We are all still madly in love with being home in a warm, cosy apartment. Poor Lambi can't believe her luck and is a bit unsettled as she readjusts to new noises and old routines. She went completely bananas when the workmen came in around 7a.m. this morning, putting paid to any notion we may have had about a few more precious minutes of sleep. And the birds are happily flying around the apartment and stretching their wings after 5 months of being continually in their cage on the boat. And we are enjoying waking up in our own bed and luxuriating in our new bathroom.

Of course, there are one or two thorns among the petals. We have a couple of minor things we'd like fixed in the bathroom - a little of the grouting is a bit suss and I was utterly intrigued by the positioning of the heated towel rack. If you study the picture, you can see that the rail is set at quite a high level and stuck in a corner above the toilet cistern. Now, I'm not really short (165cm if you must know - that's 5ft 6in to those who don't do metric), but you need to have Lars-Göran's gibbon length arms to reach the upper level and if you hang a towel on the lower level, it drapes along the cistern.

Obviously a man designed this!

Apart from that, we have discovered that our router doesn't work anymore, we have lost the internal computer network somehow, internet only functions on one of our computers (even if we connect only via the modem) and my mobile phone went belly up yesterday morning. All of this stuff hasn't even been used in months, so how can they not function? I hope it's not going to be like Maximum Overdrive, where all the appliances and machines run amok and attack everyone. So I need to hunt up a new mobile phone urgently and we need to sort out the hardware and software problems we have. I guess my long suffering stepson (and computer expert) will be invited over for dinner very soon. *grin*

The weather has been unseasonably warm for the time of year, even though the daylight hours are getting shorter and shorter. Today sunrise was at 8:38 a.m. with sunset due at 2:46 p.m., but the sun is shining and it is +6C. I'm sorry to those who are waiting for the "winter wonderland" photos - there is absolutely no snow at the moment and none forecast in the near future.

We took advantage of the sunshine yesterday to pop into Stockholm to pick up a few things and to stroll around in the late afternoon. We started off at a computer shop in Sveavägen, with Lars-Göran leading me through a maze of backstreets to avoid the crowds. I would normally avoid the shopping districts on a weekend during the silly season, but yesterday was really relaxing and enjoyable. We wove our way across town to Gallerian to pick up a few more things on our list, wandering along the cheerfully lit up Drottninggatan, admiring the shop front windows, popping in to browse through some more interesting shops, listening to the carols and smelling the unmistakable scent of Christmas in Sweden.



We then crossed over to Nordiska Kompaniet (or NK), Stockholm's grand old department store on Hamngatan, where the windows are decorated for Christmas with amazing animated displays (much like the Myer shops in Australia). Unlike last year when we went late at night and practically had the place to ourselves, the family groups were out in force and while it restricted our photo opportunities, I loved watching the joy and wonder on the children's faces.

We did sneak a few shots of some of the windows. The first one was of a troll in his forest cave.



I couldn't get close enough to the text to see what it was supposed to be all about. I was a little confused as I'm pretty sure that my kids would have been terrified by this scene and the larger than life troll. I was hoping that the other windows were less scary and fortunately they were.

The next window featured a scene from the Tomte's barn.



The animals were all really happy and the little Christmas gnome (tomte) was bustling around feeding them. It is fascinating to look at all of the detail in each scene and the children around us were enchanted.

We then moved on to what must be a perennial favourite among children all over the world - Santa's workshop.



Things were in full swing here, with busy little gnomes getting ready for Christmas Eve. Again the detail is incredible and it was charming to hear the children calling out things like "Look mummy! A teddy bear" I joined in with a "Look at those cute poodles, daddy!" to Lars-Göran, causing one older woman to look at me as though I was a lunatic. But take a look on the second to top shelf on the right hand side of the picture. Pink poodles! Gosh, I hope tomte brings me one of those. At this stage, Lars-Göran was hoping for a large hole to open up in Hamngatan and swallow me up. Still, there's no harm in expressing a wish, is there?

More Christmas magic at the next window - waiting for tomte.



Here, a typical Swedish Christmas eve indoor scene is depicted. You have mum setting up the Christmas table (julbord), the children and pets (is that a black poodle I see?) at the window anxiously waiting for tomte to come. And poor dad is outside, dressed as tomte filling up his bag with goodies. If he is anything like my brother-in-law he is also doing last minute wrapping as well!

We couldn't get a clear shot of the next window, with a child sleeping and wishing of Christmas. However, we did capture a little of the last one, which was the gnomes relaxing on a summer's day.



I liked this one best of all! It showed a typical Swedish summer scene - leafy trees, light, sunshine, birds in the trees and a barefoot picnic in the woods. Somehow you always associate the gnomes with frantic Christmas activity in a busy workshop, so it was great to see them having a summer vacation, relaxing and enjoying life.

We then strolled along to nearby Kungsträdgården. This is the most centrally located park in Stockholm and a metting place for many people, especially in summer when the outdoor cafés are open. Today, however we were greeted by skaters. Every winter an outdoor ice rink is set up here and people hire skates and go for a turn or two across the ice. What a great scene - right in the heart of town.



I should also point out that this picture was not taken in the middle of the night, but at around 4p.m. - dark, isn't it? We were also curious to take a look at the Christmas Market set up there. We were greeted by the beautiful aroma of warm glögg, hot toffeed almonds, cinnamon, cloves and gingerbread. There was an aisle of small shops selling traditional decorations (including the hand-made wreaths I love), other stalls selling reindeer meat, smoked fish, delicacies from Jämtland, cheeses, mustards and glögg. One stall had stunning delicate hand-blown and painted glass ornaments in a rainbow of colours that were so tempting. There were also stalls selling warm winter jumpers, scarves, gloves etc and a couple of those cheap and somewhat vulgar Asian crap stalls that seem to be springing up in increasing numbers.



There were a lot of people there, but as we noted by the loud American accents surrounding us, most were foreigners visiting the city. Still, we enjoyed the smells of Christmas goodies and wandering around munching on a saffron bun.

We walked back to the train station along Strömmen, admiring the old architecture of this historic area. When we passed the opera house, I saw that the ballet Nutcracker was on again for Christmas.



I love this ballet! The Nutcracker has become a winter tradition at Stockholm's Royal Opera House over the last ten years or so. This performance combines the magic world and beautiful music of Tchaikovsky's classic ballet with the popular Swedish children's story of Petter and Lotta's Christmas Story, by Elsa Beskow.

The main characters are two orphans who live with three old women in the forest and who are enjoying Christmas Eve before being brought into the original ballet's world, meeting the King of the Rats. It really is a must-see for all lovers of ballet and classical music.

Hmm... I wonder if poodles are allowed into Operan?