Farewell to 2024

 

Wishing you all a Happy New Year 2025 with these photos of my Christmas amaryllis at its best (a couple of days ago). (It turned out to be one with rather small flowers.) 

The weather here is still predominantly grey. A very bleak sun made an attempt to break through the clouds for a little while around noon today, but didn't quite succeed. But at least it wasn't raining, so I decided on a walk to the supermarket for a few things. Approaching the place, it turned out half the town had the same idea. Which I should really have been able to foresee, as it was the day before New Year's Eve, and one of those in-between-holidays days when anyone who can is likely to take the day off work, and use it for shopping... 

Had it not been for self scanning, I would probably have turned around. With that option, however (which I always use there), I decided to brave it after all. And I did actually manage to get my half dozen items or so without too much trouble, in spite of the store being much too crowded for my liking.

As for New Year's Eve, I have no other plans than to stay in and hide the best I can from the fireworks and firecrackers that will no doubt be set off in spite of fog, storm and rain (possibly even snow). "Some people" around here have been practising for about two weeks already - with random Big Bangs every afternoon/evening (including right now while I'm writing this).

For many years (20 or so), 3-4 friends and I had a tradition of celebrating New Year's Eve together, nearly always at my place. For various reasons (involving health and distances and none of us getting any younger) we have not resumed that after the pandemic. Just now I'm (again) mostly relieved not to have made plans with anyone - even if I know that I can't really hope for a truly "quiet" evening either, that last one of the year! ;)

 

Ecclesiastes 3 -King James Version

1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

² A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

³ A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

⁴ A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

⁵ A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

⁶ A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

⁷ A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

⁸ A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

What 2025 will have to offer, remains to be seen. Let's hope will be seeing less of war, and more of healing, building up, sewing things together, and love and peace around the world... ♥

 

Foggy

 

The rest of the week after Christmas Eve can be summarized "grey and foggy". Somehow the fog outdoors seems to creep into my brain as well. I'll be back when it clears up... 😉

Looking Back on Christmas Eve

 

In Sweden, for most people - and especially the children - it's Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day that is the "main" day of Christmas celebrations - not least because that is when Jultomten (Father Christmas) comes bearing gifts here (or, if we have outgrown believing in that, we just open those that we bought for each other...) 

In my childhood, Christmas usually involved visiting both sets of grandparents (living around 100 km away from us), and no church services were included in the schedule. Nowadays, spending Christmas on my own, I often try include at least one church service - and my favourite has come to be the one at 11 a.m. on Christmas Eve, in the church above (the oldest in town, from the 17th century). 

I can't say I have attended it every year - for one thing, it depends a great deal on the weather conditions if I feel up for the walk. This year, it was a grey day, but neither rainy nor icy, so no problem with that. The service is rather short one, centered on the Nativity of Jesus, in a way that also actively involves the attending children, who get to help with bringing the various figurines up to the nativity scene; between readings of the texts from the gospels, and traditional Christmas hymns sung. This year, the Bible texts were also actually read by two quite young children (who did it very well!). 

(I took my photos before the service began, which is why the stable is still empty.) 

 Christmas tree in the foyer.

One rather strange Christmas Eve tradition here in Sweden is a certain TV program, a Disney special (From All of Us to All of You), that has been broadcasted at 3 pm every Christmas Eve ever since 1960. (Parts of it have been exchanged over the decades, but most of it remains the same.) 1960 was the year that my parents bought their first house and we moved in there, and I think that's also probably the year when they bought their first TV (a bulgy b&w thing, and there was only one channel back in those days, so the only choice was to watch whatever was on, or not watch at all).  

 

My maternal grandparents had got their first TV a couple of years earlier (my m. grandpa was always quick to get whatever was new - he was also the first in our extended family to get a colour TV when those were introduced). My paternal grandparents did not have a TV, though - I think it wasn't until after my p. grandpa died (1969) that my parents bought one for my grandma. So depending on in which home we happened to be at 3 pm on Christmas Eve, I may possibly have missed the Disney special a few times. But if there was a TV, we watched it - even in later years when there were no longer any young children in the company. And even now I still find myself turning it on, even if these days, I'm likely to keep nodding off to it as much as I "watch"...

 

A bit later, around 4:30 pm, I turned my TV into a fireplace (it's a DVD), and spent about 1½ hour with my brother via a Skype video call. It's a tradition we created after our parents died and we stopped actually getting together IRL for Christmas. And after that, I also talked for a while with my aunt (on the phone, no video). Also a tradition. (While my mum was still living, it was the two of them who used to call each other.)

