Writer: Helena Bergström
Was it really a white Christmas Eve? Well, a thin white powder covered parts of the ground and it was more than expected. We celebrated Christmas Eve with Peter’s son Robin and his wife Alexandra, and we went on the “classic seven tours” at the wonderful Christmas table…
Quiet days before Christmas (well, two interviews…)
Just before Christmas we felt life starting to calm down a little. There’s so much for us to tackle and work with, but fewer meetings and fewer emails still give us more time.
Anyway, we have scheduled two more interviews in the days before Christmas! We were interviewed for a press release (about camper travel) and for a magazine (about houseboats). Nice to talk about things you’re passionate about, we must say!
A castle that we hardly knew existed
Furthermore, daily management, cleaning, cooking and walking were on the agenda. Interestingly enough, one day we happened to walk past a castle that we hardly knew existed, even though it is only a 25 minute walk from where we live.
It may seem strange, but the castle/manor house is just a bit out of sight of the paths we usually walk… However, after some research on our own site, I discovered that we were here during the pandemic, when we were happily exploring the parks of Kungsholmen.
Kristineberg Castle is a castle-like mansion in the Kristineberg district of Kungsholmen, with a main building from the 18th century. Nowadays most buildings seem to function as schools, and there are also parks, playgrounds and sports facilities here. A nice (re)discovery!
Christmas Eve
We celebrated Christmas Eve with Peter’s eldest son Robin and his wife Alexandra. They relatively recently bought and moved into a villa outside the center of Stockholm, and now they were all in for Christmas, with beautiful Christmas decorations, beautiful Christmas tablecloths and two (!) beautiful Christmas trees. We were lucky enough to be invited to this wonderful party, along with most of Robin and Alexandra’s siblings and other parents.
A beautiful Christmas table was set with many delicacies, including homemade mustard and our own pickled lemon herring.
For once, Peter and I attempted to actually collect the food according to the classic “seven turns”, which turned out to be a lot of fun. That way you’ll be reminded to take just a little each time, and instead you’ll have the chance to pick up food several times and enjoy the treat a little at a time…
The seven rides and treats we enjoyed this Christmas:
- Threshhold: According to “the seven journeys” you start with different types of pickled herring, along with potatoes and bread. This delicious table contained both ready-made mustard herring and homemade lemon herring.
- Salmon and other cold fish: Now you can move on to other cold fish and any seafood. On this table we found cold-smoked and hot-smoked salmon, rum sauce, egg halves with rum and delicious small sushi rolls.
- Cold cut meat: Time for ham and charcuterie products! Now it was Christmas ham, different types of tasty mustard. This time we also enjoyed liver pate, air-dried ham and a delicious salad with feta cheese and beetroot.
- A little warm: Only during round four is it time for hot dishes. We picked up Jansson’s temptation, meatballs, prince sausage, Brussels sprouts and beetroot salad. We also brought dates wrapped in bacon, which now go well with it.
- Cheeses: Round number five is about cheese! This year’s Christmas table featured several fantastic cheeses, including several types of cheddar cheese. Oh so good!
- Dessert: A classic Christmas table also includes dessert, and in this case it was served with luss buns as well as other delicious pastries and cakes.
- Christmas candy: The last round includes, according to the classic way of Christmas table eating, Christmas sweets. On the sweet table we found delicious chocolate balls and fine caramels. We ate rice a la Malta, which is usually considered “dessert” a little later in the evening – it simply became an eighth course!
Many thanks to Robin and Alaxandra (and other guests who contributed to the table in various ways!) for this fantastic Christmas table! And above all: thank you for the pleasant evening and the great company!
This week: Thankful for…
This week we are grateful that we can celebrate Christmas together with family and friends and that we can meet most of those close to us during the Christmas holidays. What are you grateful for this week?
Next week
We’ll be hanging out at home on the houseboat for the next week. There will be work and errands, interspersed with rest and meetings with family and friends. Here at FREEDOMtravel.se you can count on reports that focus on the coming new year, and also a little on the past year.
We now wish you a happy continuation of Christmas!
Did you miss last Friday’s blog? Read It leans towards Christmas
#Friday #blog #white #Christmas #Eve #home #Sweden