I'm dreaming of Swedish meatballs

What a hectic Christmas Eve.

It started early at the Laundromat, then segued into the grocery store for some last minute items: sour cream for the lemon cake; spices for the red cabbage; and cream for the Swedish meatballs.

In honor of Steig Larsson, we are having a Nordic family Christmas Eve. We got inspired watching the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last night and downloaded recipes from Canadian Living. It's going to be awesome!

Today, we'll watch the rest of the series, both Fire and Hornet's Nest, and try to think of ourselves as Svedish and don comfy sweaters.

Herna herna herna.

Maybe we'll end the day with Abba.

It's a great way to clear a room.

Toute la gang will be showing up in the late afternoon.

Shyla, the teletubby will be here in all her pregnant glory. Nick will wake up around 9 p.m. shaking the sleep off from his overnight shift at the Big Box store. Stef will probably appear a couple hours after his wait shift pretty well lit, after sharing some pops with the bossarooni. And Jeff and Marissa will round out the crew somewhere in between.

Oh yes, and Roger has come back from the dead, so he'll be here, too, with his one beer.

It's so nice to have all the family in the same city. We don't have to worry about kids driving on treacherous roads, but for a few blocks.

Very different from my own early life when Christmas meant careening down the 401, waiting for the tow truck in the ditch or white-knuckling it through ice and sleet and snow, only to arrive in St. Catharines exhausted and gassy from too much Tim Horton's.

I haven't been back home for years.

All the elders from St. Kitts are long gone and most of my friends have long departed Car Town Niagara.

Nobody left to run with any more, as the Allmand Brothers once wailed.

Scott's parent are both gone, too. We both lost our parents in our 30s.

We both became elders well before our time.

But that's the way life is.

A box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get.

I'm grateful today for a life, so far, well lived and for the love that envelopes me like a warm blanket on days like this.

And I want to send out my very best wishes to the people I love and to friends I have yet to meet.

Be well. Hold your loved ones close.

And for those who have had a hard 2011, don't despair.

Number twelve is just around the bend.




Happy holidays!