Holiday Stuff, Ramble Ramble

gift, originally uploaded by Tifty's Art.

This year we used the credit card to buy most of the boys' gifts online. Check. Done. Whew.

For almost everyone else, I am making gifts. Not yet done. Hm.

But I'm working on it. I'm knitting scarves for my nieces. Knitting is relaxing and I think of it as a win win way to make gifts. It is a way to relax and be productive at the same time.

Z gave his teacher the little bear he embroidered. Is there a chance he'll want to make more of those little embroideries for, oh, maybe his grandparents?

The tree is up, and most of the Christmas decorations. There is a grapevine wreath on the front door decorated with wire strung with blue and clear glass beads and pretty soon the shipments of gifts bought online will begin arriving at that front door.

I morse for vi till skolans julprogram. Sönerna var inte så sjungiga idag. Jag vet inte riktig varför - vissa barn sjunger stort och högt, men idag sjöng mina pojkar tyst, eller inte alls. Ändå lät det så fint, sjungande barnröster är en av de vackraste ljuden jag kan tänka mig.

In a small jar I blended together some spices and vodka last night. I think 12 cl is about 1/2 cup... more or less. This mixture is going to be for the spice for the homemade glögg I will try to make later this week. We'll see how that goes...

I feel like writing a list.

• There is sugar cookie dough and pepparkakor dough chilling in the fridge so we can bake christmas tree cut-out cookies.
  
• The Christmas card design is planned, all I have to do is make them!
• Package to Sweden is almost ready to mail (waiting for one last thing)
  
• I want to re-design my web presence. Sometime after Jan. 1.
• Planning a little party - glögg, pepparkakor..
• Swedish things I can't buy here, at least not without some sleuthing or googleing:
1. knäckformar
2. pomeransskal (hur ersätter man detta?)
   
3. hjorthornsalt
4. julmust
5. glögg (färdig)
6. rågsikt
7. sylta
8. créme fraiche (man kan göra egen, dock)
9. princessatårtor
10. pepparkaksformarna: gubbe, gumma, hjärtan (de finns, men de ser inte ut som de svenska...)

• I need to find out how to clear the entire memory, completely reformat, brainwash, and wipe clean the old Dell Windows 98 computer we have. How do I do this?? Where can I find instructions? How hard can it be?
• Gotta burn some discs to save all the digital photos on my Mac

I feel like I am just rambling disconnected thoughts today.
I'm turning off the computer now. Going outside to enjoy the sun! I think the computer will stay off a few days. Internet pause! Happy Holidays!