Sunday 12 December 2010

Little H is under the weather

The time before Christmas is a time for the common cold, a flu or swine flu if you’re really unlucky. The Castro- Nyhus family is in overall good health, but we cannot totally escape all bugs and viruses. It started with me getting the sniffles and Little H soon followed, Pappa Kas has so far been spared, despite snot and coughs all around.
The timing of Little H getting a cold could have been worse. It coincided with a very decent drop in temperature, taking us down to below 15 Celsius. Such low temperatures are unusual for us in the south-east this early in the winter, so even for us hard-core Norwegians it has been freezing.

It is recommended not to take babies outside when it is colder than minus ten Celcius, so we have more or less been forced to live in exile, not only due to our colds but also due to the “extreme” temperatures (as the tabloids describes it ) outside.

Good for Lady B and Little H you might think. I was thinking the same. Now I would get the chance to make home-made labels for the Christmas presents, polish cutlery, sew pillow cases, make Christmas cookies and most importantly - update the blog every day. Of course this has not happened, but I am proud to say that I am on top of the ironing and have swapped the white candles we have in the living room for red ones. Christmas can come!

I am happy to write that Little H is much better than at the beginning of the week. She no longer wakes up by her own chesty cough. She no longer starts crying in panic when she can’t breathe due to stuffed nose and throat. Her eyes are not running and she is more or less back to her happy self. While she was under the weather Little H only wanted to be close to me or Pappa Kas whether she was asleep or awake, being carried around while sung for, being cradles in our and…- you get it. So I have had no chance to sneak away and polish that cutlery. There’s always an excuse.


Nissejente


Friday 3 December 2010

It’s that time of (the) year again…

We’re speeding into the run-up to Christmas and as usual I am behind plan. It is needless to say that home-made presents, seven types of traditional Norwegian Christmas cookies, Little H’s home-made Christmas outfits, yes outfits: Santa, reindeer, gingerbread cookie and so on, are still on the drawing board when we have three weeks left to go. It’s never gonna happen.
BUT I have not given up; I’ve just come to my senses and am going low-key this year.
It is time to put my feet up, make some mulled wine, spiked with vodka of course, and snap the heads of some gingermen cookies, while looking into the fire and listening to Bing's "White Christmas". This time of year is all about being cheezy and I cannot help it, but I want "Last Christmas" with WHAM as ringtone on my phone. That way I can fine-tune the moves in time for this years Christmas Night out at Picasso's.



Little H is too small to get involved in the festive fuzz so I am in the clear for all the work which comes with having kids in schools and nurseries - for now. I am thinking cake sales, making costumes for the nativity play and so on. I cannot wait…
Don’t get me wrong. I love Christmas, the shopping, the decorations, the eating and drinking which comes with all the get-togethers with friends and family. I am longing for to the smell of pine, oranges cloves and cinnamon. But I feel that I am already running late, which takes away some of the pleasure of it all.
The new plan could be to start preparing next year’s Christmas in March, because then I might be able to make half of the things I would want to by December 2011, but then again I will probably be sick of all things remotely Christmassy by mid-summer. It's not ideal.
So what’s the plan for the weekend? Making Christmas decorations, knitting on little H’s Santa Hat, have Christmas porridge for dinner when Pappa Kas is on his Christmas Night out with work, attending a pre-Christmas get together dinner, going to turkey tasting at Granny B and Grandad G’s and sort the boxes of decorations that have been taken down from the attic and hopefully buy some presents.

Who said low-key?!?

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