Family Christmas photo, 2020 style

Christmas Eve is actually the "main event" in Sweden.  So my two daughters and their families got together for an adapted take on the traditional Swedish celebration - R told me that she was only presenting one pickled herring dish, rather than at least 3 different types.  But it was mainly done as a buffet, or smörgåsbord.  

Another break with tradition was that according to this website, Father Christmas doesn't visit until after the meal.  Whereas R video messaged me at about 12 noon (their time) to share in the opening of some presents - there was no way Robin was waiting any longer.

We enjoyed watching them open presents, and play with one of the toys I sent.  Getting them to pose for a photo was a little more difficult!  It is difficult to imagine how much less satisfactory this sort of distanced Christmas would have been without video messaging and Zoom.

R and Z are separately hosting friends for a more British traditional Christmas celebration tomorrow, and hopefully joining us at least briefly for a large family Zoom in the afternoon.

We then returned to more mundane life.  W spent some time building shelves in the workshop, and I made a mask to a new design recommended by Unique and Lovely, which W found was definitely better for him when wearing glasses.  I will make a couple of adaptations to the pattern and make some more.   

It's been raining pretty torrentially here over the last couple of days - our local Facebook groups are full of photos of flooded roads - the River Tas has burst its banks, and of course, so much housing recently has been built on what were traditionally the water meadows.  It's forecast to be better weather tomorrow, so we shall try to get out for a walk ourselves in the morning.