SwedeLife USA

So thanks to the amazing Swedish parental leave policy, I am going on a road trip. We flew from Copenhagen to St. Louis Missouri yesterday to begin a three month long trip in the USA. We are starting in Ironton, Missouri where I have not been in 16 years, visiting my aunt, cousins, and grandma for the huge Thanksgiving celebration my aunt hosts every year for my mother's brothers and sisters and their children. Then we are off on a road trip for a month, and then we are spending two months- the longest, darkest coldest months of Sweden, in Florida. We will enjoy some time in water front homes courtesy of home exchanges, and a nice long stay at grandma and grandpa's house/ my parent's house.

5 Things I will miss about Sweden:
1. Christmas- with Farmor, grandma, the beautiful, non-tacky, not over commercialized holiday season with glogg, pepparkakor, Christmas markets with gnomes, and Santa Lucia
2. Knackebrod with sea salt butter, my favorite snack
3. Drinking water from the tap
4. My own bed and space
5.Deglutenized Wheat flour for my gluten free husband, having a gluten free section in every store like Sweden

Ten Things I am Looking Forward to in the USA:
1. Starbucks holiday coffee drinks
2. Breakfast restaurants
3.Seeing my friends and family
4. Getting to go to New York City for the first time ever
5.Understanding what the hell is going on around me

Happy Halloween

Jack O Lantern Carving

We got to pick the last of the garden bounty- our first home grown pumpkins!

We made the small one into pumpkin soup for dinner, and carved three faces into the biggest.

Trick or Treating!

We dressed up like Spiders, the baby was the Itsy Bitsy Spider. Our SwedeCousin came over for some trick or treating in the neighborhood. His mom so kindly prepped the neighbors so we could trick or treat- she bought and gave them bags of candy and warned them we would come over! Halloween is an imported holiday in Sweden, not traditionally celebrated, so while people know about it, it is a novel and foreign idea. As such, we were the only trick or treaters, but we had a neighbor having a Halloween party that had gone all out- the house was all decorated and they had carved every novelty design you can into many jack o lanterns. It looked like home...

Halloween Party!

After trick or treating, we headed off to the "Bouncy House". We  joined SwedeGirl's best friend, born a year and a day after just her like her best friend in Florida, and 200 other attendees for The American Club's Halloween Party.

We couldn't have asked for a better Halloween. Unless we'd been home, of course, there is no place like home! Though more and more I am someone with two homes, as we love the home we are making here.

(there have been some changes to blogger, the program I write this in, and there are some weird quirks going on- so please forgive the odd photo spacing and the random photo borders, can't figure it out for now!)