Movies

Tuesday is 1/2 price movie night here. We have been most weeks, a few exceptions when we have had guests or been away. Some were good, some were not so good.

Top 5 - starting with the best

1. Kickass
2. King's Speech
3. Up
4. The Blind Side
5. Up In The Air tied with Sherlock Holmes

Bottom 5 - starting with the worst

1. Due Data
2. Burlesque
3. Prince of Persia
4. Jonah Hex
5. Eat Pray Love

Here is the list of not great but not bad films we also saw - in our local cinemas with tubs of popcorn and pop:

Clash of the Titans **

Twilight: Eclipse **

Shrek Forever **

The Expendables **

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief ***

Cop Out ***

Alice in Wonderland ***

Iron Man 2 ***

Tooth Fairy ***

Robin Hood ***

The A-team ***

Knight and Day ***

The Last Airbender ***

The Sorcerer's Apprentice ***

Avatar ***

Let me in ***

Red ***

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest ***

Megamind ***

The Warrior's Way ***

The Other Guys ****

Harry Potter an dthe Deathly Hallows part 1 ****

Inception ****

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ****

The Girl Who Played with Fire ****

Inception ****

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World ****

Despicable me ****

It's Complicated ****

Leftovers

We have eaten ham sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, cured salmon sandwiches (my favorite). I have made turkey and stuffing pie, perky turkey and turkey mulligatawny soup. JD made lentil soup with the ham liquid. We have 6 bags of duck and chicken meat in the freezer. This Christmas will feed us through March I suspect.

Dinner for 2

Today we had Swedish Christmas and very nice it was too. Lots of lovely food, home made snaps (vodka scented with cardamom and clementine peel) and some American Christmas beer.

Tomorrow we brace ourselves for a non Swedish Christmas. Its not really British either as the turkey has been replaced with Turducken. A turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken. Yup. American idea. We ordered one last week and picked it up yesterday. It weights 20 lb, 10kg. There is two of us.

Inspired

EL got me all inspired. I made saffron buns that are not great as I seem to have inherited my grandmothers knack for making dry buns. But JD are munching away and my team were very happy to receive a bag each and even said they like them.

Am now making ginger snaps using a mix of an old recipe and a little bit of Amarula. Dough will rest over night and tomorrow I shall stroll to Target and get some cookie cutter shapes (JD wants a ginger man) as we only own wee heart shapes. Report out to follow.

Crash bang

2.45 AM - tree down! So we spent 45 min picking up glass shards, salvaging baubles and generally tidying up. Tonight its back up. Looking straighter today.

The ruby red slipper photographed below didn't make it. Smithsonian will have to be visited again.

Quick note

Pamela should have won. But at least Matt didn't win.

Exited not to be travelling

While I miss family and friends I must admit its lovely to not be at Heathrow with lots of bags or in an airplane with cranky parents and tired kids. And its lovely to be done with all Christmas shopping by early December as it had to be sent rather than hand delivered.

Food is planned and some of it purchased. Tree has been moved indoors and been decorated. Its lovely. The 4th Advent candle lit and just a few more days to go!

Christmas is saved!

Proper food ordered to make sure we get a real Christmas. As I dont like the Christmas ham its going. And meatballs we are making ourselves along with Jansson and Gravlax.

Item # Name Qty Price

KM200 Liverpate - Leverpastej - Danish style-Homemade 1 $7.65

HE712 Anchovy Whole, Grebbestad/ABBA 1 $6.95

KM126 Wienerkorv - Swedish style 1 $15.90

VE311 Cucumber Salad, DANU 1 $4.95

CC803 Salmiac Coins, Nordic Sweets 1 $3.95

HE150 Matjes Herring Fillets, Gaffelbitar, Skansen 1 $4.50

CV140 Lumpfish Caviar Red, Royal Sweden 1 $8.50

CC700 Milk Chocolate, Marabou 1 $3.95

CC745 Tyrkisk Peber-Extra Hot, Fazer 1 $6.75

Its cold outside

Our wee tree is outside in the cold, it will come in tomorrow. JD gave me two new baubles to hang in the branches - Love Iittala!

Silent night

JD in bed, he and his bro went all out last night with a drink fest starting at 3PM and finishing at midnight. Bro and girl flew home today so tonight its just me and the washing machine awake. Lovely. Guest bed packed away. Strictly caught up with. Life generally good. Apart from me thinking its Friday and its just Tuesday. Booo three more days of work to get through. My motivation level is low. If you take one apple and add one apple on top of that and then one apple on top of that - that is how low my motivation is. Blue in more ways than one.