To do something different

Today I did something different to what I would normally do on Boxing day, and am very happy I did; volunteering for a homelessness charity at one of the temporary centres they set up over Christmas for "rough sleepers". It wasn't without apprehension I got out of bed at 6.30 this  morning but I'm very glad I did. My husband and daughter did their fair share too as they drove me there this morning (tube strike and very little public transport running meant it would have taken me quite some time to get there otherwise). 

It's been a great experience, and I'm looking forward to my second (and last) day tomorrow. The stories I heard today have made me a more grateful, a more aware and understanding person. And also given me inspiration and faith in humanity out there, working side by side with all the other volunteers. Couldn't have asked for a better Christmas gift this year.

To wish a very Merry Christmas

A very Merry Christmas! M took the pics below and I think they capture our Christmas quite well.

We'll have a quiet day. I'm working from home till about 3 PM and then it's time to prepare the Swedish Christmas food such as meatballs with Christmas spices, and Janssons (a potato gratin with anchovy and cream). We'll open the gifts that were sent from Sweden tonight, as Christmas Eve is the big day in Sweden. And then we'll have a bit of English Christmas tomorrow with opening of the main presents for M and a (chicken) roast dinner. To honour the Portuguese traditions we'll also visit a Catholic Church for Christmas mass.

I got the Swedish Christmas gifts out and put them under the tree on Friday, and they are almost ripped to pieces now as M has played with them solidly for the last 48 hours...Not long now until she'll be put out of her misery.

We're expecting Rudolph to make an appearance over night.

No Christmas without a bit of Disney glam...

 

Home made "Bounty" and "Mozart's Marzipan balls", lovingly decorated by M.

 



To be loved

This is "Moo Moo", a very loved cow that's been around for over 4 years. I think I don't I need to tell you how loved this little cow was, and still is, as the picture tells it all. Nowadays Moo Moo is left at home and is only for night time but for several years Moo Moo went everywhere, absolutely everywhere. You could tell it was true love. I think Moo Moo is a bit tired now but has still not been replaced for princesses or any other fluffy toys.

I can see myself in Moo Moo; felt a bit as a cow during the first year of breast feeding, a bit tired after many nights of being hugged and tugged, a bit worn out after having been around for a while - but very loved.

To see a little wise (wo)man

After weeks of practicing songs about donkeys, stars and mangers it all happened at 9.30 this morning - our daughter's first school play, a nativity play, which of course was the best show we had ever seen. I'm glad I was wearing waterproof mascara.

 

M was one of the wise men. She wasn't happy about that at first but when I said she could be a wise woman, and wear a dress she was fine. I'm sure there were quite a few wise women among the wise men 2000 years ago but perhaps not as visible. Times have moved on and there was even a little shepherdess in the play too.



To have had a busy Sunday

Another busy, but nice day has come to its end. Christmas pub lunch in Richmond with some good old friends and their kids. We also had to pop in to a shopping centre on the way home as on the hunt for an outfit that would fit a king aka wise man in preparation for the nativity play on Tuesday. We found a very golden dress which we all thought suited a wise (wo)man.

 

Then back home for some gingerbread biscuit making and you can see the result below. The cute cookie cutters with a "hook", a Christmas gift from last year, shapes the biscuits so you can hang them on the side of a mug or a glass if you so fancy. My favourite is the angel wing.  I'm now relaxing with some After Eight, cheese and a glass of wine in front of Jamie Oliver's Best Ever Christmas. Sunday at its best.

 

(Cookie cutters from Jamie Oliver too...)

It took quite a while to drive to Richmond and back but something caught our attention on the way home. M said it was the best house ever and that she would like to live there. The least we could do was to provide her with a picture.

 

To enjoy a bit of Swedishness

The Lucia choir sang beautifully today at the Swedish Church in Marylebone and as usual it brought a tear to my eye. I'm pleased I got my share of Swedish Christmas as well as a chance to meet up with some Swedes for a cup of mulled wine.

