The one where I pat myself on the back and make some resolutions

The holiday season sort of officially ends the day after tomorrow and not-so-coincidentally so does 2010. As much as we missed our families this Christmas, I amazed myself by giving our family a great Christmas. I did it! I threw a huge party, I baked some amazing holiday treats, I made us and some friends a traditional Christmas feast with all the trimmings and I was organized enough to get most of my shopping done well before Christmas Eve (thank you amazon). I'm not just patting myself on the back, I'm slapping myself! But I can't take all the credit..nope. Hubby was there through it all, mainly in the role of cleaning up after me and doing the ahem "manly" jobs like erecting the tree, stringing the lights and mopping up after the flash flood that occurred in our kitchen an hour before the big bash.

And now 2011 is looming. We're celebrating tonight at a house party with the little man in tow. I swear next year I'm gonna slap a TAXI sign on our VW for Christmas Eve. Trying to book a taxi (which you can apparently do here with a handful of cab companies) was a fruitless endeavor as I left that to the last minute. I even resorted to calling "companies" that I believe were fronts for other ahem businesses. Nobody wants to drive us. So I might be the only sober chick at the party. Meh...I'm telling myself I don't need to drink to have a good time...ha!

Poor Little Man has been asking to go to school nearly every day this past week. Being an only child, hubby and I are his only playmates on "off days" so feeling bad, I got out the school directory and invited some of his little girlfriends over for a playdate. They arrived with their lovely Mommy and we took to the hills with our sleds. A few lectures about sharing later and we were on our way back to the house for some fika. The 3. 4 and 5 year olds played well together. Little Man was obviously upset when they had to leave so asked for a parting hug..which he received twice. Like father like son: He went in for the kiss. The 5-year old wasn't so sure but the 3-year old came up to Little Man, pushed him up against the wall and planted a HUGE smacker right on his kisser. Careful what you wish for. Stunned for a moment, he then proceeded to do what most little boys do, he wiped it off. It was priceless.

So, 2011. I have resolved to make no resolutions. But maybe I will make a few, you know, to make some. But they will all revolve around Health & Happiness for 2011. Quitting bad habits and replacing them with good ones and one I know for damn sure....Getting back to learning Swedish. I slacked off the last half of 2010 and lately, I have realized just how important it is for me to have command of this language. So there's a concrete resolution: To learn Swedish, no matter what it takes.

What are your resolutions for 2011? How are you ringing in the New Year? My last post received no comments and I blame that on two things: 1) It's Christmas and bloggers are taking some much needed time away from their screens and 2) I've been one lazy blogger the last few months. Not that I will resolve to blog more often but I will resolve to blog when the urge hits. As it did this morning. Now off to scrub, launder and have a much-needed shower.

Love and Peace to you all! Jenn and fam.

Merry Christmas to you and yours

Well hello there strangers. Yes, it's been forever, well since December 3rd actually. Truth be told: Been way too busy to blog: planning parties, hosting parties, going to parties, baking, eating, drinking and more eating. I have 2.5 extra kilos to show for it folks...but so worth every yummy bite. Here's a recap of what we've been up to, so we can catch up properly.
- We celebrated hubby's 2nd 50th Birthday party here at home. I stressed over it for weeks but a big pot of homemade chilli, some dips and a lot of good folks and it was a success.

- There was no "home for the holidays" this year. Instead, we opted to stay put in snowy Sweden and buy and bake Christmas. Yup, I baked. This is rather monumental for me. As many of our memories are wrapped up in food, I got busy baking the squares and shortbreads my Mom was famous for. They turned out great! We were invited to celebrate December 24th (Christmas Day here in Sweden) with our "foster family" and feasted on traditional Julbord (that's Christmas table). Pickled herring, Christmas ham, meatballs, Janssons (this yummy potatoe dish to die for), salads, etc. DELISH.

And then it was time  to leave cookies, milk, carrots and sugar out for Santa and his reindeer. Noone told me that they make special reindeer food to sprinkle outside...we'll get some for next year.

 Little man must have been really good this year cuz Santa left quite the haul for him. I tried something nouveau this year and did 80% of my shopping online and boy was that a bright idea. Not as much stressing around at the last minute, that's for sure and I was also able to buy a lot of English-language stuff. I guess the one thing I hadn't counted on was that because I was ordering from amazon.co.uk, that English-language stuff is actually "British English". So I'm sitting next to the 4-year old right now whose repeating words from his Little Einstein's DVD with the cutest accent, "Zehbras" vs. "Zeeeebras".

On Christmas Day, instead of slaving over a hot stove, we opted to spend the day chatting with our dear family on Skype. I'd like to thank whoever it was who invented it..we'd never have lasted as long as we have overseas without it.

And so, on the 26th, we invited some friends over to join us in celebrating Canadian Christmas: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, carrots, salad and more. Pretty scary preparing it all myself but I did it! With a lot of help from the hubby.

The only thing missing this year was a visit to church but we kept Christ in Christmas in our hearts.

So that's the play-by-play on our Christmas month. Now we get ready to celebrate New Year's Eve and I try my darndest to work off these extra 5lbs by the time 2011 rings in.

Hope you're all enjoying your time with family and friends. I hope to get back into the swing of things come 2011. Thanks for being patient with me while on my hiatus. Oh and I'm feeling much better..digestive thing almost solved :-).

Lots of love to you all, Jenn xo