Kitty’s Place

The kidlet made out like a bandit this christmas. He got so many things I think we need to move just to fit it all in our home. *laugh*

His gifts included a radio controlled car, not the most age appropriate gift for a 3 year old, but one he loves very much. Farmor did not think he should have one, but farfar got it anyway. *smile*. The kidlet loves it and I think we will take it to work when I go back in two weeks. There is much room there for him to race it around. Farmor got the second most favourite gift for him, a Megasketcher. I remember how much fun etch-a-sketches were, so I understand how much he enjoys this gift. It is the big version of the one he got at the gift exchange on the 21st, which was also a big hit.

His other gifts included a kaleidoscope, pencil case and coloured pencils, socks, mitts, hats, scarf, sticker book and stickers, jumbo crayons, sketch pad, construction paper, snow globe, battery powered airplane with a set of pilots wings, police motorcycle with siren, books in english and arabic, a gladiator set with plastic breastplate, shield, sword, scabbard and helmet with face guard, giant tootsie roll filled with mini ones, playdoh funfactory, talking parrot, car mat for the living room table, 2 flashlights, ABC Dominos, animal lotto, 4 wheel drive car, building blocks (the kind that look like flowers and snap together), 2 videos (bugs bunny and pelle penguin), grizzly ear headband, car toothbrush, Teddy’s Favourites game, wooden puzzle of farm animals, postcards showing scenes of the area where he was born and lived for his first 18 months, lots of candy and a bananas in pajamas beach towel. I am sure I am forgetting things but that pretty much covers it. He was one spoiled little boy and as I sit here typing he is trying to decide what to play with next.

My fellow got lots of nice things too. A socket set, some board games, lots of chocolate, hot sauce that claims to be the hottest ever, video of a Jackie Chan movie, Afroman CD, guinness world book, crossword dictionary, microscope, daytimer, aftershave and assorted other small gifts. One that I got him was the second set of refrigerator poetry magnets and I said I would make up a new saying every day for him. Another thing I saw and couldn’t resist getting him was a CD holder for the desk in the shape of the “@” sign.

My gifts included flavoured coffee, flavoured tea, christmas placemats, napkins and rings, christmas hand towels and dishclothes, 2 sets of salt and pepper shakers, cute egg cups, new duvets covers and pillow cases, christmas cheese slicer, Norman Rockwell calendar, daytimer, green apple soap, sparkling silver body lotion, incense burner with lemon sticks, essential oils for my burner, a joystick for my computer (yay!), a Swarovski crystal pendant and a christmas snow man ornament that was made at the glassworks at Steninge Slott (a castle about 20 minutes walk away from here). There were many other little cherished things as well.

I have much to write about the past few days. We spent christmas with my fellows’ family. We went over on the 24th in the afternoon and stayed until today about 5:30 pm when we came back home. It was really nice staying there, rather than running back and forth like we did last year.

Saturday I had a really emotional day. Cried and cried over anything and everything. My fellow took the kidlet and they shopped for my gifts and looked for a turkey, with no luck. While they were gone I did some food shopping and then went to bed with my raggedy anne and cried some more.

Sunday we went to look for a tree but there weren’t any and I just didn’t much care if we had one or not. I had a temper tantrum, probably from sheer frustration at not being able to have all my family in one country for christmas. I did laundry and cooked the ham for dinner on Monday. The kidlet went to his grandparents to make a gingerbread house and my fellow went and bought a christmas tree on his way back from dropping off the kidlet. He also brought a turkey home that his uncle bought. According to uncle, there was some sort of sickness in the turkeys this year which led to a shortage of them for christmas. The one he got was one the store manager had in the back because it had been marinated in bouillon and did not sell. It was the nicest turkey I have ever cooked. I made my moms’ carrot salad recipe as well.

Monday morning I got up at 6 am and stuffed the turkey and put it in the oven. I made stuffing to cook in tinfoil as well, using a vegetable bouillon, since half of the people at christmas dinner don’t eat meat. I cleaned up the kitchen, made Aunt Pearls’ celery bake, packed our clothes to stay overnight at his parents, packed up dog stuff we needed to take and packed all the gifts for transport. We all had showers and I had clothes laid out for all of us. Well my fellows’ sweater was missing a button and that led to a major fight here. I was ready to stay home and let him go himself for christmas but decided I could not miss christmas with my son and could not deprive him of christmas with his grandparents. So off we went, tension so thick you could cut it with a knife.

