the holidays continue
Dec. 29th, 2024 08:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaWe had a delightful Julafton (christmas eve), which is the day that they holiday is celebrated in Sweden. Six of us gathered at Þórólfr's house for food and games. Keldor and I were the first to arrive, and then K's bus arrived, so we four played Cards Against Humanity. K isn't as confident with English as the rest of us, so we read every question in English, and translated it to Swedish before people chose their answer cards. The game was reasonably close, but often when it was Keldor's turn I happened to have a card that I KNEW he'd pick (and which I wouldn't have used for anyone else), and he did, and so I wound up winning. Pernilla and Tobias arrived soon after the game ended, and we set out the food. I had brought cream to go with the fruit salad, and had thought a few times during the week that I should ask Þórólfr if he has an electric mixer or if I should bring one, but I always thought of it when busy doing something that made it impossible to ask just then, so I didn't. I should have, as he doesn't. He has a plastic hand-whisk, but it wasn't making a difference, so eventually Keldor got out Þórólfr's electric drill, attached a bunch of twist-ties together, and used that. It worked, but was way, way messier than using an electric mixer, but the payoff in laughter may have been worth it.
After eating we had a gift exchange game. They had suggested that everyone take one gift wrapped package, and that it shouldn't cost much. Keldor's mom used to love buying things to give away later, and there is still much at his dad's house that is in its original packaging that his dad don't want. So instead of buying anything we went looking a few days before hand, to see what could be found that someone might enjoy getting in a gift exchange. We found two ornate little pewter boxes, one looking like a butterfly, the other more flora, both with magnet locking. We found a few hand-blown glass pendants that could be necklaces, tree ornaments, or something colourful to hang in a window, and a little stack of bowls a good size for serving sauce, but with images of olives, and text that says "olives" on them. We also found a blender that had never been used.
Keldor wondered if we should give away the blender, or if we should keep it, as we have no blender. He also wondered if it even works. So on the way home from the gift hunting quest we stopped at the store and bought some milk and cream and then tested the blender by making eggnog. Yes, it works. Do we have room in the cupboard? Yes, we do. Ok, we just keep it. Around then Keldor saw a cartoon wherein a teenager was excited to open a large package and discover an air guitar, and his little brother said "Can I have your old one?", and Keldor decided that we also needed to gift wrap an air guitar. but... We have no box an appropriate size for an air guitar. Keldor suggested that it be an inflatable air guitar. Then I looked at the blender box, and realized it was about the right size for an Air Ukulele. The box was also plain white, with no markings of any kind. Perfect!
So we made a one page set of instructions, in Swedish, for an ACME Air Ukulele, and printed two signs that say simply "ACME Air Ukulele", taped one to the top of the box, one to the side of the box, and put the instructions in the box with the Air Ukulele, and accompanying air pick (which gets mentioned in the instructions, as do the air strings, and air tuning pegs...). Then we wrapped up all nine packages and put them in a bag. The others brought one each, so the pile was 13 packages for 6 people, one of which was a pair of hand-sewn mittens that Pernilla was still working on, so she just rolled the project in progress in a ball and tied it with a string, resulting in just a red cloth bundle.
The gift game was a dice game. Everyone took turns (starting with the youngest) rolling a six-sided dice. If you get a 1 or a 6 you can either choose a wrapped gift from the pile, or steal one from someone else. Needless to say, the biggest box (which only Keldor and I knew was an ACME Air Ukulele), was a popular one to get stolen and moved around a lot, but so did the other packages, even the unfinished mittens. When the timer went off, around 8 minutes after the game started, we went to phase two: the dice was rolled, and then everyone stood up, and walked around the table the number of seats shown by the dice (so only if a six had been rolled would we have kept the pile of gifts that we had gathered during phase one). The movement number was 5, so around the table we marched to our new pile of prezies. Then it was time for phase three: If you roll a 1 or a 6 you can either unwrap one of your own gifts, or trade one of your unwrapped gifts with someone else's gifts (the one you grab could be either unwrapped or wrapped). One of the first gifts opened was the ACME Air Ukulele, and everyone, including Tobias, who unwrapped it, laughed very hard as Keldor read the instructions aloud. However, on his next turn, Tobias traded his ACME Air Ukulele for one of Keldor's gifts, and no one else took that box again. I think Kim won the day, as her loot included the cute little black plushie dragon and a nice hardbound book of fantasy stories (which I didn't try to steal as we already have a copy). Þórólfr stole the butterfly box (which is actually very pretty), as he thought his daughter might like it. I wound up with the woodburning set (that Keldor was interested in), and the people who got the glass pendants seemed to admire them. Keldor took home the olive dishes, which I don't want as really don't like olives, but I have a friend who loves them, so we may pass them on to him when next we meet.
After the gift exchange we hung out talking for a while longer, and then everyone who had taken the bus over decided that they would take the bus home, so Keldor, Þórólfr and I played a couple of games of Settlers of Catan till just after midnight, at which point we walked over to Keldor's dad's house to sleep. The next day were still feeling tired, so while we could have joined friends for a second holiday gathering, instead we just took the cats home and had a lazy day.