Lucia day is on the 13th December and it was one of my favourite days as a child. My mum recently reminded me of how I used to organise everything the day before to ensure both of my brothers were up to scratch. That meant singing practice, as well as ensuring our white gowns were ironed, battery driven candles working (we're not allowed the real ones of course) and that we had enough saffron buns and gingerbread biscuits. This needed to be done the evening before as you had to get up very early in the morning to wake up mum and dad with the singing before going to work and school. When a bit older my friends and I walked around in the village singing to neighbours. It was perfectly normal to see kids in white night gowns walking around the village in the dark, carrying candles, singing their heart out on that day. A quite a unique tradition and to a foreigner probably slightly weird, but equally beautiful.

At school it was the big thing as to who was going to be the school's Lucia. An honour mainly blonde girls would experience,  a cruel competition. I do remember the year I was voted to be the village church Lucia. My blonde friend with the long hair who was the runner up was devastated and I was surprised, a girl with shoulder length copper hair. Not sure why but think it was to do with me being a very mature 13 year old, I offered her to take my place but she refused so in the end it was me who proudly walked down the aisle with the crown of candles on my head, bringing hope to my fellow gingers.  Admittedly, ginger wasn't as cool as blonde so it was a tiny bit of revenge going on there in the church. In fact, I've had loads of free haircuts out of it i.e. as hairdressers always ooh aah over my hair. Of course I didn't like it until my late teens as in the 80s you're supposed to be blonde and/or have highlights, something my hairdresser refused to do to me... but I'm digressing.

As with traditions, some things certainly need to change and move on but I hope the essence of what Lucia is about (even if it was an Italian Catholic saint, probably with very lovely dark hair, who happened to become the most important saint in a very Northern protestant country... don't ask), which is to bring light into darkness, and as cheesy as it sounds I do believe this world does need a bit more light. And the Swedes certainly do in the month of December.

 

Unknown Lucia at the Swedish Church today.

To prepare

It's pepparkakor (gingerbread biscuits) in the making today but as the dough needs to rest over night the actual baking won't take place until tomorrow. I always thought that making your own dough would be complicated but it's not as long as you have all the spices at home. And it just smells lovely and "Christmassy". In Sweden it's easy to find the ready made dough in any supermarket but here it's not so home made it is.

We've got a busy day today, Swedish Lucia celebrations at the Swedish Church, and M is going to a birthday party (she chose that over Lucia so I'll be on my own feeling nostalgic...) and then the
in-laws are coming over for Christmas dinner tonight before heading off to Portugal tomorrow. I will cook something Swedish and a childhood favourite is cod with a bechamel style sauce served with potatoes (will use a ricer). Cod (bacalhau) is also a Portuguese national dish so should go down well with the in-laws. In between we need to clean the house and wrap Christmas gifts. Busy busy as it should be leading up to Christmas.

To receive a treat

All the Christmas gifts from Sweden arrived yesterday after over a week of nail biting. And there was a little surprise for me, chocolate with salty liquorice filling. It's great but think it's a bit like Marmite, you either hate it or love it.

Apparently Ocado (Waitrose) now has a range of Scandinavian food and sweets. I think I will need to try it out soon.

Not much else to report as haven't been well for a few days, better now than at Christmas though.

To do a bit of a Christmas shopping

It was only one gift missing (for now) and as they need to be posted to Sweden very soon off I went after work and to my favourite shopping street,  Marylebone High Street. It was all lovely and Christmassy and it's never too crowded.  I didn't have much time so had to contain myself and only visited one shop. Well done me. I then walked down to St Christopher's place and got the bus from outside Selfridges, another favourite, all covered in beautiful lights. Even on a Monday night Oxford Street was full of Christmas shoppers and I certainly didn't feel lonely.

Note to self: get a proper but "slim" camera,  we do have one but it's just too big to carry around and I would have wanted to show you a lot more Christmas sparkle this evening.

Back to reality and the real glam chores: since I got home I have washed clothes, sorted clothes, changed the bed linen and still have some stuff to do. But  "Inside Claridge's" is now on at the BBC so it might have to wait. Tea and saffron buns are beckoning too. Now, where is my staff?

