Fredagstema-Dan före dopparedagen

Dan före dopparedagen är det och det är också fredag och dagens fredagsämne från Annika. Igår var min sista arbetsdag och idag ser jag fram emot att bara njuta av ledighet och julförberedelser. Få in den där julkänslan som jag knappt hunnit ta in än för det har varit full rulle ända fram tills nu.

 Börjat dagen med en mysig och god lång frukost. Nu står risgrynsgröten och puttrar och doftar härligt från spisen.

 Jag ska sedan hem till mina föräldrar. Vi ska handla julmaten tillsammans och sedan ska vi också klä granen. Jag ser fram emot att bara få vara tillsammans och njuta av jul och ledighet. Äta lite gott och få vara tillsammans är som sagt det viktigaste.

Levande ljus, mycket levande ljus och underbara citrusfrukter av alla slag hör julen till. När man ser granen tindra kommer det absolut att kännas som julen infunnit sig. Några speciella traditioner har vi egentligen inte så här på dagen före doppardagen förutom att granen kläs och man förbereder det sista. 

Drabbades av baklust nu under morgonen och kunde inte heller bestämma mig vad jag var mest sugen på så det fick bli både en hederlig kladdkaka smaksatt med glögg och sedan en mjuk pepparka med apelsin. Nu när jag har fått baka lite känner jag att rätta julstämningen har infunnit sig.

Winter Solstice

Today is the day that marks the shortest day and the longest night in Sweden. We have finally reached the winter solstice. I am happy not because this is the shortest day but because each day AFTER this one slowly becomes longer and brighter. The turning point has finally been reached. Today the sun does not come up until 8:46 am and sets as early as 2:48 pm or 14:48.

This is my last day at work before Christmas. I really look forward to having some days off. The darkness makes you tired and all the all the things you have to do and want to to and complete before Christmas also add on. So I look forward to get some nice good sleep. To snuggle up in the couch and watch good movies. To read a good book or perhaps do a jigsaw puzzle. To just do what ever I want to do. To celebrate Christmas with my family and spend some quality time with my loved ones. I am ready to wind down. I am so ready for some relaxation.

 Today I have something really nice to look forward to. I am meeting a dear blog friend this afternoon. Me and Lotta are actually meeting for the second time this year. It is going to be so nice to see her again. So we have a date at a nice and cozy coffee shop in the Old Town. Then it is time to get into some serious Christmas spirit. It still feels very unreal that it is Christmas on Saturday.

Curling

I have been busy the lately so that is why the blog has suffered a little. Yesterday we did something really fun as a group activity at work. We tried Curling. Very cool, a lot of fun but much harder than you would expect it to be. It looks so easy when I have watched it on tv when shown on the Olympic games. The curling and ice hall was located in Sundbyberg. We were all very exited as we headed there.

The first thing we got to do was to change into these kind of special shoes. The shoes are regular but the soles are special. Your left has a slippery sole surface so that you can glide across the ice on that fot and the right fot has a normal rubber sole so you can walk without sliding.

We got an instructor that first showed us a short movie about the rules that are very simple. You are supposed to slide the curling stone across the ice and get as close as possible into the red and blue circle. Each team consists of four players and each team has 8 curling stones. Two teams play against each other. You are also allowed to try to knock the other teams curling stones off the center circle by hitting them with your own .
 

We were divided into different teams. Besides the special shoes we also got to put on helmets. At first I thought this was kind of silly but when we got out on the ice it proved to be more slippery with the shoes on than I had anticipated. I managed to stay on my feet but several of the others slipped and fell. However, no one hurt them selfs.
 

This is how the curling stones look like. They are very heavy so moving them around is best by sliding them on the ice. Each team had a different color so that it would be easy to see which stone belonged to each team.
 

The brooms were also kind of fun. You use them to brush the ice and create friction that creates heat so that the stones glide even further if needed. It all depends on how much force you apply as you push them. This was the really tricky part, to apply just the right amount of force so that the stone would stop in the center of the circle.

Here you can see someone using their broom in action.

 

The field on the ice actually has two cicles at opposite ends. You start at one end pushing your stone and letting it go to slide across to the other side playing one set from one end and the next from the opposite end. You use the fot with the regular rubber sole to push yourself forward and then you glide on the ice with the other foot as you release the curling stone.
 

Here I am in action. It was a lot of fun. I am so glad we did this. We played for about two hours and after that we had a nice Christmas dinner scheduled at a Libanese restaurant. The food was really good.

 

Grey days and summer memories

Some random pictures from a warm sunny August day in La France. Right now it is just so dark and grey outside. It is hard to take any pictures at all because there is not enough light. The weather has been really crappy the last couple of days as well. I miss the sunshine and blue skies so much. But then I found some of my favorite French pictures that I had not yet published on the blog and thought I could share these with you.

A French coffee break or just a nice yummy breakfast. A small but strong espresso and a croisasant. 

Some people playing boule. A pretty house on the country side.

The French sure love their baugette bread. They do go to the local bakery and by their bread freshly baked and carry it under their arm just as you see in French movies.

 The continental way of doing laundry. You hang it to dry outside your window.  You don't hesitate to put your underwear on display as well.

 Fresh cheeses being sold at the local market square. They are kept in a refridgerated glas case to stay fresh. Herbs, lots of beautiful herbs and spices. Wonderful colors and scents.

