It's Christmas Eve in Sweden (well, the morning of). Anders is slicing potatoes for Janssen's Temptation. The kids are watching cartoons. Mom, John and Simone are eating breakfast. I thought I'd put up a quick entry and then go shower. Anders' parents are arriving in time to watch Kalle Anka and Tomte is expected to arrive sometime afterwards. :) A friend of ours is playing Tomte again this year as we couldn't use any family members due to the fact that the kids are a little too sharp and would have recognized any of the usual suspects immediately.

It's been a hectic week and we're only about halfway through it. Yesterday, everyone but Mom and me went out to a rock quarry lake and spent some time clambering up and down the rocks. I sort of wanted to go, but was also needing some downtime. Having a houseful of people, even people I love, is wonderful, but it's also a little wearing.

The Christmas cookie baking was great fun. We did the traditional sugar cookies and the kids helped decorate them to their great delight. John made a batch of rice krispie holly bars and then we made our family's favorite christmas cookie which is an almond flavored, sugared, wafer-thin sandwich cookie with buttercream filling. Yum! Christmas just isn't Christmas without those cookies!

Last night, we watched Tenacious D which happened to be on TV, and laughed ourselves silly. Even Mom watched it, though I was sure she'd give up and go to bed after the first 10 minutes. :)

I'm hoping that next year I will manage to do some handmade cards like the ones that galestorm and jes6ica sent me. They were so beautiful!

I'm barely managing to get online once a day and read emails or check my friends list, but wish a very very merry Christmas to you all! :)