One of my favourite shops for gifts and for a bit of cheering up, Cath Kidston. Some dots and roses can never go wrong (as long as it's not too much).

Who will be the lucky one?

Hello Kitty goes posh, Liberty and now Brora.

A snap shot of Marylebone High Street - not the best view admittedly as felt a bit silly taking photos with my iphone. I could have been taken for a tourist and who cares, this is London after all. Better get over it as it's actually quite fun to be a tourist in your own city.

To have a Swedish day

2:nd of Advent and today we baked Swedish saffron buns and a saffron cake, a favourite. We then spent the afternoon at a friend's house enjoying more Swedish treats including the saffron cake and some panetone (one of the mums is half-Italian). Six children in total and all of them half-Swedish.

It was a lovely afternoon, and lovely to speak a bit of Swedish as I don't have many Swedish friends left in London. Most of them moved back home and I've been a bit too lazy to engage in the Swedish community and the Swedish church.

Arrived home having that warm fuzzy feeling, (and it wasn't only the glögg = Swedish mulled wine) after having been talking, eating, joking, laughing and making new acquaintances, with lots of kids running around. A bit of pre-Christmas bliss.

Saffron buns but not with the customary raisins as M and I decided we don't actually like them very much...Rebels we are.

The Saffron cake

To have a fairy day

Our little Christmas fairy, all dressed up for a birthday party a la "superheroes and fairies". At the party we met up with old friends from her previous school, friends from the current school and best of all, the best friend who's still at the old school and therefore they don't get to play very often anymore. I think the picture tells it all. Christmas party is planned at ours in two weeks time so it won't be very long until they can play next.

To be in London at night

This is my view going into work in the morning (and now at night) - The Shard. The tallest building in Europe apparently and no I haven't been up there yet.

Had a great evening with work colleagues which started off in the West End and at The Guardian Christmas party and then as we bumped into some ex-colleagues of my colleague we ended up at their Christmas party. This probably means we were Christmas party crashing, and with a nice view. Oh the Brits know how to pull off a good old party.

I love London by night and as it doesn't happen very often that I happen to be in the city at night, better enjoy it. There are loads of fun memories and more to be had I hope. This will be one of them.

To count down to Christmas

This is the first year I've prepared a "present advent calendar" and found these cute "advent calendar bags" in IKEA which I now frantically trying to fill each day. For the first five days we had finger puppets and chocolates, and have now covered the next ten days with Moshi monsters...the first one was a success so hope the following nine will be too. I don't mind spoiling our only daughter a little bit, it is Christmas after all.

Had plans to give something more practical as gifts such as a few jigsaw puzzle pieces each day, or pieces of LEGO - but she's not that much into either.  And the year my mum prepared our "present advent calendar" with jigsaw puzzle pieces went down in the family Christmas history as the worst calendar ever (sorry mum!) and we were certainly not spoilt as children.

I loved advent calendars as a child and the more glitter the better and I amassed as many as possible. The year my younger brother decided to open the flaps on all of them for me in the first week of December was traumatic but it was amazing how what a mum and a bit of tape could do. I actually think my mum was more traumatised than I when my brother told her (I was at school) that "N didn't have any clendars more..."  Now it's one of those family tales which makes me smile every time I'm reminded of it. And I'm grateful, very grateful, that life in my childhood wasn't more dramatic than that.

To welcome Advent

First of Advent passed by and it had a multicultural flavour to it. We had a busy weekend having a Portuguese family dinner at a Brazilian restaurant (one of the best things with London - you don't have to go all the way to Brazil to experience Brazil...even though I would love to go as we have family there and husband was born in Sao Paolo), catching up with some old friends from Stockholm who were visiting London and that I hadn't seen for 6 years(!) and Christmas gift shopping.

I didn't have a chance to finish off decorating the Swedish style "advent candle holder" as I had planned nor did any saffron bun baking take place so will have to leave that till end of the week. The tree has however been updated with Disney Princess baubles and I think we need to get a Tinkerbell fairy for the tree top instead of a star as I gave up and gave in to Disney. Disney on Ice is also booked and Santa has arranged a BIG gift from the Disney store for a certain little lady - can't wait till she sees it. Who would have thought that I would get all Disneyfied.