We emptied out the car and then put the gifts under the tree. We both relaxed as we worked away at that and by the time the Donald Duck christmas show came on at 3 pm, we were both in good moods again. I love the christmas show. It is a compilation of disney cartoons and even though much is dubbed, it is still pieces of shows I grew up with. After the christmas show, we had dinner. As said above, the turkey was superb. The ham was not so moist and I won’t buy that type next christmas. My other contributions went over very well and it was a nice dinner. In addition to my contributions, we had 3 types of herring, gravläx (dilled marinated salmon), red beet salad, roasted potatos, carrots, turnip, meatballs, mini sausages and janssons temptation (a potato and fish casserole in a heavy creamy sauce). When dinner was over we went back down to the tv, but we missed the show about the boy who takes gifts coming through the post office, from the rich and gives them to the poor. I like that one too. My fellows’ uncle said he was going out for a newspaper and then went up and dressed up as tomten (santa) and rang the doorbell. The kidlet was really excited to see Santa. He came in with his sack of gifts and had the kidlet pass them around. Then he left and a few minutes later, uncle came back. The kidlet told him about santa coming and then gave him the gift left for him. After that we passed out all the gifts and then opened them. I will elaborate on gifts later but for now suffice it to say we were all spoiled, especially a certain 3 year old. *laugh* We had coffee and ice cream cake then and sat around and visited until we all drifted off to bed.

Tuesday morning the kidlet woke me and begged for juice but I told him it was too early to get up and he went back to sleep. An hour later he woke me again and I went down and brought back half a glass of juice. He drank it and then promptly threw it up on mom and his grandparents bed. So it was an early start to the day, stripping the bed, stripping off wet nightie and getting dressed, getting kidlet dressed after cleaning him up. He threw up a couple more times in the bathroom but after some yoghurt for breakfast his tummy settled and he was fine. We had a quiet lazy day. After lunch when some of the others went for a walk, I walked home and fed the cats, had a shower, packed a change of clothes and went back over. We had decided to stay another night, so we could leave the kidlet with his grandparents while we (my fellow, myself, his uncle and uncles’ girlfriend) went to see the Lord of the Rings movie. We ate around 3 pm and then everyone had a little siesta. Some slept, some of us just sat and visited, kidlet played hard as usual. The poster at the mall said the movie was at 8:15 pm and a bit before 7 pm uncle phoned and asked when the doors opened for ticket sales. Imagine his shock when they said the movie started at 7 pm, not 8:15. They did say if we were there in 15 minutes, we would not miss any, since they were just starting the previews for other movies. So in a rush we headed to the movie theater. We were there in lots of time, got good seats, popcorn and pop. The movie was fantastic. It was on screen as I have imagined it in my mind during every reading of the trilogy (which is so many I have worn out one set of the books). I first read LotR when I was 12 and have loved it ever since, so this movie was a dream come true. My fellow had never read it and is not much into fantasy, but he seemed to enjoy the movie. His uncle is the LotR fan in their household, but his girlfriend really loved the movie and now is going to read the books. So it was a wonderful christmas night. When we got back, I phoned home to my grandparents and spoke to lots of family members. Then we had a late night snack and watched Trading Places on tv.

This morning we slept in till 9 am (we being mom and kidlet). We went downstairs and left pappa to sleep. The rest wandered down over the next hour and then we had breakfast. My fellow slept till noon. His mom and I sat in the living room in our pj’s, drinking coffee and chatting. It was nice. We went out and did a bit of post christmas shopping and I picked up some tree garland for next year and christmas placemats. I love 50% off sales. *laugh* We ate about 4 pm, had coffee, packed up everything and came home. All gifts came home, even the arabic book that farfar got for the kidlet. I will take it back later this week, since neither of us can read it to him. We will take a couple of the other gifts to leave there as well, but for now, everything is home to be played with. *smile* I called my sister and my brother when we got home and had great visits with both of them.

The kidlet fell off to sleep the minute his head hit the pillow and we have been relaxing here, catching up on email and such. My fellow has to work in the morning so it will not be a late night.

