i'm in tierp, where we had a second christmas with my parents, the oldest little brother and the youngest little sister yesterday. i've just tried one of my christmas gifts: some kind of pink spagetti that makes bubbles and smells of roses when you put it in the bathtub. and the little sister has painted my finger nails lilac instead of red. and we're going to watch a film in bed every night before we go to sleep (yesterday: scream 2, today: in her shoes).

we spent the first christmas at tommy's brother's, with tommy's brother, tommy's brother's girlfriend, the nephew, the niece, the parents in law, tommy's brother's girlfriend's father + wife + children and tommy's brother's girlfriend's mother + children. it was much nicer than i had expected. i was worrying that it would be like "tomten är far till alla barnen" with so many people around, but most of the time everything went well and people behaved. this was the first christmas since i met tommy that his parents did't give me a book about how to become a good christian, or with proof that the christian religion is the truth. instead they gave me a book about cats. i thought that was sweet of them. maybe they have finally accepted that they have a family member that is not going to join them in heaven.

tomorrow we're going to stockholm to meet jm and christina, and take them with us to tierp to wait for the new year.

now i'm going to go downstairs to say hi to my mother's cousin, who came when i was in the bathtub.  ¶ 7:26 PM

  we're going north tomorrow, to spend christmas with tommy's relatives. so: merry christmas! (and a happy new year, if i don't get back before that)


(that's me, writing "merry christmas" with my newly decorated left hand :)

the nephew just called, to say "you're my best friend". he is probably starting to worry that he won't be getting any christmas gifts :)
  ¶ 8:59 PM

  we saw something magic today. after some research we've decided it was probably "sun dogs", "mother-of-pearl clowds" or, my favourite, "cirkumzenithal curves". it looked like this but much more magical.

  ¶ 7:00 PM

 













found, killed, carried home and decorated a christmas tree  ¶ 6:55 PM

  some information:
* coca cola is *not* bad for your teeth. i went to the dentist the other day, and he said my teeth and gums are healthier than average. so now i don't have to be afraid that i'm drinking too much coca cola anymore :)
* hot coffee in your lap is not very hot for very long. i went to see a friend and her family yesterday, and the oldest daughter wanted to be polite and not ask me for pepparkaka, but when she reached to get one herself she accidentaly knocked over my cup of coffee. it all fell into my knee, and i was sure it would burn like h*ll, but it only hurt for a second and then the wet jeans had turned cold. good to know, now i don't have to be afraid to spill hot coffee anymore.
* a tin of bullens pilsnerkorv works great to fix the exhaustion pipe of fantastic toyotas.
* all the christmas shopping is done!  ¶ 12:29 PM

  are you *sure* i will be able to see the northern lights from here? last year i saw them for the first time in the beginning of september...  ¶ 7:30 PM

  it feels like i've been away on a conference for ages, but it was no more than two days... we left sollefteå by bus veeery early friday morning, and came home again saturday evening. the conference was nice. semi-interesting lectures by different people - for example our biggest boss, who talked to us as if we were stupid children, about how important it is to see our clients as adults :). the best lecturer was sweden's only optimist consultant. the food was good, apparently. unfortunately i don't know how to appreciate good food. i thought everything tasted like onions. and i hate onions. and the bartender laughed at me when i wanted to change my bottle of wine for a coca cola. and that was the only coca cola i had during the entire trip! after dinner we were waiting for ronny eriksson, but he was entertaining another company and we had a dance band instead. probably not as much fun as ronny eriksson, but fun enough. the most "exciting" part happened on the bus home, when a friend/colleague stopped breathing. she was soon ok again, but it lasted long enough for me to realise that there should be a law against buses with not a singel trained doctor/nurse on board. i think i'm going to send an e-mail to the king about that.

update on the progress of my deadly disease: i am now coughing all night, and i can't breath through my nose. the good part is that it's now audible how sick i am :)  ¶ 5:06 PM

 
it smells like christmas!  ¶ 7:10 PM

  i just found an enormous christmas gift! i wonder if it's for me... maybe i should open it just a little bit?

yesterday we went to visit a friend/colleague of mine. as there's a big hole in the toyota's exhaust pipe another friend/colleague was nice and let us go with him and his son in their nice warm saab. he is now the second of my colleagues who has almost fallen down the steep slope by our road. from now on i hope i'm going to remember to tell anyone who is coming to visit us to leave the car by the "main" road, and walk the last bit... i'm feeling quite ashamed when i think about the poor people i haven't remembered to warn. especially one of them, who specifically asked if it was ok to go to us by motorcycle, and i said "of course" and she nearly fell over. and a while later i asked her to take care of our mail when we were away, and forgot to tell her the mailbox is not by the house but down by the road. and she drove up and got stuck in the muddy road and someone had to come and pull her away with a bigger car.

the friend/colleague's house was nice and narrow in a funny way. and it was very christmasy, and her fun little daughter had made lussekatter together with her grandmother (and apparently they're really easy to make: you just need some kind of dough and then you can either put the raisins in the dough or on top of the buns. i might even try it myself one day:).

we were so inspired by all the christmas decorations they had, so today we went down to the skyltsöndag in the city and bought christmas things.
christmasy things in our home so far:
* 3 advent cadlesticks in the windows (2 of them were put up a few weeks ago, and one yesterday)
* a red pyramide thing with lights in (bought a few weeks ago)
* 2 stars with lightbulbs in the windows (bought today)
* red hearts on a wire with lights in the window (put up today)
* red flowers on a wire with lights on the curtain rod in the dining room (bought today)
* four black balls with silvery pattern on the curtain rod in the dining room (bought today)
* a plastic little christmas tree (put up today)
* two christmas flowers (bought today) (probably dead within a week)
* a few christmas gifts have been wrapped up in paper (today)
* a few christmas tree decorations (6 golden balls and some tinsel) in a plastic bag in the kitchen (bought today, have to wait for the christmas tree to be used)
* lights to put in a bush outside the kitchen window (bought today)  ¶ 10:11 PM