Happy Advent - countdown to Christmas has started.

 

The somewhat empty advent candle holder...

A certain lady who's already very excited about Christmas.

 

A Brazilian meat feast for the others whilst I had a rather large fish.

 



To have a Tia

Tia (aunt in Portuguese) is visiting and it's almost like Christmas when she's around according to M. And almost as good as a cupcake when it matches the outfit...

To give up (for now)

I don't easily give up on things but an IKEA gingerbread house became my nemesis today. I didn't even have to bake it, "just" glue it together. Oh well, it's not even 1st December so will have plenty of time.

Even M thought it was a good idea to throw it in the bin in the end so we did after having melted sugar for the second time and tried the super glue which didn't work either.

To have some very special Christmas cards

For several years now, instead of buying Christmas cards and stamps, we have donated money to a good cause and we just sent e-cards instead. This year we changed our minds as of course we couldn't resist buying Christmas cards from our own daughter - designed by her and then printed. They do this via her school as a way of raise funds for the school (still charitable but tell me something they don't fundraise for here...). They arrived today and as we ended up buying quite a few, it was buy one get one free, these will be around for a long long time and M will probably be very ashamed when she's 13 and we're still sending these out for Christmas. We think they're adorable though.

To see the end of November

November has always been a challenging month and it's not only the weather.  At least it's been a few years since someone close decided it was time to leave this earth and move on, which has always happened in November. It has also been a time for reflection on current circumstances, leaving the old for something new, and even if painful at the time I wouldn't want to be without the experiences. I'm a firm believer in that things happen for a reason, even if we're not always able to see it that way, at that moment.

However, still coming to terms with that my parents weren't able to travel to London today for a weekend full of pre-Christmas celebrations.  At least I have a whole cupboard full of mulled wine, loads of candles and a sparkly Christmas tree. You need to look on the bright side of life.

A few more days, then I'll be ready for some Christmas cheer.

To be a bit nostalgic

My daughter got the box set of "Fem myror ar fler an fyra elefenater" last Christmas, a true Swedish treat from my brother who is as nostalgic as I am when it comes to children's programmes. Consider we didn't have a lot to choose from in Sweden in the 70s or 80s (the highlight of the week was 5 minutes of Woody Woodpecker or Tom & Jerry squeezed into a talk show) or Russian folk tales, silhouette style (don't ask),  "Five ants are more than four elephants" was therefore a real treat. It taught several generations to read too - of course it had to be something educational, Swedish style. Now as M has started to read and write, she loves watching this and I still remember most of the episodes and the songs. Ah, happy Swedish 70s childhood.

To be in heaven (or hell)

Well, I wouldn't really describe a visit to IKEA as being in heaven, or hell (even if my husband probably would) but after some bad news it was a little bit of heaven to be able to stock up on gingerbread biscuits, mulled wine a la saffron and candles, of course.

To go to the first Christmas market

It was raining and it was very small but it was the first Christmas market of the year for us, and conveniently in our neighbourhood and hosted by The Alma, a local pub. Had some samples of the chef's apple sauce and chili sauce and it was delicious. Definitely booking a table there for next weekend. Also found some lovely handmade prints, crafted locally, so the first Christmas are gifts sorted. Went there with lovely Jo and there was also time for some hot chocolate and a chat. M was a bit disappointed as I think she'd expected a few Santas but there will be a Christmas Fair here next weekend, apparently with a fun fair, so think we'll take the grandparents there too for some fun.

To have breakfast in bed

I was allowed a long lie in and then my husband and daughter surprised me with breakfast in bed; a random (but lovely) selection of half eaten melon slice, coffee in our daughter's cup and a cinnamon bagel. And the lap top. Feeling very appreciated.

On top of this, I'm having breakfast in silence as my husband is entertaining our daughter with her favourite game where she pretends she's a cat. I think we need to get her a pet soon.