I have been pining for snow for days. Today we have it! When my fellow headed out to work I saw a big frown appear on his face as he looked out the door and I knew I would be smiling soon. I love snow, he detests it. *laugh* We have a lot too, at least 15 cm fell and with the wind, it has piled up even higher.

Yesterday we went in to work. It was bitter cold and a terrible train day. The train to Stockholm just didn’t show up here and the next scheduled one was 10 minutes late. When we got to the station in Stockholm I stopped and got the kidlet a kids meal at Burger King and we headed for the subway. Just after we went through the turnstile, the box with his food started opening and his hat was falling off from catching it on the turnstile. So I took off one glove, stuffed it in my pocket and got him and his food fixed up. We hurried down the stairs to the platform and there was 3 minutes to spare. When I reached into my pocket to put my glove back on, it was gone. We retraced our steps but couldn’t find it, so we raced back down and caught our train. I was really sad about losing my glove, since my mom bought them for me the year before she died. But I had them for a long time and will get new ones. Luckily I have really cosy mittens that my fellows’ grandmother got for me last year, from Finland.

Work went well and we were done in just under 3 hours. Because we went on a weekday, there were people there when we arrived. That really threw the kidlet off. But he had met all of the women before and was soon chatting away with them. I don’t need to go in now until the second week of January, since there won’t be anyone there until the 7th. I planned on catching the subway and being home by 6:30 pm. Not a chance. We made it to the station and the train pulled in just as we got there. Then we sat for 20 minutes. I have no clue why. The most I got from the announcements was that there was a train stopped ahead and we had to wait for it to move. No reason why though. We finally started towards Stockholm and there were two more delays. the usual 45 minute trip, took an extra 30 minutes. I didn’t rush to the train home because I knew we had missed it. But when we got to the Pendaltåg platform, that train was late as well. So we had another wait. We got home about 7:30 and I fed the kidlet right away and put him to bed. My fellow got home an hour later and we had a late dinner together.

We went to a christmas party this morning at öppna förskolan. Besides having the traditional julgröt (porridge), we also did a gift exchange this year. We took in a cute colouring book and crayons. When the gifts were handed out, the kidlet was the happiest kid around with one of those mini etch a sketch type toys. He has been drawing on it with the magic pen and then sliding the button to erase the picture, for almost 4 hours now. *laugh*

There were two parcels at the post office to pick up, so we did that after playgroup. One was from my brother in St. Catharines and there were gifts for all of us, including my fellows’ sister and parents. He is such a sweetheart of a guy. I think it is so nice of them to send something for my extended family here. I am getting anxious to start opening all these presents. *laugh* The other was from Elizabeth. She did a really creative job of converting a square postal box into a long triangle. The contents of the parcel were a packet of 30 postcards, 2 lovely christmas ornaments and a huge movie poster with John Travolta on it! She made an adorable angel ornament. Thank you Elizabeth! I do hope we get our tree this weekend so I can start hanging all these pretty ornaments up.

Speaking of not having a tree, we also don’t have a turkey. I have checked now at 4 stores locally and none have them in stock. 2 had signs up saying sorry, we are waiting for a shipment. I started looking two weeks ago with no luck. Am thinking I may have to hop on the train tomorrow and see if I can find one in Upplands Väsby.

I need to go
and clean some more, but I will leave you with new pictures to check out here. (You family members reading this, doesn’t the kidlet look like James in that boots picture?)

For some reason I did not realize christmas was so close. *laugh* All the gifts are bought and wrapped. The laundry is caught up and except for the turkey, food is all here. We still have no tree but that is not unusual here, since the tree usually goes up a couple days before christmas and then stays up until well into January. So I am really ready for it, I just thought it was further away.

Yesterday was quiet. I did laundry, we picked up the christmas parcel at the post office. Made pizza for dinner. My fellow brought home a wooden box with two wine glasses, a bottle of red wine and a book about wines, from work. Since I am the only one of this bunch who drinks wine, I was thrilled. *laugh* Actually I miss Niagara wines. Living in Niagara where I could visit the wineries and test the different wines there, I learned to appreciate good wines. Since moving here I have had a hard time to find a wine I really like. Have tried some of the Australian ones that were nice and a couple Chilean ones. I guess I will have to keep on sipping to come up with a list of good ones. Now that Canada has broken the EU barrier and has approval to sell icewine here, I am hoping to see other Canadian wines follow. Hmm, perhaps we should open this bottle of icewine I brought home with me, over the christmas holidays.

