It's beginning to look a lot like ... you know what

We're starting to gear up for Christmas around here, albeit slowly. Whereas the windows in surrounding buildings are all lit up with coloured lights, the most I've managed in terms of decorating so far is hanging up my little red lantern bought at IKEA a couple of years ago. Very soon I shall get around to descending the two sets of stairs down to the basement to fetch the Advent lights. Very soon. At the same time I shall undoubtedly fetch the stuff to make the Advent wreath with the four candles on, one to be lit each Sunday during the time leading up to Christmas. It's all there, I just haven't made the time to go down and get it. Because, you know, it's awfully far, and there might even be some stuff that needs to be moved out of the way first.

BUT I can tell you that this evening I made my second annual [i.e. since it became a tradition last year] English fruitcake, with real dried fruit that was made to soak in liquor since last night. Never mind that we have [as I remarked to EPI earlier] half a Daim cake in the freezer, half a cheesecake in the fridge, and almost a whole layer cake sitting on the kitchen counter. Cakes that nobody seems to show a particular interest in eating. After all, sweet things have an inexplicably long lifetime in this household - my darling stepdaughters have given up bringing us chocolates from the Duty Free when they go abroad because they inevitably find them here, uneaten, months later. The joke around here is that we only eat candy that is past the expiration date. But I digress.

Baking during the lead-up to Christmas is considered a virtue among Icelandic women, even though today they sort of claim to poo-pooh the tradition, as in, "Oh, I can never be bothered to bake cookies before Christmas, that's what bakeries are for," while secretly feeling terribly inadequate that their neighbour has managed to bake two or three varieties. YT has to bake at least one variety before Christmas to feel up to par, namely the sinfully delicious Sara Bernhard cookies [which really counts as two varieties because they're so damn difficult to make]. For those of you who are unacquainted with Sara Bernhards they're comprised of a crunchy base made from egg whites, ground almonds and icing sugar, baked in the oven, a creamy filling made from butter, egg yolks, sugar and cocoa [cholesterol alert!], and topped with melted dark chocolate that can neither be too runny when applied [it will run right off the creamy filling] nor too stiff [it won't apply properly]. This is a seriously tricky operation, believe me, but worth it in the end because these cookies are orgasmic. And I use that adjective with discretion. Actually, make that orgasmic with a capital 'O' [ladies: think 'ovulation'].

OKAY, MOVING RIGHT ALONG
Here is a picture of what our milk cartons look like these days. Look familiar? That's right: it's those crafty old Yule Lads being featured on those cartons, in anticipation of their arrival to town in about a week's time. Yowsa. And it will be time to dig out all of AAH's old letters again to look at. Aw. Meanwhile we've weathered another storm and it's currently raining and mild. Temps 3°C [37F] and sunrise was at 10.52 [no, really] and sunset at 3.42 pm.