Julaften (Christmas Eve)

It think it would be hard to have found a more beautiful dawn than the one which greeted me when I went out this morning.

 Everything was covered with a freshly formed layer of ice crystals, called 'rimfrost' here. When the sun came up I got this snap. The crystals are mostly about 1cm long, but unlike normal frost it doesn't stick to anything, not even the car which I had thought would need a lot of scraping, but just need a brush off.

After a visit to the churchyard to lay a wreath and light a candle at the grave of my wife's father, we visited her mother, then home to set about some serious eating....
But first we lit a few candles outside the door.

I think we've got about 10 candles lit outside, and 14 indoors.. Well we've got to do our bit to combat this global cooling. ;)
Now for the food,, Pinnekjøt, smoked sausage, mashed swede, and tatties. The normal accompaniment to this meal is a glass of Aquavit, but I hate that stuff, so I had a glass of single malt whisky, and a glass of Guinness.

We ate too much, as usual. Then we opened our presents. Some lovely gifts, useful, practical, funny, weird, etc.. Maybe a special mention for the beautiful gifts that my daughters gave to their step trowie,, I thought she was going to cry...
But there's one of the funny little gifts from my kids which stands out a country mile for shear frustrating horror,, this one.

I think the only good thing is that I have very little hair to pull out. The person who came up with the idea of Sudoku on a Rubix cube must be truly evil. It's going to take me months,,, unless I search google for a cheat ;)
Now if you read one of my posts last night you'll remember this little Julenisse, who I arrested for trespassing on my mouse docking station.

Well he's still languishing in the lockup, (the bottom of the clock).

Until he learns to behave and stay away from my computer he's going to stay there. But I have promised Santa that I'll let his little helper loose in time to help with the Auld Yöl (Old Christmas, as per Juilian calendar) deliveries on 6th January.

Now must go and sample some Christmas Spirit. Maybe have a nice walk in the morning for some winter pictures, before we settle down to a 5.5Kg Turkey... I know,, but it's the smallest one I could find, and we do like Turkey sandwiches..
Yun's aa fir enoo,
an Göd Yöl ta dee an dine.