Monthly Archives: December 2023

Merry Christmas 2023 🎄

It was a great Christmas Eve. It was the first time that Christmas Eve was held at my place. Of course, my mom helped me because she had to make the gravy. My mom also brought the risalamande. I was very worried about the Danish caramelized potatoes, but my trial-and-error efforts worked, and they tasted good. The only thing that went awry was that I had underestimated how long it would take me to peel 2 kg potatoes. It delayed the meal by an hour, but we talked and had a good time while the potatoes were in the oven. The duck was tasteful, and we enjoyed our meal. We were only three people, so it was a relaxed and quiet evening, which I hope we can do again next year.

My mom is coming tomorrow, and we’ll eat leftovers and exchange Christmas presents. She is the only one I buy Christmas presents for, and we don’t want to exchange Christmas presents in front of other people. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, and the leftovers suit me well. Other than that, I don’t have any plans before New Year’s Eve, so it’ll be some wonderful Christmas days with many good holiday movies, which is how I prefer.

I hope everybody has had a wonderful Christmas Eve and that the holidays are as you want them. Enjoy this nice time with family and/or friends.

Merry Christmas, everybody.

Decorated Christmas tree

One work week left ❄️

There’s only one work week left, and I’m looking forward to having the Christmas days off. It’ll be the first time that I’m cooking Christmas dinner. Even though we’re only going to be three people, it is new to me, and I want it to be perfect. Well, maybe not perfect, but the dinner has to taste great, and that’s not easy to guarantee; it is impossible to taste the duck beforehand. I’m worried about the Danish caramelized potatoes. I want to bake them in the oven, which I tested a couple of times but was unsuccessful. I will try again this week, and it has to end up with a good recipe; that’s a lot of pressure.

I’ve decorated the house like I want, and the dessert is also taken care of because my mom is bringing it. She loves risalamande, so she is making it. I don’t like it.

My Christmas jigsaw puzzle is almost finished, and I expect it to be finished before my last work day before Christmas.

Partly assembled Christmas jigsaw puzzle

Christmas jigsaw puzzle 🧩

I am trying something new this year. In the past years, I’ve used an advent calendar to count down to Christmas, and I enjoy the process. This year, I saw a commercial for a Christmas jigsaw puzzle where you get a certain number of pieces to place each day. That, I thought, would be a welcome new tradition. When I was younger, I loved puzzles, but when I started getting migraines, I stopped assembling jigsaw puzzles. I got migraines from bending forward and looking down at the jigsaw puzzle, so I had to take a lot of breaks, which prolonged the time I spent finishing the jigsaw puzzle, and I gave up on it.

I didn’t like the price tag on the Christmas jigsaw puzzle, so I figured I would buy another one and finish that instead. To my surprise, I found the same jigsaw puzzle for a third of the Christmas jigsaw puzzle price; I just had to divide the jigsaw puzzle myself. I bought it and have started assembling it. I don’t pay much attention to how many pieces I place daily; I just want to finish before Christmas Eve. I prefer finishing it on my last work day before Christmas.

Christmas jigsaw puzzle box

Christmas decorations 2023 🎄

It has become my tradition to buy a new item for my Christmas decorations each year. This year, I discarded the Christmas decorations I hadn’t used in the last five years. It was a hard decision, but some of the Christmas decorations were given to me, and I didn’t like them, so I got tired of having them lying around taking up space. Some of the decorations are broken, so this year, I decided to throw them out also.

Of course, I have also bought some new decorations. I bought some for the windows, which looked disappointing when I received them. They looked childish, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to put them up. I did put them up, and they look beautiful. I was very surprised and happy. They look like Christmas baubles hanging in the windows. You can see a photo of them down below.

A couple of years ago, I bought stickers for a wall in one of the rooms in my house. I was very happy with the result. This year, I bought some Christmas stickers for the wall in the family room. I was tired of the bare wall, and I wanted to decorate it this year. I loved the result; you can see the picture below.

Christmas stickers on windows
Christmas stickers on the wall