Christmas Twice Over

Spent the morning making mince pies from scratch, as in, making the mincemeat and the pastry. About everything that could go wrong did, as in, for example, realized when I went to roll out the pastry, that I didn't have a rolling pin. OK, no problem, will use a wine bottle... which then released the ink from the label all over the pastry.  And, after mixing the mincemeat, thought the raisins looked huge, so ate one, and discovered they had seeds. Have you ever tried to remove the seeds from a load of raisins, after they've been mixed with other fruit, marmalade and brandy?

This afternoon, went to our friends, Gören and Margareth, for a Swedish smorgasbord, along with Dutch friends. Absolutely amazing. Literally, they'd been cooking for a week. Cold table, hot table, and dessert table, and you had to go up seven times to replenish your plate. And several shots of homemade schnapps. And some Swedish singing. And much animated conversation.

Home to Blip, and now we're off to the Christmas service at church, and then "supper" at Portuguese friends, not sure how I'll fit in a second Christmas meal...

Gratefuls:
- being so well looked after by folk here
- our kids all set to serve others on Christmas Day, so proud of them all
- our bed waiting for us for when it's all over