Our 2010

January- Fall USA road trip brought us to Florida for the holidays, we start the New Year in a beach house with our first Home Exchange !

February- Still in Florida with family. Disney with grandparents, then back home to snowy Sweden after aValentine's Day 5th Birthday party.

March- At Home in Snowy Sweden , Baby turns 1!

April- Vitsippia, Easter, Walpurg Night....The World Wakes from Winter Slumber

May- Brings Flowers and news baby #3 is on its way!

June- Dalarna for Midsommar with FarFar and Family

July- Swedish Summer at it's BEST! Beaches and Berries.

August- Epic European RoadTrip and multiple home exchanges, our Birthdays at Thermal Pools in Italy!

September- Harvest Time in our Garden and in Skåne, back to School and Work

October- Off to Florida for Mom and the Kids for Halloween with family and friends in USA!

November- Thanksgiving with family and Cousins in Florida!

December- Settle Back to Sweden for the month of Pepparkakor and Glögg, Christmas Merriment,

and Lots of Snow!

Thank you to AllTheForcesThatBe

for a very, very good year.

Yes, we can take it!

And we will BeHereNow.

White, Wonderful Christmas

Lots of snow and some records lows made for a beautiful white Christmas. Glad we were home for this one! We cooked lots of food, and had a slow steady calm holiday with food, family, and nice gifts mostly acquired on the USA trip, so there was no shopping frenzy to take us out into the world or on the roads. It was good to just stay close to home.

The red house looks so cute when the sky is blue and the sun shines and the white snow is piled high.

Nothing prettier in winter than tons of snow reflecting sunshine, the bright light makes up for the early sunset.

The latest pile up on the hammock

Burying the summer furniture and trampoline, they never got put away since the heavy snow came earlier than expected this year.

The 23rd we had to shovel a nice even path so Farmor could walk to the door through the 2 feet of snow. We enlisted help from our teenage nephew who lives down the street. The kids wanted in on the action!

Everyone pitched in!

And played, too.

The Toddler Winter Dilemma- If I wear my mittens, I have no dexterity and limited use of my hands, if I do not, I freeze.

Hmmmm......I will just ask to have them put on, then take them right off again every 5 minutes....

Christmas Eve is the main celebration day for the Swedes, so we headed to my sister in law's house a few door down on our same street and did the holiday Swedish way!

We arrived at 3pm so we could observe the sacred Swedish Tradition of watching Kalle Anka, or Donald Duck, a series of Disney cartoon shorts shown every year. We had glögg, pepparkakor, clementines, and cracked walnuts while gathered together for the cartoons!

Most of the Crew

SwedeGirl cozied up to her cousins, snuggled on the lap of teenage boy cousin, casually holding hands with her age mate boy cousin.

(Mission move to Sweden and get to know my husbands family- accomplished! )

We followed up by eating Swedish Christmas Dinner, called JulBord- pickled herring of several varieties, smoked salmon, eggs and caviar, smoked mackerel salad, ham, liver pate, pickled cabbage, Jansen's Temptation- Swedish Potato Gratin, and boiled potatos.

Swedish JulBord

Mother and Son

It has not been the best year for getting cute shots of the kids, who are always on the go, but they are cute none the less!

SwedeBaby in her fancy dress

Swedegirl Christmas Eve at her Aunts House

Dad and Kids

The Best Shot of Mom and Dad the 5 year old could manage

The Tree, decorated in red and straw on Christmas Morning

We have a tradition of keeping the cut made into the trunk when we buy the tree, and writing memories for that year's Christmas on it when we pack up the ornaments, and using it as an ornament in the future. Fun to see notes from Christmas past!

Christmas Morning Excitement! The stocking were full of surprises!

Excited Kids and Gifts under the tree Christmas morning

In the evening, we hosted the Swedes for an American Christmas Feast. Turkey, Cornbread Stuffing, Gravy and all the Fixings.

Licking a beater from the whipped cream for the pumpkin pie, a yummy holiday must.

Merry Christmas!

May your days be merry and bright.

Christmas at School

New fallen snow was piled high today all around town and set the mood to be extra special for the JulFest Christmas celebration at TheGirls school.

The bright and drifted snow in the early morning at school

The old Chicken coop turned play house covered in snow

The kids in Swede girls class wet felted the Tomtes on this nature table earlier in the week, and all took one home.

The advent calendar at school has black paper with windows that open to reveal tissue paper 'stained glass' cut outs of the nativity scene.

One of the trees outside was decorated with pepparkakor and apples hung from red ribbon

I missed the school day celebration, but they had a special vegetarian JulBord, or traditional Swedish Christmas buffet, with soy sausage, potatoes gratin, cabbages, and various pickles for lunch. They sang holiday songs and danced around a Christmas Tree. The teacher completed telling the story of The Nativity, which has been told in parts all week long.

SwedeGirl decorated Pepparkakor in Class

SwedeBaby got a decorated Pepparkakor as a gift from the teacher. They each got a little felted animal and some hand dipped candles as gifts from their teacher as well.

Once home, Swedegirl asked to write a letter to Santa. She drew a picture of the nativity, and intends to send it to Santa. In our not overly Christian home, it was nice to see her processing the story and making it as a gift for Santa!

Santa Lucia Day in Sweden

December 13th, Sweden celebrates the return on the light by honoring Santa Lucia.

This is our second Lucia in Sweden. Before the Julian calendar, solstice fell near the time Lucia is celebrated. The practice of having a young girl dress as Lucia is actually a newish way of observing the return of the light, but the idea of welcoming the sun's return amongst the darkest days of winter is older than anyone can say for sure.

We prepared by having Swededaddy, the Swede of the house, bake some gluten free pepparkakor cookies with the girls.

I made egg nog, my traditional American holiday drink, to sip as we baked.

SwedeGirl is a great baker, and even the little one enjoyed stamping out cookies with Swededaddy's help.

They came out very nice, ready for Lucia morning!

We celebrated Lucia on Sunday morning the 12th, so it would be on a slow unhurried weekend day instead of Monday. SwedeGirl set her alarm, got out of bed and arranged a plate of cookies, and dressed her self, and came singing into our room, waking us. We were amazed and honored to see Lucia! She had to take off her crown to show us, 'Mom, it's ME!!!!' Boy, she was good and fooled us, we thought Lucia had really come.

We took a drive to Farmor's-grandma's so Lucia could visit.

I am obsessed with photographing the sun, and there is no way I can capture how bright and white the light is when it shines over a field of snow, but I keep trying.

Lucia brought cookies, and Light

My cookie monsters think the best part of Lucia is the Pepparkakor!!

At Farmor's we found a picture of a Lucia Procession Swededaddy had painted as a child. So nice to see my girls being part of the tradition from his childhood!

On Lucia day, there was a event at school but the girls felt like staying home, and after a busy weekend I did not object, so they skipped the school Lucia. We planned to go to a church Lucia in the village church that night, and SwedeGirl decided that was enough for her.

Soft fluffy crystal snow flakes, the kind where you can really see all six sides fell as we entered the church, while the bells chimed.

The light from the street shone through the stained glass of the church window, making magical colors in the entryway

A nearby sign reminded us the church dates back to the 1500's

Lucia and her procession entered and sang their Songs

We returned home and it was still quite early. I had lamb stew with a holiday beer as part of the broth waiting for us, and had some ris gröt, glögg, and pepparkakor for desert. We put on some Christmas music and had a very cozy evening at home with a fire in the fire place, decorating the tree.

Happy Lucia, welcome the light!