A White Christmas

.~. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year .~.

This year we won't have to wish for or just dream about a White Christmas - we've got it, all over Sweden. In some corners of the world you probably think that we always do, but the fact is that it varies a lot. The further North, the more likely it is. But here in the South-West, if memory serves me right, I think the last time we had a snowy Christmas was back in 2001.

Last night we had another decimeter of it fall down on us, and the temperature has gone up a bit to around zero. But the snow is likely to last for Christmas; we might even get more of it.

In spite of the snow I'm honestly having a very hard time getting into the proper Christmas spirit. The last three days I've spent partly in bed. Not flu, just a common cold, but enough to pretty much drain me of the last of my Christmas ambitions. Monday and Tuesday I did not go out at all. Today I had to go to the local small grocery shop for a few things. In the summer that took me perhaps a quarter of an hour, there and back again. On a winter morning with a head-and-chest-cold and with snow outside, it's a very different story; especially if you also count the time it takes to get properly dressed for the adventure, and then undressed again when you've finally made it home...

In the afternoon the phone rang and woke me up; which made me realise I had been asleep - again. (Lay down for a rest after the strenuous effort of microwaving myself some lunch). Well, at least it was good news, so far: My brother had arrived at dad's house (after a 300 km slushy drive) and so far had found things in working order (no apparent further examples of Murphy's Law going on at the moment). He had even managed already to set up the Christmas tree he had bought (artificial one). And will come to pick me up tomorrow (before lunchtime). (Christmas Eve is our main day of celebration here in Sweden.)

Anyone wanting to know about traditional Swedish Christmas food will have to seek out some other website for information. I was never good at it. I have managed one thing - a small baked Christmas ham. (I had bought it before the cold got the better of me, and managed to prepare it yesterday.) I also have a couple of home-made cakes in the freezer. The rest of the food will have to be bought and improvised. My brother said he'd take an inventory of the fridge and go shop later. We won't starve. There will even be presents although not a whole lot. So I guess it's going to be Christmas after all...