22nd of December

Last week I went for a girls night at a spa not too far from Dörarp, it was a beautiful place and we went into the wood fired bath tub outside in -18!! degrees. The first time ever I have worn a bikini and a beanie at the same time =) It was beautiful in the bath and we had some fresh fruit and some ginger bread biscuits. The grapes had frozen by the end of it. After the bath I got a hand treatment, not sure what to call it in English but it made my hands a lot less dry and smoother, mum did the same thing as well as my aunt Kerstin. Ulla, mum's cousing and neighbour, got a massage and her daughter Tina who was home from Gothenburg for Christmas got a foot massage. We had a great night! Unfortunately the camera was set to manual focusing when the spa lady took photos of us but I am sure you "get the picture" (that sounded almost too cheesy)

23rd of December

I think I have cracked it, I know how to upload pictures in the right order!!! Touch wood! It wasnt that difficult to be honest, it has to be done backwards, I probably should have figured it out after 18 months of blogging but anyway... It does make sense that you upload them in the order you want them and not backwards, and that they pop up where you are in the writing, but no! They pop up at the start of the post and backwards.

Anyway, back to Christmas and we are at the 23rd of December which is the day when we traditionally decorate the Christmas tree and drink glögg, and apparently eat "Santa porridge". Stephen says he would call it rice porridge, it is shortgrain rice boiled in milk, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and then some more milk for eating it. Click here to see a picture of it.

But before this all started we had a sauna, Stephen has this idea of us having a sauna in whatever house we end up buying, btw we have another one on the radar now, this little beauty! Click on the big picture to see more pictures.

Decorating the tree

Dad serving up some glögg

Jonas finding all sorts of stuff in the box of Christmas decorations, my old Lucia gear.

Mum sorting out some more decorations, these are old ones that my grandparents used to have

This would be me playing with the camera and a "borble" (how is that spelled?? Google says I should call it a Christmas tree ball...)

Here it is from the other side, it is "mine" and Jonas has a similar one that is golden

Mum finishing off the decorations with tinzel

Ho ho ho, merry Christmas!

I think we all went a bit overboard this Christmas, but we (read Emma and Jonas) did get mum and dad some prank gifts as well... hehehe... I think next year we will pay for it...

Christmas Eve

Believe it or not but on Christmas eve I was the first one up! 8am! I started the day with making brownies to bring to Johan and Jill to have with the coffee. They were really really good but we were all so full after the dinner that it was difficult to enjoy, luckily there were lots left over...

Anyway, after making brownies we decided to open the presents and got some really nice things. I got a kitchen mixer thingy like this one from mum and dad, a really nice serving bowl like this one but frosted glass from Jonas, and another nice bowl, same as the one from Jonas but bigger and clear glass, and a electric toothbrush and some new head phones from Stephen. And some other bits and bobs from mum and dad.

Stephen got a pair of gum boots and some whiskey glasses from mum and dad, a new larger tackle box and a lure from Jonas, and I got him some more tools and fishing gear, he is always using not so nice language when filleting the fish with a not so good filleting knife, hopefully that will not happen again unless the new one gets blunt.

After the opening of presents Stephen, mum, and I went for a ski on the lake while Jonas and dad prepared the barbeque for Christmas lunch, a new tradition for this year, I hope we will do it again because it was nice. I guess it will be depending on the weather. After that some of us may or may not have had a nap before we moved on to Johan and Jill's place for Christmas dinner.

All excited and waiting for santa!

Stephen on cross country skis for the first time ever

The new gumboots

Another ski trip, maybe I got the photos in the wrong order after all...

Merry Christmas from mum and dad

Some were turkey sausages to get a piece of Australia for Christmas =)

Uncle Johan carving the ham while the rest of the food is prepared for the buffe

Stephen talking to grandma who accidentaly fell over and broke her wrist earlier when taking a photo of the tree.

My cousin Olle talking to my other cousin Felix's partner

Me and the girls, cousin Ellen to the left and Saga, cousin Felix daughter, to the right.

Some more Christmas food

Almost everyone was there, only cousin Malin missing, and the girls were off inspecting the tree and the presents

Grandpa getting the first present, Stephen, Jonas and I will cook them dinner, I guess Stephen and I will cook and Jonas will be the driver. They have not visited us in Älmhult yet

Saga becoming the princess of the night

Ellen in love with her new hello Kitty toy

Christmas day

On Christmas day we were up early and went to church, it is a bit of a tradition and a lot of people normally go to church early on Christmas day, or at least used to go when it was the old organist and her family together with the "youth" quire that did the singing. Unfortunately for them she has quit because the new priest was not very nice from what I have heard and now it is only a handful of people going. I think it might have been the last time I go as well, it wasnt at all the same warm and welcoming feeling that it used to be. All the more welcoming it was to go to my grandparents for breakfast after. After that we went home for a little kip, before heading out for another ski trip where Stephen got the arms and legs working in harmony. And then he tried ice fishing, finally! I think the fish were off celebrating Christmas somewhere else, no way near the holes in the ice...

Yum!

I have just made the best bread ever! Sourdough... plain white bread with a nice crust, soooo good!

We have a LOT of snow at the moment, I am not sure if you can see the 70 cm of snow, around 30 inches Stephen tells me. Lots of snow shoveling for people who are not renting apartments and has a landlord that looks after all of that.