A more recent TV tradition (only since a few years) is that on Christmas Eve, we get to see/hear our Crown Princess Victoria reading the Nativity text from the gospel of Luke, from the church/chapel in the royal castle in Stockholm. (I don't think that's broadcasted live, but pre-recorded. But recorded anew each year, though.)

Later in the evening, this year, I ended up watching Downton Abbey - the Movie (from 2019), also broadcasted on our 'SVT1' channel. The movie is about the family at Downton expecting a visit from the king and queen. Many of you have probably seen it. I too have seen it before, but only remembered the main theme. And it soon became clear that I had indeed forgotten the details of the plot - so it kept me awake throughout... ;-) 

Advent Calendar - December 24 (Christmas Eve)

 

 

♫ Silent Night, Holy Night!
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from Heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ, the Saviour is born. ♫

Advent Calendar - December 23

 

Barbie's & Skipper's Christmas Adventure

Barbie and Skipper persuaded me to take them on a tour "around town" (i.e. the whole flat) to see the seasonal decorations and lights and temporary art shows (Christmas cards) - and meet some gnomes.  

 

(P.S. Skipper got to borrow Barbie's gym shoes for this walk.)

 

 

On this tour, it was also revealed how many "Santas" live in the little Santa's House...

Back home on their own shelf after the tour.

💖

"... Some day you will be old enough
to start reading fairy tales again..."

(From C.S. foreword to The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe, dedicated to his goddaughter Lucy Barfield.)

Advent Calendar - December 22

 

It is only the modern that ever becomes old-fashioned.
- Oscar Wilde -

Advent Calendar - December 21

 

"Santa Claus has the right idea -
visit people only once a year."

- Victor Borge -

(Danish humorist and musician)

Commenting Issues

The other day I suddenly ran into a tech issue that has never happened before during my nearly 16 years of blogging: I was not able to comment on my own blog (like replying to other people's comments).

Super frustrating, and I couldn't even figure out what they meant by it... I've been using  Firefox (browser) with this blog for years, and this message has never come up before. I also have Microsoft Edge on the laptop, but the thing is, I have my family history blog (Greetings from the Past) on a separate Blogger account; and to avoid the trouble of logging in and out every time, I find it most practical to use different browsers for the two. Which worked fine - until now... So I've had a couple of days scratching my head over this. Just following the message's "Learn more..." instructions did not help. I then downloaded a third browser (Chrome) - but that in turn brought some other irritations. However, I found that I was still able to reply to comments as usual on the Firefox app on my tablet - so I have not been totally locked out from two-way communication.

But then today it hit me to check the Blogger settings... And found their comment settings (which I don't think I've ever changed since I first set up the blog):

As the word "embedded" was involved in the Google/Firefox error message, I changed my Blogger settings from Embedded to Popup - and that seems to have solved the problem.

I'm writing this down chiefly as a reminder for myself, but I thought I might as well publish it on the blog as well - in case anyone else has come across similar issues, or perhaps just happens to notice my shift to popup for comments here. (Hopefully the popup will work for others as well as for myself.)

Weekend Reflections / Skywatch Friday

After a very grey and rainy Wednesday, the rain ceased after lunch on Thursday, and I was able to go for a walk. The wind had died down too, and the river was still like a mirror. So of course I could not resist snapping some reflection photos... 

In spite of the rain, the water level in the river is unusually low just now. This is because of "human intervention" though - to do with reconstruction of a bridge further upstream. 

Advent Calendar - December 20

 

Every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
- James 1:17 -

Gnome Invasion

Yesterday was grey and wet, and I did not get out at all. While I was busy with doing laundry, Barbie and Skipper were allowed to decorate their Christmas tree at last...

This is where they live (a book shelf next to my TV). A new neighbour also moved in upstairs from them yesterday. Or rather, a regular seasonal guest... ;-)

Other corners of my flat were also invaded by gnomes yesterday:

This family occupies their usual space on a picture shelf above my sofa. (Knitted by my mum, once upon a time. She made lots of similar dolls for annual Christmas markets held by the local history society in the village where my parents lived in their senior years. But these were part of her own Christmas decorations at home.) 

1,2,3,4,5 little ones have also taken their usual places on the corner shelf in my kitchen. (The other items sit there all year round.)

Some prefer the top of my cooker hood.

Some are still hiding and won't come out until even closer to Christmas. How many do you think this tiny house may contain? (The answer will be revealed in a few days or so. Some  observant reader with extremely good memory might even remember - so I'm not making a competition of it...)