble carrying my own weight, let alone a tree, so Scott carried it home on his shoulder.

High ceilings and a convenient gap next to the sofa meant we were able to buy a whopper, for the first time ever. My mind skipped back to buying a tree for our first flat in the UK — we tree was only small but so was the flat, so we had to trim a few branches off the back to ensure we could still open the draws on the cabinet it sat next to.

I made paper angels with copper paint dry brushed onto paper; the head is one of the beads I carved from a previous years Christmas tree. I ended up making a few angels because we were short on decorations.

Just as I’d said this Winter seemed a little lighter than last year, nature changed tactics. The mornings grew darker and getting out of bed was instantly more difficult. This photo was taken at 8:45am and the mornings were in no rush to brighten up.

We finally had a small house warming party. The Swedes have introduced us to lots of their traditions, so we decided to introduce them to a very British afternoon tea. We made mini sandwiches with the crusts removed, cakes and scones — we even managed to find clotted cream in the British shop on Gamla Stan.

Skansen held a Christmas market this year (cancelled last year due to the pandemic). The man above is cooking kolbulle, which is basically a thick and very fatty pancake. It’s made from a batter with a hefty cup of pork fat and pork pieces, topped with lingonberry jam and washed down with a cup of coffee. We had the veggie version. Our friend told us that kolbulle used to be eaten three times a day by labourers.

A recreation of an old Julbord (Christmas table). The flat breads were used like a plate and people feasted on bread, butter, cheese, ham and fish.

Christmas Eve is the main day for celebrations here and we enjoyed a Julbord with friends. We ate pickled herring, smoked salmon with dill, smoked eel (suprisingly delicious), rye bread, mustard sauce, cheeses and of course, drunk snaps. Then we called in at another apartment in the building for cheese and tiramisu.

We celebrated Christmas Day at home with a big roast, then watched Die Hard and Die Hard 2 (you’ll have a hard time convincing me there is something better to watch on Christmas Day).

Boxing Day was also spent at home but our friends came over for lunch — mushroom and chestnut wellington, carrot and orange galette, mashed potato, cranberry sauce and gravy. I love cooking at this time of year! We couldn’t find any Christmas crackers so we made our own and stuffed Lindt balls inside.

December disappeared in a flash but we did quite a lot in the end! Happy new year and thanks for following our adventures for another year. xx