The following day (Friday) our friend Daniel arrived for a visit. He brought with him the card game Unstable Unicorns so we played that. Keldor especially enjoyed it. Saturday we went to Norrsken, the local gaming convention to be part of the SCA demo there. Keldor put on the shire chain mail and we challenged the visitors to guess the weight of the mail, with the first prize being free entry to our 30th Anniversary event this spring. The guesses are mostly too high so far, but they range between 5 and 40 kg (for a ~10 kg mail coat). We also did a fashion show, so I wore my bliaut and bard's cloak, and got many compliments.
Now Keldor is awake, so it is time to head back for day 2 of the demo.
After eating we had a gift exchange game. They had suggested that everyone take one gift wrapped package, and that it shouldn't cost much. Keldor's mom used to love buying things to give away later, and there is still much at his dad's house that is in its original packaging that his dad don't want. So instead of buying anything we went looking a few days before hand, to see what could be found that someone might enjoy getting in a gift exchange. We found two ornate little pewter boxes, one looking like a butterfly, the other more flora, both with magnet locking. We found a few hand-blown glass pendants that could be necklaces, tree ornaments, or something colourful to hang in a window, and a little stack of bowls a good size for serving sauce, but with images of olives, and text that says "olives" on them. We also found a blender that had never been used.
Keldor wondered if we should give away the blender, or if we should keep it, as we have no blender. He also wondered if it even works. So on the way home from the gift hunting quest we stopped at the store and bought some milk and cream and then tested the blender by making eggnog. Yes, it works. Do we have room in the cupboard? Yes, we do. Ok, we just keep it. Around then Keldor saw a cartoon wherein a teenager was excited to open a large package and discover an air guitar, and his little brother said "Can I have your old one?", and Keldor decided that we also needed to gift wrap an air guitar. but... We have no box an appropriate size for an air guitar. Keldor suggested that it be an inflatable air guitar. Then I looked at the blender box, and realized it was about the right size for an Air Ukulele. The box was also plain white, with no markings of any kind. Perfect!
So we made a one page set of instructions, in Swedish, for an ACME Air Ukulele, and printed two signs that say simply "ACME Air Ukulele", taped one to the top of the box, one to the side of the box, and put the instructions in the box with the Air Ukulele, and accompanying air pick (which gets mentioned in the instructions, as do the air strings, and air tuning pegs...). Then we wrapped up all nine packages and put them in a bag. The others brought one each, so the pile was 13 packages for 6 people, one of which was a pair of hand-sewn mittens that Pernilla was still working on, so she just rolled the project in progress in a ball and tied it with a string, resulting in just a red cloth bundle.
The gift game was a dice game. Everyone took turns (starting with the youngest) rolling a six-sided dice. If you get a 1 or a 6 you can either choose a wrapped gift from the pile, or steal one from someone else. Needless to say, the biggest box (which only Keldor and I knew was an ACME Air Ukulele), was a popular one to get stolen and moved around a lot, but so did the other packages, even the unfinished mittens. When the timer went off, around 8 minutes after the game started, we went to phase two: the dice was rolled, and then everyone stood up, and walked around the table the number of seats shown by the dice (so only if a six had been rolled would we have kept the pile of gifts that we had gathered during phase one). The movement number was 5, so around the table we marched to our new pile of prezies. Then it was time for phase three: If you roll a 1 or a 6 you can either unwrap one of your own gifts, or trade one of your unwrapped gifts with someone else's gifts (the one you grab could be either unwrapped or wrapped). One of the first gifts opened was the ACME Air Ukulele, and everyone, including Tobias, who unwrapped it, laughed very hard as Keldor read the instructions aloud. However, on his next turn, Tobias traded his ACME Air Ukulele for one of Keldor's gifts, and no one else took that box again. I think Kim won the day, as her loot included the cute little black plushie dragon and a nice hardbound book of fantasy stories (which I didn't try to steal as we already have a copy). Þórólfr stole the butterfly box (which is actually very pretty), as he thought his daughter might like it. I wound up with the woodburning set (that Keldor was interested in), and the people who got the glass pendants seemed to admire them. Keldor took home the olive dishes, which I don't want as really don't like olives, but I have a friend who loves them, so we may pass them on to him when next we meet.
After the gift exchange we hung out talking for a while longer, and then everyone who had taken the bus over decided that they would take the bus home, so Keldor, Þórólfr and I played a couple of games of Settlers of Catan till just after midnight, at which point we walked over to Keldor's dad's house to sleep. The next day were still feeling tired, so while we could have joined friends for a second holiday gathering, instead we just took the cats home and had a lazy day.
The following day (Friday) our friend Daniel arrived for a visit. He brought with him the card game Unstable Unicorns so we played that. Keldor especially enjoyed it. Saturday we went to Norrsken, the local gaming convention to be part of the SCA demo there. Keldor put on the shire chain mail and we challenged the visitors to guess the weight of the mail, with the first prize being free entry to our 30th Anniversary event this spring. The guesses are mostly too high so far, but they range between 5 and 40 kg (for a ~10 kg mail coat). We also did a fashion show, so I wore my bliaut and bard's cloak, and got many compliments.
Now Keldor is awake, so it is time to head back for day 2 of the demo.