Today was the day for the annual christmas tree hunt, the one for the indoor tree that is. Yes we have trees both inside and outside =) Outside trees normally are put up at the start of December and are only decorated with the lights, it really lightens up the dark winter evenings. The indoor ones traditionally on the day before Christmas eve (23rd) but I think a lot of people do it earlier, then you can enjoy it for longer and get into the Christmas spirit. We put ours up and decorated it together, after encouraging Stephen a bit. But the day was not full of all happy campers, you will see why later.
We are getting ready for the big hunt, Stephen is here to but for some reason today I didnt take that many photos of him as I do otherwise, not sure why. Anyway, brother and father leading the way to the Christmas trees. I fell over and started laughing...
... a combination of not being able to get up on my own with the camera in my hand and the first tree dad picked our, what a sad piece of Christmas tree, we did not get that one...

Hillbillie Emma after finishing off a fine piece of pine...
Here we are on the way back with the catch, I carry camera gear, dad carries the important stuff!
It is in the car and ready to go home, so far so good. We took two cars because we thought 4 people and 2 Christmas trees wouldnt fit into one car, lucky we did!
Because this is what happened next, oopsie, a bit too close to the edge and dads little blue wheelbarrow (our nick name for his car) got bogged in lots of snow.
Bye bye little car, we will come back and pick you up tomorrow with a tractor, the tractor owner was busy eating Christmas lunch and couldnt come and drag you up today. We tried our best from both ends, if only Jeff was here with his new Territory! I promise, we did what we could. And we found out that our Passat does fit 4 people and 2 Christmas trees! Nothing bad that doesnt bring anything good, direct translation of an old Swedish saying, it may or may not make sense in English...
Here it is, our first Christmas tree, isnt it pretty!
My favourite decorations, little mushrooms, the real ones that looks like this are poisonous so you shouldnt eat them! But they look pretty.
Merry Christmas and I hope you all get a prosperous New Year!

I guess it is time

I have always said everything has gone so well with the move over here, we both have good jobs and life is good in general. I have kind of been waiting for something to go poopsies because it has just been too easy in a way (touch wood!).

Well I think the time has come for something to not work out the way we want it, and it is the #@!! house and the new bidders I am talking about. I have been really angry and annoyed about the whole thing today, not happy at all! But I am starting to let go of it now, not that we have lost the bidding just yet but it feels kind of hopeless. But at least we can make sure we bid to the bitter end to make the others pay as much as possible =) Bad karma I know but I cant help it. And probably there is something better for us out there but I still feel sad that this wont be ours. We havent decided just how much more it is worth to us, mainly because we thought we had it nicely wrapped up in a box for us, before the other !@#%'s decided to join the party.

But I am starting to let go of it. And there are more important things in life than an old shabby house in Helmut, I just have to remind myself sometimes. I wonder when I will have let go completely...?

Sorry

I am still alive and we have not bought the house. It is snow and winter and cold outside.

This is Wilson

Here is the "cake" the girls got for me on the fantastic spa weekend we had.

Winter!

So today it has been snowing, and snowing, and snowing! We drove back from Dörarp today and it started snowing along the way and it only got worse, we were not driving very fast at all.

This weekend we have done a lot. We went to mum and dads on Saturday, and while me and mum made the traditional christmas sausage Stephen went out with dad and shot the outdoor christmas tree. They actually came back with two trees, one for mum and dad and one for us. It is a Swedish tradition to have an outdoor christmas tree with lights or maybe put some lights up outside at somewhere else in the garde, the apple tree or somewhere else.

Then Jonas arrived to Dörarp and me and mum started making gingerbread while Jonas ate the dough while watching me and mum.

In the evening we went for a traditional christmas smörgåsbord, called julbord in Swedish, christmas table if translated literally. My grandparents and dads sister Kerstin was there as well and we had a nice evening with some really good food and I was the lucky driver! Mainly because I dont really appreciate snaps in the same way as most of the others do.

Early today we spoke to Jeff and Pauline on Skype and also got to say hi to Neville and Mama Lea. Skype is great! It is almost like we met for real even though we were almost as far away from each other that is physically possible. It is really nice to be able to speak and also see each other.

After brekkie we headed back to Älmhult to look this house again, this time with mum and dad. Thats when it started snowing, and it snowed heaps and heaps and heaps. The house was just as good as last time, next step is a building inspection and then we will decide on how much money we will offer them and also go to the bank and borrow a bit of money, hopefully. There is a lot of renovations to be done but I think the end result will be awesome!

After looking at the house we went back to our place to have some lunch and reflect a bit over the house. And now it is Sunday evening again and time for bed soon. But first some pictures and videos from the weekend.

Oh and by the way, last week I made saffron buns, it is a tradition in Sweden for christmas, they are called lussekatter.

And another bit of information, today is the first Sunday of Advent. In Sweden we light a candle for every Sunday of Advent. The first candle 4 weeks before christmas, and then three weeks before (the 2nd of Advent) we light candle no 2, two weeks before we then light candle 1, 2, and 3, and the Sunday before Christmas we light the last candle. You will see on the photo what I mean, otherwise I recommend google or Wikipedia =)

First of all is a movie of us driving when it was snowing cats and dogs... And as always the pictures are in whatever order...

It had been snowing during the night, Jonas car had no snow on it the evening before...

The first candle of Advent was lit when we had brekkie

Dad and Grandpa choosing which snaps they want

Lots and lots of gingerbread cookies, I made 1.7 kgs of dough, will halve the recipe next year

Dad and his moose antlers that he finally can add to the collection

The buffet almost ready for the guests

A bit of glögg for starters

Proud christmas tree hunters

Sausage making

Saffron buns from last weekend