To have memories

Found this little treasure on the floor today. It should be tucked away safely on the bookshelf but think a certain little lady got interested. It's my paternal grandmother's "bookmark" album (not sure about translation here), neatly dated "1936" by my grandmother. Her parents passed away the year after, both within a year. She was 12 and moved in with her eldest sister. It breaks my heart. This was probably one of the few things she had left as a memory from her childhood before growing up too quickly. And now I'm the custodian of the album, which is resting on a bookshelf in a flat in London; to once again be admired by the great-granddaughter. A little bit of family history.

To let the right light in

More light in the house in an attempt to chase away the November gloom. Found this lovely string of light which brightens up the bed room including my wedding veil and my first pair of shoes. I discovered that the bird cage is perfect as a lamp. Before I only stored empty wallets and jewellery boxes inside, not as pretty.

And hold on,  we have even decorated the Christmas tree(!),  it's us and the High Street now.  Not ready to share a picture just yet. It's a mixture of 1950's style baubles and bright pink reindeers (daughter's choice) so will take some time to get used to.  It is extremely early indeed but we can enjoy it for longer and now we're all prepared for the pre-Christmas celebration a la Swedish style next weekend.

But I've mainly been talking about artificial lights and candles, and cheerful and pretty as they are, what  really cheers me up is having close family and friends around me when things feel a bit dark and it's not only because it happens to be November. For that I'm always grateful and it's always added to my "10-a-day grateful list". It's high up there with Christmas trees and candles.

PS. If you're not doing it already - be grateful for 10 things everyday (even if it's only for that you don't have to shave your toes)  and things will certainly feel a little bit brighter, with or without candles.

To chase away the grey

A bit early for Swedish Advent stars and "candles" but after a grey day,  not only referring to the weather, we needed to cheer ourselves up a little. Stars in every window as well as in the hallway, as there weren't enough windows.

My parents arrive next week and we're going to have a pre-Christmas celebration which means I can buy the Christmas tree extra early this year. I love real Christmas trees but this might be the year when we check out an artificial one, just so it will last till the New Year. And to finally give in and accept that my parents are allergic (they've been suffering year after year as my brothers and I always won the real tree vs artificial tree battle, 3 against 2 - or threatened with not coming home at all...)

To try something new

We're creatures of habit but sometimes we go wild and try something new - like a new kind of potato. This one's called "apache" and is just beautiful, and a roasted version is yum as we just discovered.

Happy Sunday!

To have fun

Birthday party, the first one with the new class and lots of fun at the School of gymnastics.

The sweetheart didn't stay still enough to be captured properly on camera. Got to know a few more of the parents, had a good catch up with a few others and exchanged phone number with Sweetheart's mum (American and very nice) so think M will be very happy as she has asked for a play date for a while and they have also talked about marriage. We'd better get to know his parents.

To be caught

Say no more...Nutella is hard to resist.

To have a day full of play

Yesterday, after school we invited a friend (same school, different site and an "old" nursery friend which we just reconnected with) and her mum to our house for play and Swedish waffles. Eliza's mum works with conservation of listed buildings so for someone like me, with an interest in history, ethnology, and art/architecture we shared a lot of interests. We both got very excited about Dr Lucy Worsley and her domestic history series...Luckily the little girls got on really well too.

And today we had two play dates; one Swedish mum and her daughter I just got to know (Internet forums are a wonderful thing sometimes) came around and had coffee at ours and then went to the park for a walk and some (big) leaf picking.

In the afternoon we were invited to another friend's house; someone I saw a lot of when we're on maternity leave and got to know then but haven't met up with for two years(!). The girls played really well and we had a lovely time. I was finally introduced to her husband, who's Swedish, and his dad who was also visiting - and happened to have worked as surgeon at my old local hospital back in Sweden. It's a small world. We're now planning to have a Swedish mulled wine Christmas party which I'm looking forward too. If I'm really lucky my husband will agree to go to IKEA tonight so I can get some gingerbread snaps (pepparkakor) to help me get into the mood.