Trumped by a Possum

(The road to Mora. We travelled this road a couple of weeks ago and will be embarking once again on a journey there tomorrow! The Tjejvasa takes place on Saturday. Gulp.)

You may or may not remember how or when this whole song and dance got started. And by song and dance I mean this blog and my sometimes crazy stories. This particular story that I am about to tell has roots in my very first post when my husband and I had embarked on a friendly game of competition. 

Fast forward (or rewind) to this past Friday morning, which was February 14th. The alarm went off earlier than usual. Or so it seemed. My husband was covered in pillows and blankets and a soft snore could be heard as I quietly made my way out of bed to go make coffee, feed the cat, & prepare a special Valentine breakfast in bed.  Being the hopeless romantic that I am, I was planning to use a cookie cutter to cut heart shapes into a couple of cardamom bullar (buns) I'd picked up. I had hoped to find something already heart-shaped but this would have to do. I can't help it. I just love hearts. 

Cat fed, coffee brewed, and heart bullar ready, I headed up to surprise my Valentine. I tip-toed quietly into the dark bedroom, careful not to jolt him awake, and whispered "Happy Valentines's Day" to the pillow and blanket covered bed lump. He had been out with some work colleagues the night before so I knew he was extra tired. Ha. Suddenly he jumped up and spun around to face me and with the most joyous expression you can imagine, he exclaimed, “Fipin!" He was playing possum. 

What??! I was completely and utterly stunned. I just stood there with the tray in my hands staring at him. Was it true? Yes, I had a vague recollection of our game way back around the Christmas holidays when we set the date for Valentine’s day at 7:00 a.m. (But didn't you mean the year 2015??!!) If you don’t remember, Filipin is a game played when you eat hazelnuts, whole in the shell hazelnuts that you must crack open to eat. The game occurs when you open a shell and discover two hazelnuts inside of one shell. A rare find, but completely possible. You then choose a player and the two of you set a date and time in the future, could be near, could be far, and the first person to say “filipin” after that date and time wins. 

Being so focused on this upcoming cross-country ski event and all of the training and stresses it entails, I was obviously off of my game. I have won most of our past games but perhaps this will begin a new trend. I can honestly say however, that seeing his face so bright and cheery and happy made it worth losing. (No, I’m not a sore loser. What makes you think that? :-p) 

Ps. God-willing, I will complete the Tjejklassik this Saturday when I (hopefully) reach the Tjejvasa finish. More on that later ;-). 

Day 356: Hazelnuts

For those of you who've followed along since the beginning, the story I'm about to tell will ring a bell. As you know it's Christmas time and all of the fun little things we do at this time of year are in full force. Things like making, baking, and eating gingerbread cookies, decorating oranges with whole cloves and red ribbons, and having a beautiful red wooden bowl full of whole hazelnuts to eat while sitting in front of the Christmas tree or watching TV. Have you guessed where I'm going with this yet? I suppose I'm not being completely obvious so I'll give you a small hint. What do you get when you crack open a hazelnut and discover not one but two whole nuts inside the single shell? That my friends is called a filipin.

Well, just a few days ago we were sitting on the couch. Carl was cracking hazelnuts open faster than we could eat them and them suddenly he said, "Oh! Look here what I have!" He had a filipin! So we set a date and time and kept chomping down nuts. I tried my hardest to ingrain the time in my head, as part of the rules of the game are that you must remember the date and time without writing it down. This makes it more challenging and especially when you are getting up there in years and can't remember things so well any more (me). So just to refresh your memory, once you've set a date and time, when that date and time roll around, the first person to say, "filipin" wins that game.

Today was the day but I could not for the life of me remember the time. I thought it was nine a.m. but I wasn't sure. So I waited until lunch time and I called my husband. As soon as he answered I simply said, "filipin!" And he said, "Nope, not now, you just forfeited that one." Darn. Really? I asked if he was sure and he said yes but after some discussion we realized the time I thought was actually correct, but he thought it was p.m. and I thought it was a.m. So in the end we called it a draw. We have another game in play right now and I definitely remember the time and date for this one. So look out Mr. Ekstrom, I'm coming to whisper "filipin' in your ear very soon!