Day 6 in which the Allans see in the new year (& eat too much)

The view from the window New Year's Eve 2012, & yes, I'm quite happy with this view ;

  

 

This morning we reacquainted ourselves with Segeltorp in a wintery walk to the shops. There hasn’t been any snow falling for the last couple of days, resulting in icy paths. Better to walk in the snow than risk undignified slipping or, as we like to call it ice Tourette’s.

If you look up Tourette’s syndrome you’ll find it’s a disorder characterized by multiple physical tics or jerky movements and at least one vocal tic. Imagine, if you will, all 6 feet of MGM coming upon a section of ice cunningly disguised as footpath ... arms fly out star-like, one foot goes up too, while the other slides along the slick surface. Arms begin to flail, an involuntary whoopsy-daisy is uttered whilst trying to regain hopelessly lost dignity AND avoid the impending face/bum plant. This involves much skidding, more jerky movements and quiet desperation. I am told it’s funnier when I do it, having the reflexes of a pussy cat, but I don’t believe him.

As i have yet to catch ice tourette's on film this is what we see on our local walks...

 

After lunch some rellies arrive to see happy New Year and we partake in the Swedish tradition of fika (fee-ka), an afternoon tea type affair (although they don’t do tea but rather coffee) between 2-5pm but I have it on good authority that it can happen at any time of the day. We had homemade Swedish buns, personalised ginger bread and the most delicious coffee (I had 3 cups).

 

 

And then, because we have not eaten enough during the day, more rellies arrive in the evening for dinner – talk about being spoilt! My Swedish family is amazing!

My cousins Monica & Evan and Christer & Marta decided it’d be good to show us how  Swedish people eat on Christmas day.

 

 

How Elegant is this!

We start with a fish course – smoked salmon (that Evan smoked himself!), herring (although there was no tree-chopping), Johnson’s Temptation (how fantastic is that for a name of a dish) & others too.

Then the meat course – meatballs (of course), turkey (also smoked), ham + salad, potatoes, and many sauces.

 

Then cloudberries (a Swedish native fruit) and ice cream in homemade pastry cups.

Then coffee, cheeses and chocolates!

I will never need to eat again.

 

At midnight we were in the centre of the fireworks courtesy Monica & Evan’s neighbours. Fireworks are legal here – they sell them in the supermarkets & I think the neighbours bought every last one available and let them all off in the space of the most amazing 30 mins of fireworks I’ve ever seen.

I missed my cherubs but it was a memorable NYE.

Note to Pip: I couldn't get blogger to do what I wanted for this post so I edited the HTML myself! how awesome am I!!