At midnight on New Year’s Eve, we’re always up on the roof. The shoebox of an extension is still a bit of an eyesore and I wish it fit in with the old half of the house, but its flat roof is awesome for viewing fireworks.

Today, like every New Year’s Eve, we pulled out the big ladder and the whole family climbed up to spectate the fireworks all around us. We see everything the neighbours fire off, and the more distant neighbours, and people in nearby sports fields and school yards and other open areas, and even all the way to what I guess is Kista or something like that. Just after midnight the whole horizon is lit up.

This year for the first time I remembered to bring my camera, but I did not remember to read up on how to photograph fireworks, so the results are so-so. But they do bring back some of what it felt like to be there.

I’m done with the knitting part of the fiery cardigan and now I just need to weave in the ends. Just. There are so many of them!

The ones from the fade from yellow to red at chest level are the worst. The choice I made back then to cut the yarn so I could knit the knit rows and purl the purl rows was, in hindsight, a stupid one. Won’t ever do that again. There is barely even room for all these yarn ends and I’m struggling to hide them without making the front edge all stiff and thick.

It’s taking forever and it’s making my eyes burn, but hopefully I can be done with it tomorrow and finish the whole cardigan before the year ends.

At least the pile of yarn ends is pretty.

Apparently the snake toy that broke wasn’t my old one, because I just found mine in a box with old toys that I had meant to sort through (and am now in fact sorting through). Larger than Adrian’s, and larger than I had remembered. Somewhat yellowed, and a bit worn, but still in full working condition.

I also found our old box of old knock-off Estonian “Lego” bricks, which was the only kind available in Estonia back in the 1980s. It’s called “Think and build” – clearly branding wasn’t their foremost goal.

Christmas isn’t over yet but we’re running out of gingerbread cookies, so we made another batch. With just me and Ingrid working, it was less chaotic and more focused than our usual cookie sessions. And we ended up with more gingerbread men and women and far fewer sharks and crocodiles than when Adrian is involved.

The annual gingerbread house competition and exhibition at the Museum of Architecture and Design.

The competition, open to anyone, has a different theme every year. This year’s theme was “Around the corner”, and the contestants had interpreted it in every possible way: some very literal, some more figurative, and some had probably shoehorned whatever they had built into the theme after the fact. There were a lot of labyrinths (with lots of corners) and houses with round corners or no corners. For some reason there were several houses built around the four seasons (maybe because houses tend to have four corners?)

The competition is divided into three categories: experts (architects, designers and bakers); under 12; and everyone else. This year many of the most interesting and impressive contributions came from the “everyone else” group. The winner of the expert category was, in fact, strikingly bland and boring. (I didn’t even waste a photo on it.)


In recent years, I’ve noticed works on the theme of how we’re destroying nature, how we need to be kinder to the Earth, and how a more sustainable future is just around the corner. I wonder if the share of works on this topic is on an upward trend.

Two of Eric’s wool sweaters had moth holes in them.

Had they been mine, I’d have used a colourful yarn to darn the holes and thin spots, and turned them into a feature. I could even wear them to work: as a software developer at a small scale-up, I have the liberty to make odd fashion choices. Eric, as a manager at a large, more traditional company, sadly needs to live up to different expectations regarding looking presentable. So these sweaters will go to a charity for the homeless instead. It’s good quality wool, so I hope they will help keep someone warm this winter.

The sleeves are all done and finished, and they fit. Now I’ve just got the bottom hem left – and all the ends to weave in. Almost there! I might be finished with the whole cardigan before the end of the year.

Usually we start piling up the gifts under the tree the day before Christmas Eve but Nysse was all over the presents as soon as they started turning up, with claws and teeth, so we had to hide them away in the bedroom behind a closed door and only brought them out last minute. Only one or two packages got slightly chewed in the corners.

I am kind of proud of how I managed to wrap a large potted plant for Ingrid without breaking anything.

Lunch was the traditional devilled eggs, served with herring and an orange-avocado-feta-pistacho sallad, and vörtbröd.

Ingrid made a cream cheese Christmas tree for a starter. I didn’t think of taking any photos of the rest of the dinner, which consisted of the bean balls I always make for Christmas, potato gratin, brussel sprouts and a lingonberry sauce. I had planned for a cranberry sauce but there were no cranberries to be had in any of the three supermarkets I tried, neither fresh nor frozen. Lingonberries with orange peel didn’t taste half bad either.

The crinkling and crackling wrapping paper was an excellent cat toy. Nysse got half a roll of cheap wrapping paper, left over from some scouting activity, all for himself. That paper was kind of ugly to begin with so this was a good use for it.

Adrian of course evaluated all the larger parcels by weight and size and proportions, and tried to deduce which of the Lego sets on his wish list might be in there.

I started a habit of exercising for at least 15 minutes a day, keeping it small and achievable to help make it happen. But the low target actually ended up being counter-productive. 15 minutes was so short that even an energetic walk to and from the supermarket was enough, and after a while I was checking the box even though I wasn’t even getting my pulse or breathing up.

New habit: at least 20 minutes of strength training on weekdays when I’m not in the office, or 30 minutes of brisk walking otherwise.

I’ve also been avoiding strength training for a while because the mere idea of stripping off my warm layers in order to change into workout clothes has been unpleasant. But now that I’m doing it again, I was reminded that the workout itself gets me nice and warm, and the effect stays with me for some while after the workout. Net net exercising makes me warmer, as long as I can get over the initial threshold. As with most “hard” things, I just need to get past that initial resistance, and remember how good it will feel afterwards.