Christmas holiday

I had a long vacation over the holiday season. I travelled to Borås by train already December 20. I stayed with my mother and her boyfriend. We made some purchases in the second hand stores (very cheap Christmas ornaments and two tops for me), baked cookies, went swimming at the indoor pool a few times, helped my sister and her family decorate their tree (a real one, very big) and made some craft items for decorations. On Christmas Eve we all went to Göteborg, the hosts were my sister's in-laws, like usual. It was a very nice celebration. Great food; herring, Janson's Temptation, sausages, meatballs, roasted ham, salad, homebaked bread, cheese, chicken quiche and much more. Tomten brought some presents even for me: a tray with dalahorses on, coasters in the same style, a scented candle, fine chocolate, shower gel and soap, a handpainted tree decoration and a ticket for a movie. The weather was miserable with rain and high winds but we still went out for a walk the next day (this has also become a tradition). After eating leftovers and/or lutfisk for lunch we returned to Borås the next day.

Remarkably, I didn't buy anything at the after-Christmas sales. My sister, mother and I went out to see the movie. We started at a restaurant for an up-scale pizza that my mother claimed was the best she had ever tasted, and then we saw a Swedish comedy that was better than average. Wednesday my mother, her boyfriend and I travelled by car to the summerhouse in Skåne. It took about four hours. The house was pretty cold inside. After two days of cooking, cleaning and preparing, my sister and her family arrived too. Saturday the women went to a clothing store that my cousin owns. We were mainly going there to visit her but I ended up buying some clothes also. I was surprised to see that she had plus size clothes in stock (and it was my favorite brand, Zhenzi!). I got a long tunic and a pair of jeans.

New Year's Eve some of us went to the local church to listen to a performance by an opera singer. He had a strong voice and the church was small, so it was powerful. In the evening my mother served a three-course meal: shrimp toast, chicken with bacon in mustard sauce and rice pudding with cloudberry jam. Very tasty. Just before midnight we all walked down to the beach. It was a special experience to see the fireworks along the coastline. We have never celebrated New Year's there before.

The day after my father and his girlfriend came to visit to play with the kids. Later that afternoon my sister and family returned to Borås and the next day I also travelled home. Most of my house plants had survived. My brother-in-law had fixed the problem with my lap top (for this I am very grateful) so I checked my e-mails and found out that the library boss had died Saturday morning. She had been ill with cancer for five years but still insisted on working at least part-time. She was very concerned for me when I was diagnosed with cancer and was very supportive. We talked quite a lot and communicated via e-mail about our health issues. She didn't respond to my last message so I suspected that things were going wrong rapidly. Very sad.