Three days before Christmas Eve and I’m finally done working and doing my Christmas gift shopping instead. Except that I’m not; I’m buying things for myself instead. After an hour of shopping I had bought a wooden kitchen spoon (for myself) and a serving platter (for myself) and no gifts. When I was done and went home, I was also carrying several books (for myself) and 9 pairs of tights (for myself). And luckily some Christmas gifts, too. I just haven’t had any time for such frivolities as buying clothes for many weeks now.

Christmas view of Stockholm.

Good news: I will not have to work on Monday, or between Christmas and New Year’s!

Adrian’s class started the day with Christmas songs, followed by advent fika.

Every year it keeps surprising me that none of the teachers realizes that the singing would sound a lot better if someone stood in front of the kids and helped them all keep the same pace.

(Grumpy, yes. We still have too much to do at work and I am not even sure yet that I can get the day before Christmas off.)

Waiting for the knäck to reach the right temperature. (knäck is a traditional Swedish Christmas treat.)

I finally sewed a curtain to attach the lace to, that I crocheted months ago. I dithered for quite some time between putting the lace in front of the fabric or behind, and likewise between sewing it there by hand or by machine. Finally I decided that the lace is the main thing and has to go in front of the fabric. And because I still wasn’t sure about it, I sewed it by hand so that it will be easier to rip up and redo if I change my mind. Which, honestly, I don’t think I will.

There’s barely any daylight so I only had lamplight for my photos today. Now I hope I’ll remember to pick up my camera around noontime some day soon, so I can get of a photo of the finished curtain as a whole as well!

Decorating the gingerbread houses that the were assembled yesterday.

Ingrid and Adrian decorated the Christmas tree today. This year’s tree is a fir again, which goes counter to tradition and instinct but looks better and sheds less.

In the evening, the kids made gingerbread houses with Eric’s help. There are ready-made kits you can buy, but this year they’re making them almost from scratch. (But using store-bought dough, because by the time we eat them they will be dry and dusty and using home-made dough would feel like a bit of a waste.) This way we can make much smaller houses, so it’s conceivable that we might actually eat them.

The supermarket had something called “baking glue” which I haven’t seen before. We’ve tried using melted sugar to assemble the houses, and icing, but neither has worked very well. This baking glue was much easier to use than sugar, and stronger than icing.

I’m tired, work is stressing me out, it’s been gray and wet outside since forever, and there is no joy. I struggle to even enjoy reading, or photography, or blogging.

So I take this lovely apple to bring me at least a little bit of joy.

The side attic in Adrian’s room is still his “bedroom” and seems to suit him perfectly. The attic is a bit longer than his mattress, and he filled the empty space with all his soft toys. And the gap between the mattress and the threshold is apparently perfect for pokeball storage.

Adrian has a cold and is feeling tired and unwell, and he coughs all the time.

When I was a child, the home remedy for sore, scratchy throats was hot milk with honey. Adrian doesn’t like hot milk, but he does like hot chocolate.

I didn’t grow up with hot chocolate and never really missed it either. I think I had it on a few occasions in Belgium, but that’s about it. Up until a few years ago I barely knew how to make it. Scout camp has taught me, thought! This summer we set out to perfect and write down the ultimate recipe for scout chocolate. Which is not the same thing as cosy-Sunday-morning hot chocolate: scout chocolate should above all be warming and tasty but not too sweet so that the scouts guzzle it just for the sugar. The answer, and I’m not joking when I write this, turned out be 42. That is, 42 grams of cocoa powder and 42 grams of sugar per litre of milk. (To be fair, 43 might also work. But 40 was judged to be too weak, and 45 was too strong.)

Adrian’s preferred recipe for hot chocolate has 2 dl of milk, 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Which makes it slightly weaker and sweeter than the ultimate scout chocolate recipe.