Poul Ströyer - Kalle Kæk

In my mom's bookshelf with children's books is this really nice book by Danish-Swedish Poul Ströyer from 1960. "Sket er Sket" is about a little boy, Kalle Kæk, who exchanges his little dog for a cat for a lollipop for an anchor for a crown for an excavator for... and ends up with his little dog again at the end of the day. "Done is done" is the motto. I remember the book from my childhood, and I love reading it for Frida Viola.

Here is another book with nice illustrations by Poul Ströyer that is on my wishlist.

Christmas Days

Some photos from the last couple of days at my mom's place. The girls have been happy, excited - and tired. Hope you all had some good and peaceful days.

Merry Christmas!

Finally at my mom's place - just before the blizzard set in.
It has been snowing all day, and we have stayed inside. Above is my mom's homemade marzipan for Frida Viola: little balls with blueberries and pink and yellow marzipan coloured with beetroot and turmeric.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

my home today

1. A moon to Molly to go with the cloud.
2.+3. My birthday present - ohh, I am looking so much forward!
4. My mom's felted and embroidered acorns.
5. Soft baubles - good for curious little fingers that tampers with the tree!

the tree

Filled with memories and stories.

Rise & Shine

Nothing is better than a baby who wakes up with a smile. Below is what I was doing while she was sleeping.

a nice day

It was my birthday today, and it was such a nice day. A and FV woke me up in the morning with barley porridge, kisses and birthday song. And in the afternoon sweet friends came over. I know it's cheating but we took the tree in yesterday evening and lit it this afternoon. This year we just have a tiny tree since we are going to celebrate Christmas at my mom's place. It's such a cute little tree and it's totally overdecorated.

cosy & chaos

It seems as if at least one of us is ill at any given time (first Molly, then Frida Viola, then Molly and now Frida Viola again, and in between A and I). We try to think about Christmas and make it cosy around here but actually everything is quite chaotic because at the same time as we are baking cookies we have also decided to start up finishing the renovation of the apartment. We have boxes everywhere and the other night a sudden impulse made us reorganize the whole living room.

Lucia Day

Maybe you remember our tradition with Lucia gingerbread from last year...? My mom started it when my sister and I were kids, and last year I decided to follow up. This year's Lucia bride was well received by Frida Viola when we came home from the procession in kindergarten. She has been wearing the little white Lucia dress all day, and actually was so exiced about the procession that she had to rest half an hour on the sofa before it all began!

This is how you make your own Lucia gingerbread - following my mom's old recipe:

3/4 dl molasses
50 g butter
1 1/4 dl dark brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ammonium bicarbonate
1 egg
5 dl wholegrain flour, e.g. spelt

Mix flour and spices, add butter, brown sugar, molasses and egg. Roll out the dough and let the kids punch out the figures. For the Lucia bride use a knife. Bake at 170°C for 6-10 minutes. Let the cakes rest a little before decorating them. Frida Viola is helping with the dough - but I am still doing the decoration because the frosting is too hard for her to handle. Have fun!

december weekend

Such a nice weekend with snow, snow and snow and many little Christmas projects.

1. Gingerbread - my mom's old recipe.
2. The hyacinth from the other day.
3. Lucia breads - I made them with wholegrain flour so the beautiful colour from the saffron didn't really come into its own.
4. Frida Viola is drawing, drawing, drawing.
5. Little rattle I made for Molly's Christmas stocking.
6. Frida Viola and A made this nice snowmamma in the courtyard :)

Hanna Konola's Joulukalenteri

Hanna Konola's Christmas calendar - always such a pleasure!