My old coat had begun to show signs of severe deterioration after frequent wear in the last ten years and I decided to find an alternative, and above is the result: a black army-inspired woolen jacket from Anne Weyburn. It is made of fairly light wool, but it is still quite warm and fits me like a glove. It felt good to wear it for the first time today as we visited what has been described as Scandinavia's largest mall, Emporia.

T.'s sister and brother-in-law are visiting and we spent a few hours walking around and shopping for a bit. I managed to get hold of a few Margrethe bowls in sizes I didn't have and some lids in other sizes for bowls that didn't have any yet. In addition I found some replacement glasses, Cabernet from Holmgaard, since there has been a few accidents in the last few years.

The roses we bought are for the New Year dinner table tomorrow. The colour scheme will be white, champagne, and green, and I hope it will be as beautiful as we think.

One of my presents from T. was a beautiful book called Dekorera vackert written by florist Minna Mercke Schmidt. Yesterday was a pretty horrible day for several reasons, but today has, so far, proved to be far more enjoyable and at the moment I'm thinking about how to decorate the table for the New Year's Eve dinner. Inspiration is definitely provided in abundance by Mercke Schmidt and I'm sure T.'s sister, a gardener who is amazingly good at flower decorations herself, and I will join efforts to create something nice tomorrow.

The photos above are borrowed from Minna Mercke Schmidt's own blog, Blomsterverstad.

Christmas is here, we're busy making Christmas candy and we have bought the last presents today. They say there will be a storm tomorrow bringing snow and we're not planning to spend that much time outside then. More candy and wrapping presents will most likely be on the agenda — and listening to Christmas music. My playlist is as follows:

"Carol of the Bells/Sing We Now of Christmas" (Barlow Girl)
"Christmas In New Orleans" (Louis Armstrong)
"Meet Me At the Mistletoe" (Dave Barnes)
"It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" (Ella Fitzgerald)
"Gnags' Julesang" (Gnags)
"Noel Nouvelet" (Gregorian Christmas Chants)
"Grown-Up Christmas List" (Michael Bublé)
"Marie-Noël" (Ima)
"Riu Riu Chiu" (Sixpence None the Richer)
"It Really Is (A Wonderful Life)" (Indigo Girls)
"The First Noel" (Josh Groban & Faith Hill)
"O Helga Natt" (Jussi Björling)
"Song for a Winter's Night" (Sarah McLachlan)
"Jingle Bell Jamboree" (Keb' Mo')
"Please Come Home For Christmas" (Willie Nelson)
"Maybe This Christmas" (Leigh Nash)
"Zat You Santa Claus" (Louis Armstrong)
"Maybe Next Year" (Meiko)
"Merry Christmas Baby" (Melissa Etheridge)
"Cold December Night" (Michael Bublé)
"Christmas Time" (Phil Wickham)
"O Come O Come Emmanuel" (Rosie Thomas)
"Anorak Christmas" (Sally Shapiro)
"River" (Sarah McLachlan)
"Den Himmelblå" (Shu-bi-dua)
"Julen Är Här" (Sissel Kyrkjebø & Tommy Körberg)
"Christmas for Two" (Sixpence None The Richer)
"Baby It's Cold Outside" (Willie Nelson feat. Norah Jones)
"Peace" (Norah Jones)
"Koppangen" (Orphei Drängar, Cecilia Rydinger Alin, Uppsala Chamber Orchestra, Linne Quintet & Ida Falk Windland).

A merry Christmas to you all!

This house seems to "want" red things. It somehow comes alive as we decorate for Christmas. Our Christmas tree is decorated in white, silver and red — for instance these red glass baubles from IKEA. The cushions on our grey sofa are red and I'm actually also wearing a bright red cardigan from ginatricot.

There is no snow outside anymore and the window by the kitchen sink was filled with all dried up basil plants. Since we've had to do all the washing up by hand the last 4+ weeks (the dishwasher broke down and the landlord has not managed to find someone who can install the new one waiting in the hallway), the view has been rather boring and today I decided to do something about it. These deep red poinsettias, also bought at IKEA, are quite nice.

Now it really feels like Christmas at our house! I'm well aware of the fact that we're decorating the tree rather early this year, but there will be people here tomorrow, my parents will arrive slightly afterwards and stay until Christmas Day, my in-laws will be here for one night while my parents are here, and then, when my parents have left, we'll be off to T. parents for a few days, so we thought we'd make sure that as much as possible was done early this year. It is the way it often is during the holidays — a full schedule.

Another reason why it's not a problem to decorate the tree already in mid December is that we have used the plastic on this time, since my father is allergic to real Christmas trees, which of course won't be bothered by us not watering it. Otherwise we're pretty set with regard to Christmas preparations. We still have some Christmas candy left to do, a few presents left to buy, and some food to prepare, but on the whole we're quite relaxed and looking forward to the holidays.