Because there is not one time slot open for laundry until christmas, I went out yesterday and bought pull ups for the kidlet for nighttime. He is fully trained in the day, but still is wet in the morning and has had a couple of wet beds as well. When I came back from the store he took the bag and peered inside and there was this cute little gasp and he yanked that bag of diapers out of the grocery bag. His father asked what they were and he said they were for him, not pappa and ran into the bedroom and put them in the spot where I used to keep the diapers. Funny kid. I put one on him at bedtime and explained that they were special pants and he was not supposed to wet them, rather, like normal underwear, he was to go to the bathroom and pull them down, if he had to go in the night.

For a change I was awake before him this morning and as I suspected, he has been getting up and then being so sleepy, not making it to the bathroom in time. So this morning as I was making breakfast, he staggered half asleep into the kitchen, with his still dry diaper around his ankles, in his search for the bathroom. A quick steer in the other direction and he made it through a night with no wetting. *smile* I will continue these pull ups for a bit just in case.

I thought we would go to öppna förskolan today but the kidlet wants to stay home. I guess kids have days where they don’t want to do anything too. So we will stay here and he can play and watch tv and I will try to sort out this wreck of a living room. I really need to make room for the christmas tree. *laugh*

It was a big mail morning. We have some young kid delivering this week and rather than ring the bell, he was trying to jam everything through the slot at once. What a dolt. *laugh*

There was a christmas card from my stepmother with a newsy note and the slip saying she had put money in the bank for the kidlet. There was a package for the kidlet that was rather mysterious. It came from the US and had his first name but my last name (he has his fathers name) and it was smudged where the senders name was. When I opened it, it was a small crocheted christmas stocking with a little kaleidoscope and crayons in it, from one of the moms on a mailing list I am on. I thought that was so sweet. The kidlet is so excited and now wants our tree so he can hang up his own ornament. We also got a slip saying that the parcel from Aunt Maud is at the post office waiting to be picked up. The nicest surprise came from Beverly, who sent a little package with a flag pin for me. I was wearing my canadian flag pin and had mentioned to her that I had not been able to find a swedish one to go with it. She sent me a pin made up of both flags! It is already on my coat collar. Thank you so much!

Now back to regularly scheduled cleaning. *laugh*

Aunt Jane’s funeral is today and I will be there in spirit, if not in person.

We had an odd weekend here. Saturday my fellow slept for the bulk of the day. Sunday we slept in some and then I went back to bed about 11 am and slept until 2 pm. Then my fellow curled up in bed again after lunch. I had been feeling off for a couple days, cranky and weepy, but I put it down to just plain blues. Sunday afternoon though I started having back pain that got worse and worse, to the point of being sick from it. As usual, I was floored by this and couldn’t imagine what was causing it. You would think by now I would know the signs but I am a dope at times. *laugh* Anyway, I am once again harbouring a kidney stone. This is the third one this year and I must say it is getting a bit too much. With all the pain and bleeding on Sunday, I was sure it had passed, but no such luck. It is still working its’ way out. So it is good that I am done with gift and food shopping, since I will stick close to home for the next couple of days.

I remember a friend of mine who had a husband that got these regularly. When she talked about it so nonchalantly “Bill is home from work, kidney stone time”, I wondered how anyone could be so blase about it. But now that I have had a few, I am the same way. Unless there is a lot of bleeding, I don’t even go to the doctor. All they will do is give me pain pills and I don’t tolerate medication well. Sunday evening I took two Tylenol and one Gravol and apparently Monday morning the kidlet was calling me repeatedly to come and help him (he climbed up onto the kitchen counter and then was afraid to climb down) and I never heard him at all. So imagine how zonked I am if I take something stronger. Luckily for me, Monday was a day off for my fellow, so he got up and rescued said kidlet and let me sleep.

Yesterday we went to the post office to pick up a parcel. It has been a big week for parcels and cards. We had a package last week from my Aunt Pearl, with a newsy christmas card and a Robert Munsch book for the kidlet. We have received cards from friends in Canada, friends from a couple of mailing lists, and Sweden friends.