A French wedding in a small town that we happened to pass. I love the dress and the chic hat the bride is wearing. The two little girls are also so cute wearing hats that match the hat of the bride.

Fell inlove with these sunflower fields. When we drove past them seeing all of these beautiful sunflowers swaying slowly in the wind I told C to stop the car and turn around. I just had to get out and get some pictures of these fields. Now on a grey day like today the memories of this field with all its beauty bring a smile on my face.
 

 

Took a picture with my camera right now from my office. This is what it looks like in Stockholm at the moment. There is a thin layer of snow that came yesterday but mostly it is grey outside. It is supposed to be cold for the next couple of days now before it turns milder again. This thin layer of snow most likely won´t be around for Christmas. Today I left the bike home. It was too slippery. I am not a huge fan of snow and winter but I would love to get some sunshine.

Christmas market at Skansen

 Me and C decided to head to Skansen and the wonderful Christmas market that they have there during December weekends. Even if the weather was awful (rainy and cold) we still wanted to go out and do something fun. Skansen has this wonderful Christmas market keeping the old traditional Swedish style and heritige. 

 Here and there they have these fires burning so that you can warm yourself a bit when needed. Not only are these fires pretty but also very necessary.

 I love the old houses they have here. We went into the old pottery shop where this man was making a a ceramic mug. He was just about to add the handle. I really admire people that can make things like these. I have only tried working with clay and ceramics once and it was so difficult.

 At this next place where we stopped they were baking flat bread. The woman here has this special rolling pin with small spikes that makes holes in the dough of the flat bread giving it the typical characteristic look of Swedish flat bread.

 Next to her was another woman who was responsible for baking the flat breads in this old log fire oven. I find things like these so interesting to see. This is how flat bread has been made and baked before in the old times.

 A lot of different things were cooking and brewing in various pots and pans as one passed by. Here they were brewing some kind of porter I believe.

As today also was the fourth of advent and the last of advents before Christmas of course there were gingerbread cookies, glögg and lussekatter being sold.

Here they had a lot of different and very pretty wreaths. I also fell in love with the Christmas goat made of pine twigs. He is so cute.

Something else that was going on and that was special for this weekend was ice sculpturing. This is another form of art where I really admire the talent that people have being able to create sculptures out of ice. One day I just must travel up to the Ice Hotel in the very north of Sweden and see it. 

Here they were letting kids give it a try. Each child was given an ice block and a chisel tool and was then free to start creating and making their very own ice sculpture. They had also hung up some ice blocks of different sizes and you can see this woman on the picture to the left holding a special hammer. As she hit each ice block you got a tune. She was able to play music as she hit the blocks of various size and form.

At a another stall they sold special kinds of molds so that you could make ice sculptures like this one and place a candle in side. They looked really pretty.

 This woman was a professional when it came to making ice sculptures. She had made this angel that she was still putting the final touch to and the two dogs sitting next to the angel.

 We had a wonderful afternoon here at Skansen. Even if we did not stay for very long as it was freezing cold and the rain kept falling we had a nice time here. Both of us very grateful for the lovely and cozy fires. They really helped as you stood there heating up for a moment. We actually were at Skansen Christmas market last year as well and it was nice to come back this year as well. The major difference from last year was that there were tons of snow compared to this year. If it is going to be a white Christmas or not is still not known. Snow and sleet has been coming down tonight and tomorrow it is supposed to turn cold.

Ute rusk och inne mys

Är det mörkt ute så får man se till att ha det dessto mysigare inomhus med mycket tända ljus. Denna bilden är tagen igår morse och därför är endast tre ljus tända i adventsljusstaken. Men idag tände vi det fjärde och sista ljuset. 

Det var ett riktigt ruskväder ute igår. Snöblandat regn. Sådär kallt, rått och ruggigt som det bara kan bli. En riktig sitta-inne-mysar dag fick det bli efter vi hade gett oss ut och klarat av den vanliga veckohandlingen. Det märks att det lackar mot jul för det är mycket folk ute i affärerna nu. Det gäller att klara av sina egna ärenden och sedan fly fältet så snabbt man kan.

Vi åkte hem. Tände stora tomtelyktan och massor med andra ljus. Vi drack lite glögg medans vi slog in alla klapparna. När det är ruggit ute gäller det som sagt att hitta på trivsamma och roliga saker inomhus. Jag fick ett mat och bak-sug så jag kavlade upp ärmarna och satte på mig mitt förkläde och bakade ett gott nöt och frukt bröd med torkade fikon, aprikoser och hasselnötter.

Sedan fick jag lust att fixa en riktigt god middag. Gjorde en risotto med körbärstomater, lite spenat, parmesan och vitt vin. Till detta en bit tonfisk toppade med forellrom och en sjögrässallad med lite avokado. Väldigt gott och lyckat. Något man nästan kan ha som huvudrätt till att fira in det nya året. Extra kul att laga mat när det blir riktigt bra. 

Kvällen avslutades med en riktigt bra film också. Vi såg denna som heter Nawals Hemlighet. Den blev Oscarsnominerad men jag tycker den gott kunde ha vunnit en Oscar. Det var en stark film som berörde med ett mycket oväntat slut. Jättebra film.