• Mood: accomplished
• Music: Marshall Crenshaw—She Really Hates to Go Home

ALL IN ALL, A GOOD DAY

When you have children, birthday parties come with the territory, and birthday parties for children usually mean having your house invaded by 10-20 hyperactive, sugar-buzzed maniacs who trash the place, snub the food, and forget to say thank you until prompted by their parents, who look remarkably relaxed, which really should come as no surprise considering THEY'VE just had a 2-hour break from their offspring.

muahahaha! Not this year! We took the hyperactive maniacs to Andy's Playland instead and let them sweat their little hearts out running like lab rats mad through the labyrinth, bouncy castles, trampolines, ball pit, etc. that Andy's provides. For a very reasonable fee, you get 2.5 hours of playtime, food, drinks, ice cream and a candy bag to take home. It was SO worth the price!! We invited 15 children, ended up with 13, and Anders and I sat contentedly while they played, refereed a bit for the meal portion, and took photos at our leisure. All in all, the perfect way to have a party. We came home to a house that was NOT trashed, which made me all the happier!



For Christmas the past 2 years Anders's employers have given a DeliCard that you can order a selection of 6 different food items from. We actually kept forgetting about the one we had from last year, until suddenly realizing 2 weeks ago that the deadline for ordering was the end of November! EEK! So we squeaked in right under the wire, and yesterday a package containing 750 grams of "Najad" smoked salmon and a venison steak arrived on our doorstep.

Anders fixed the smoked salmon (which was cured with rosé pepper) for dinner tonight, along with creamed spinach, boiled potatoes and hardboiled egg halves. YUM! And we have plenty of leftovers for the rest of the week. Smoked salmon and cream cheese omelettes, anyone? :D

Tomorrow is a crazy busy day with the Scout Christmas market and party in the morning, and then our annual Christmas tree hunt afterwards, before the AWC Glögg Party in the early afternoon. Anders is playing hockey-bockey after that, so we can't stay too late, which actually suits me just fine, as that is a lot of stuff to cram into one day! I just baked what might not be the best batch of peanut butter bar cookies in the world, but they are slathered on top with a layer of light and dark chocolate which should make up for whatever deficiencies the actual cookies have. :P

Big Bright and Beautiful Birthday Wishes to fiveandfour and tallefjant!

Really Great Writing Out There Right Now: On letting (myself) go