Today I tied up several loose ends work-wise after two or three pretty hectic weeks and there is not that much more to be done before the holidays. This feels great of course, but at the same time it seems rather empty at the moment, the way it does when body and mind is used to simply keep going and definitely isn't used to rest. It's as if I don't know what to do with my time.

To be fair, I know I won't feel like this tomorrow, because by then I'm probably focused on something entirely different, something I've forgotten about for a while that will emerge simply because there is no more pressing things to attend to. For me, this is to be in between projects (be it work or private endeavours) and I somehow like these moments of "in-between-ness" in my work and my life.

This weekend has been full of preparations for Christmas. Yesterday, the whole family went into the town centre to buy Christmas presents and today, after a wonderful breakfast with hot cocoa and newly baked bread, we began leafing through the Christmas inspiration books for candy recipes and other vital things while watching the snow flakes whirling outside.

T. suggested we'd put up the rest of the Christmas decorations soon as well, and the dining room table is filled with Christmas presents (some of them have wrapped and some not — yet). On the kitchen table there is another project for this year, which seems to have turned out really well, but I won't say much more about it now, since there might be a few people reading this, who should not know about it yet.

In general, there are a lot of secrets and questions not being answered... This is probably why I truly love this time of year.

Both Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Luka and the Fire of Life are amazing examples of the giddy art of storytelling almost bursting at its seams. To read them is a treat, and it adds to the feeling of happiness as I, today, have been both promoted and granted a quite substantial raise. It has definitely been a good day from that perspective.

There is a downside, however. The temperature in our house plummeted yesterday as the radiators stopped working, and, since it is quite cold outside, we really needed the fireplace to keep us warm. The bedrooms were freezing cold, but fortunately our thick duvets kept us warm. The indoor temperature has gradually become worse and worse over the last few weeks, we believe. We dreaded to have to tell our landlords, since our relationship to them is rather strained especially since they haven't done anything at all to the dishwasher that broke down three weeks ago, but at the same time we were worried to have to spend the weekend without any heat. We contacted them and took the opportunity to ask about the dishwasher as well. None of it was well received.

T. tried to read up on heat pump maintenance online and we also called an HVAC repair company and a friendly man gave us a few pointers. T. was amazing and managed to clean the filters and reset the pump a few times, before it actually began to work properly again this morning and we were happy to be able to tell the landlord this. There is no news on the dishwasher, though, except that the landlord supposedly had tried for these three weeks to get someone to come here but that they were "all busy." We then contacted a repair man we had been in contact with before and he said he would be able to come today if we wanted to, but from our description he said that the dishwasher seemed to be beyond repair. We said that we'd have to talk to the landlord and ask if they wanted him to deal with it. It's obvious that the landlord has severe money issues, and we realised that our news probably wouldn't make them jump with joy. We still haven't received a response, but we know that the real estate agent, who is trying to sell this house, has alerted them that this house cannot be sold without a dishwasher that is in order. Moreover, we are paying rent on the basis that all of the equipment works and the only comment we have received from the landlord so far is that we'd "have to do the dishes by hand, then."

With all this as a backdrop it feels great to dive into Salman Rushdie's multifaceted fictive universe, but it certainly helps to have some good news with regard to work, which probably is even more important since this is actually substantial and real — and on top of it all we're warm. I do feel a certain giddiness and lightheadedness at the moment. Happy.

And here I am, blogging about the British TV-series Downton Abbey again. The more immediate reason for this is that we received the Christmas special from 2011 and season three today, and I'm admittedly aching to watch it. T. had talked about making it my Christmas present this year, but he seems to have reconsidered and I'm sure we will begin to watch it soon.

The really good news is that there will be a Christmas special this year as well, and, even better, there will be a season four in 2013, which we're very much looking forward to. Let's hope the high quality will continue and that the characters will guide us into the Roaring Twenties.

This is definitely a tradition by now: T. and myself watching Love Actually at some point before Christmas every year. This time we were accompanied by the boys and they seemed to enjoy it almost as much as we did.

Advent Sunday has otherwise been quite uneventful, although we woke up to the first snow of the year. The first candle was lit and then I spent quite a lot of the day reading for work, but the novel was enjoyable and I didn't mind at all. This afternoon we also enjoyed some glögg, ginger biscuits, and some saffron buns. Leisurely, enjoyable activities... a wonderful day.

A clean kitchen, fire in the fireplace, candles lit, bright stars on the window sills, dinner in the oven, and a good book. I'm sure there will be some glögg for us later this evening and hopefully something enjoyable on television. Life is good.