The funniest post office incident was yesterday as well. Well, two things actually. First, I received an envelope addressed to someone else, not even in the same building in the complex we live in. I took it back to the post office to be redelivered. The woman there said that likely it was delivered to me because I get so much mail from the US. Like that is a method of sorting. *laugh* Then when she took the slip for my package, instead of going to the shelves where parcels are usually sorted and waiting, she went to the middle of the office behind the counter and began digging through a pile on the floor, when that didn’t yield my parcel, she and another woman began pouring out bags of packages and rummaging through them. I guess christmas sorting is a bit different from other times of the year. *laugh*

The kidlet and I grocery shopped as well yesterday and then my fellow picked us up. It was one of those big, need everything, shopping trips. Sadly though, I still do not have a turkey, which means another trip to the supermarket. I have shopped in two different places and not found turkey, yet I have seen it other times of the year. I will look again later this week. At least I have the christmas ham already. I actually was laughing when I was looking for the turkey. There will be 8 of us for christmas dinner, four of whom do not eat meat. So we will be eating leftover ham and turkey for days. I bought the smallest ham I could find and it is still about 5 times bigger than the
normal ham I buy the rest of the year.

Today I will do laundry. I changed the beds last night, when my fellow was home to help so it is just a matter of carrying clothes over and back to the laundry room. I think I can manage that. *smile*

We had a nice day today. Because it has been a long week with not a lot of sleep for my fellow, the kidlet and I went to work this morning and left pappa to sleep. We left home about 8:30 am and got back about 5:30 pm. The train was delayed, we stopped to shop some and stopped for lunch in the middle of my cleaning. It was a nice time for both of us. My fellow called about 2 pm to see how it was going. The kidlet slept on the train home after negotiating for candy from the bag we bought him in Hasselby.

My fellow was asleep when we got home and I put on dinner. I kept waiting for the phone to ring. I got this feeling in the afternoon that my Aunt Jane had died. Aunt Maud phoned at 6:00 pm with the news that Jane was gone. She also said that my grandpa had a TIA yesterday (transient ischemic attack - ministroke) but seemed fine today. This has taken its’ toll on my grandparents. Losing two children in just over 3 months has been devastating for them. They both cried on the phone when I spoke to them.

Jane was a special lady. My mom used to call me Jane when I would trip over nothing because Aunt Jane was one who did that also. She was always in a hurry and so would get tangled up in her own feet. She had a tough life, losing her first born when he was just a toddler and her husband at a time when they should have been able to enjoy life in their middle years. Her son went blind when he was in university and while my cousin is an independent, self sufficient man, it was still a blow to his mom and dad.

When we were growing up, we lived a few doors down from them. So we were often popping in to visit. Later they moved uptown and it was not so frequently we visited, but visit we did. There was much time spent in her home in my growing up years. When I moved back to my hometown in ‘98, Jane was there for us. Just as she was for everyone who needed her. She was always on the go, doing for someone else. She and I did a lot of Friday morning market runs during the 15 months I was alone with the kidlet. She also dropped by with soup and a helping hand when I was ill. If the weather was really bad, she would call to see if we needed her to take us grocery shopping. The kidlet loved Aunt Jane too.

When we were home in April, Jane was so well. She had beaten cancer a few years earlier and at 66 was a vital, happy woman. She was still working in retail and always on the go. The day we were leaving my grandparents she came to say goodbye and had a fall off a single step on the back stoop. At the time she had a sore back, but when I spoke to her the following week she said it was not too bad. The fall however crushed a vertebrae. She had to have back surgery to have it fused. During the surgery they found that her cancer had returned. She had to have treatments after she left the hospital where she had the back surgery. She never really got better after that surgery. It has been a steady decline. She was too ill to go to her baby brothers’ funeral, but they did manage to get the two of them together before my uncle died.

I have cried a river of tears over the past couple of hours. Tears for a life lost, tears for those left behind who are hurting, tears for myself because I can’t be home to hug my family. But even during those tears, I have kept thinking that now Jane is out of pain and she is somewhere, with her husband, her baby brother and my mom and dad. Someday we will all be together again and until that time I will keep her memory in my heart.

Just checked out how we rate with Santa. close your eyes, this is one of those test thingies *laugh*

Kitty Sue
Nice, but has naughty lapses. High marks in the good deeds department. Better than average manners. Hopefully, thoughtfulness will continue to be as good as last month. Neatness needs improvement!

