'Tis the season to be jolly

'Tis also the season of the office christmas party. We went to the one at Husbands work last night. It was in walking distance from our house, which meant that we could both imbibe. Husband hasn't tasted alkohol for 8 or 9 years. Don't think he missed it much. He had the welcome drink (a very sour bubbly wine), but I noticed that he stuck to soda after that. I didn't like the welcome drink either. At dinner I tasted all 3 kinds of wine, and found them all either sour or bland and ended up drinking soda as well. Finally they served brandy / baily's with desert. I usually like baily's, but just couldn't warm ut to it this time. I'm starting to wonder if I have just lost the taste for alcoholic beverages. 

   

Christmas  shopping I am mostly finished with. I have had a lot of fun making Husbands present. Had part of it brought by courier from England. Then spent several hours on the computer putting it together. 

And here is one of my famous no-brainers: One day Oldest Daughter wondered on Facebook whether it was wierd that the 2 packages that I had ordered from Amazon to be sent to her hadn't arrived. I figured amazon was just backed up in the pre-holiday season, but a day or so later I heard from Youngest Daughter that the 2 packages that I had ordered sent to her had arrived. So I went onto amazon to check whether they had dispatched the stuff. Turned out I had given them the adress where Irene was au pair over a year ago. Luckily she had kept the family's phone number, so I was able to contact them and very nicely ask if they would forward the packages to Irene in Cornwall.

   

I love this poem by the Norwegian poet Alf Prøysen, which can be sung to the melody of "Musevisa". For a good laugh, non-norwegian speaking readers, my I suggest you cut and paste the song into google translate. I tried it and the result totally cracked me up. Jul (christmas) translated as july at the end of the refrain; the plate of cookies getting burnt is, in our modern world, translated burning a disc. Incredible!!

"Nå har vi det de voksne kaller julestri

Da skal jeg si, de henger i

Men alle barn i verden synes slik som vi

At jule stri det er en deilig tid

Ja, dette har vi venta på så lenge,

Å så lenge, å så lenge,

Ja dette har vi venta på så lenge

Og en, to, tre, så er det jul.

Når mor skal bake kaker da er gleden tent

vi står så spent, og ber så pent

Men mor blir sint og sier: "sitt i ro og vent!"

men endelig så blir en plate brent.

ja, dette har vi venta på så lenge...

I am well underway with christmas baking. The challenge is my cookie-loving husband who is constantly hovering over the dough and the finished cookies. I am like the strict mother in the song, doing my best to protect the goods until the holidays. If we are to get through the next month without running out of cookies I will probably have to put them under lock and key.

Today I decorated the house for advent: hung up the christmas star in the window, set the table with an advent cloth and the advent candle "wreath". Started the creche on top of my desk, and set up an advent calendar. Finally I made gløgg with homemade red+black currant juice and gløgg spices and we had some of the cookies that Husband and I have been baking this week.