HOT HOT H.E.A.T

So here it is. A whole new year 2009 to be filled with joy and sorrow and everything between. It's always exciting with a new year and when 2008 was new I had no idea what was going to happen which in some cases is for the best. So many sad and hard things happened in 2008. My Mom and O had to go to a home for elderly after O had to amputate his leg and Mom getting worse in her Alzheimer. That also meant a lot of work for me and my sister during summeremptying their house. I also managed to sell their house. E ending up in hospital for 2 months very ill and not being able to work since. Me losing my job after 28 yearsd due to our Goverment's bad decision. H disease that finally got diagnosed as RA but he still hasn't got a diagnose for the coughing and breathing problems he's having. I gained all the weight I lost in 2007-2008. But there also were very happy times which is how you cope with the bad ones. I did a lot of travels in 2008. One that wasn't planned so lon...

Today was a sad day for me. It was my last day at work because as from January 1 my work no longer excists. It's hard to grasp although I've known it for a long time but it's so final when you have emptied your room and lock it for the last time. Nothing left that reminds of me just a computer a desk and a chair and some empty shelves. To think that I have been working here for 28 years! That's almost a lifetime. I have enjoyed it immensly and I have always been able to grow and to develop in my work. That's probably why I've stayed so long. I liked working at SRSA College Rosersberg and being a part of educating firefighters and sweepers. Now they are supposed to go to Revinge in Scania or Sando in Northland. Neither of them really suits the vast majority of firefighters to be since they live in this region. Well, we must be honest - In the region of Stockholm, Malardalen, Ostergotland and Vastergotland lives 3 million people and here we will now have no colleg...

Yeste rday we returned home af ter being in Gavle for 3 days celebrating both Christmas and birthdays. We had a lovely time. When we c ame on Christmas Day we had to split our family into two different slee ping arrangement. We are quite a big lot. So me, J and M slept at G's place an d E and H slept with St and Le. But we all had our meals at St's and Le's place. First day G had made food and we had a wonderful Chili con carne followed by a chocolate cake with whipped cream. Yummie! The younger ones of the family played card and had a lot of fun because we heard lots of laughs. After that we had glogg and gave gifts which was popular of course. Everyone seemed happy except for O who I had bought a sweate r for and it was way too large. Wrong size! I don't know how that happened because I know his size. I blame it on the Christmas stress, lol. Time flies when you're having fun so at midnight we went to G's flat to sleep. Next day Boxing Day it wa s sale all o...

Hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. We have just waved goodbye to my sister and her kids, my Mom and O and 2 of my sons. As always you eat too much, you talk and sing a lot. And of course the presents are wonderful. I think everyone appreciated my food and my baking. I took a lot of photos but most of them was very bad. Doublephotos and I don't know what went wrong. My camera usually taked good photos but today I don't know. Tomorrow we are off to Gavle to celebrate yet another Christmas but also 2 birthdays. Wherever you are and whatever you do I wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Today we decorated our Christmas tree. Isn't it lovely? I'm pretty pleased anyway. I thought I was done shopping but no. I had to go out and find Mom a purse. She has been wanting that for a while so I found her one. I hope she likes it. I have also done Stifado, a greek casserole, that we are going to have for dinner tomorrow. I also did chicken meatballs with bacon inside. I have never done that before and I made them up. They were actually pretty good. Tomorrow my friends I and K is coming together with our "grandchildren" so you can call it "little Christmas". They are coming for coffee in the afternoon and in the evening J will come and make his famous "kola". I don't know if D is coming tomorrow night or if he's only going to be here on Christmas Eve. He's welcome whatever he wishes to do. I also emptied my safety at work today. Went to the bank and put all the money in so now that's gone too. I have to go to work tomorrow tho...

It's getting closer to Xmas by the day and today I wrapped all the Xmasgifts. That's hard work but fun and I put on Xmas CD's to get in the mood. It worked. My sister J wrote yesterday and wanted me to have photos of the dishes I make but we ate it too fast I didn't have time but I did manage to take a photo of some of the things I have baked. It's safronbuns, chocalatecookies, oatmealcookies and gingerbread biscuits. This is also the shortest day of the year and the longest night but we actually had sunshine today for the first time in a very long time. I went out with Hilma for a walk which was nice. It was high fresh brisk air. Wonderfully easy to breathe. Tomorrow work again then home to put up the Christmas tree and decorate it. Because on Tuesday our adopted "grandchildren" T and T is coming over with I and K. We are having coffe and my homemade cookies and buns and then of course Christmas gifts for the children. In the evening the big boys will co...

Today has been all about Christmas preparations. I started out this morning by waking up (good move) and having a wonderful breakfast. After that I took a shower and looked at the computer. Then it was time for "Melodikrysset" which is a crossword with music questions in the radio. H and I always do that every Saturday morning. I had a bowl of porridge and then I went out in the shopping jungle. Yes, you really could say it is these days. Do you know when I came to our mall I had to circle around the parkinglog for 15-20 minutes before I got a parking place. And then I had to PAY! Can you believe that? We never used to do that but there are new owners. What's more upsetting was that there were 2 parking guards going up and down and writing tickets. Every other car had one. That is not OK when it's Christmas. I made almost all my shopping, yeah! and I'm very happy about that but it took me a couple of hours. When I returned home I started baking cookies. First I ma...