Llywellyn
Nice, but a few naughty marks. Good sense of humor helps others to laugh. Manners show improvement, though must keep working on being polite. “Please” and “thank you” go a long way!!

Ibo
“Nice” with a few naughty marks for excess TV. Also had a tough month back in February, but has shown real “nice” effort ever since. Beware of not cleaning up kitchen messes and forgetting to say “thank you.” Very nice job of kissing everyone “good night.”

Check out how Santa rates you here.

It really is one of “those” days. I have cried repeatedly since getting up this morning. Not about anything in particular, just suddenly start with this for no reason. It is bad enough at home, but I also had a sob session at playgroup and in the grocery store. Ahh well, it will pass. *laugh* Likely it is from being tired. The kidlet keeps me going all the time he is awake and I am averaging about 4 hours sleep a night. So it has probably caught up with me.

On the upside, we had bright sunshine today! We walked Susan this morning in it and then had another long walk with her after we got home from playgroup. We went to one of the play areas and the kidlet got to play on the swings and the slide. So we surely got our share of sunshine at least.

Kidlet went diaperless last night. He got out of bed at midnight and went to the bathroom. This morning he woke me at 6:30 and he was wet, but his bed was dry. There was trail of wet clothes to the bathroom so I assume he tried to get there but was too sleepy. *laugh*

Going to get the dishes caught up finally. Or maybe I will just go and have a nap. *laugh* My fellow says that I lay on the couch all day and eat bon bons, like Peg Bundy. Maybe I will give that a try. *grin*

We were up bright and early today. Kidlet had a bath and got ready for playgroup. Farmor arrived here a bit after 9 am and we made our way down the hill to öppna förskolan. After mass disorganization, we got the kids all out into the kitchen and then had the traditional parade with the kids singing. Of course in this case moms and dads were doing most of the singing and the kids were a scattered bunch, clutching parents as we made our way into the main room. It still was sweet and I enjoyed it a lot. Farmor did too. You can see a couple pictures here.

This is the first farmor has seen the kidlet interacting with other kids and she commented on how gentle and non aggressive he is and how that is so much like his father was at that age. The kidlet doesn’t “fight back” with other kids if they get aggressive, he just backs away and cries and says no. I have taught him not to let the other kids take toys he is playing with, but I don’t think he needs to be loud and physically aggressive, so I let him be a bit babyish. One of the moms asked if she was the kidlets’ farmor and when she said yes, the reply came back “but you are so young”. I had a chuckle. Farmor is young, she is 44 and does not look like the storybook grandmother. She was a bit taken aback by that comment and said again that the kidlet was her barnbarn (grandchild). We talked some about the possibility of us moving up north and it was no surprise to me that my fellow has already discussed this with her. *laugh* If I want info, I should just phone her, she always has the latest news. *smile*

After the lucia celebration, which included coffee, saft, glögg, pepparkakor and lussekattor, we went grocery shopping. Farmor went to work. We bought the julskinka (christmas ham) and some other darn heavy items. I always let the kidlet use one of those child size shopping carts, because once it is full, I know that is my carrying limit. We went out to lunch and had chinese food. The kidlet accidently knocked his glass off the table and it shattered. He was unhurt but he was scared and sobbed till I thought my heart would break. The woman who worked there kept telling him it was ok as she swept up the glass and he finally did settle down. He knew to tell me twice during our afternoon out that he needed to go to the bathroom. gave me some underwear for him when we at her place on Tuesday and she was the hero today because he got to wear the cool batman underwear. He was so thrilled with them that he wanted to show them off. I love that childish enthusiasm about things. Today, in honour of being such a big boy, we bought new ones for him and he got to pick them out. He picked the kind that pappa doesn’t wear. *laugh* Guess he was afraid I would confuse them if they were the same style.

My fellow is still working. Last night was a political meeting that lasted until after midnight and tonight is overtime. Good thing he has a long weekend coming up, so he can sleep. There is another political meeting Friday night to get through first though. We have received so many cards the past few days. I love mail and all these christmas cards are just so much fun. I think it is time for a cup of tea. The kidlet is having his first non diaper night and it could be a long one. *laugh*