Yearly Archive: 2013

31
Dec
2013

RETROSPECTIVE

haven’t checked to see how many years I’ve been writing a retrospective on the last day of the year, but it’s been several and it’s always fun to go back and look at what I was reading and watching and listening to. My goals don’t seem to change much, but that’s okay. Debbie, Camilla and I had a sleepover a couple of nights ago, which was very fun (and caused my daughter envy) at which we just talked and ate and watched movies. We saw Bright Star and The Adjustment Bureau, both of which were excellent in very different ways....

30
Dec
2013

NO COAL AT ALL

Just a select few of the photos that Anders and Mom and I took during her visit and the holidays. She’s already gone to Germany and it went too fast, as always. We haven’t even heard that she got there okay…assuming she’s adjusting from teenagers to toddlers & babies! I can’t believe there is only one more day to 2013! Happy New Year! Anders with his mom on Christmas Eve Julbord! Martin opens his big present OMG a typewriter! Be careful what you wish for! (actually, it’s really cool and over 100 years old!) Best for last, of course! New...

26
Dec
2013

TIME FOR JOY AND TIME FOR CHEER

Karin was going crazy in the days leading up to Christmas: the anticipation was too much for her. She couldn’t sleep and she counted down the hours like a proper OCD sufferer, mentioning the fact that it was “nearly Christmas” almost every hour of the last couple of days. On Christmas morning I found her asleep on the living room sofa…she hadn’t been able to fall asleep in her own bed. We had our usual Swedish/American traditional mix of celebrating: Swedish on Christmas Eve with Anders’ family over, a Swedish julbord made by Anders and his mom that included homemade...

24
Dec
2013

EK FAMILY CHRISTMAS LETTER

How can it possibly have been a whole year since we were home for the holidays in the US last Christmas?? Every year I say time flies, and every year it just flies faster. This year, for once, Liz did more traveling than Anders! She went on several work trips, including jaunts to Madrid, Turin, Paris, Singapore (!) and the US. Anders did a 2-week stint in Bangkok and a week’s conference in Finland. Anders was honored at a ceremony for his 25-year anniversary with Tetra Pak (it was actually 27 years!) and received a gold watch. He went on...

17
Dec
2013

DO YOU NOM WHAT I NOM

I am officially on vacation! WOOT! We’ve been baking and wrapping and decorating and shopping and eating and putting up trees. We have a HUGE tree in the living room (the big tree) and a little tree in the playroom (the kid tree) and both of them are now decorated, though there are a lot of ornaments that didn’t fit, even with TWO trees. We went last Saturday and cut down the big tree and then bought the little tree but when we put them up, and got the lights out, we discovered there were two many sections of lights...

12
Dec
2013

A POST! A POST! MY KINGDOM FOR A POST!

HI there! Bet you thought I’d forgotten all about you. Nope. Just busy. You SAW my list of things to do this month, yes? And I am not even halfway through. REALLY, I have lots of time to post because my mom came on Tuesday and she has so far: made a gigantic pot of delicious soup for dinner, walked the dog (who is gone, boo hoo), washed the dishes, and AND IRONED EVERYTHING that I have been blowing off for WEEKS. She ironed 3 blouses, a pair of pants, a HUGE tablecloth and a giant pile of Christmas ribbons....

07
Dec
2013

FIRST SNOW & FIRST BORN

We were a bit worried about heading over the bridge to Copenhagen yesterday evening, joking around that we might have to spend the night there, if the storm worsened. We’d been enduring gale force winds for over 24 hours with no signs of stopping even though the afternoon had seen some sunny spots between blowing layers of clouds. The temperature has dropped drastically, too, but it wasn’t raining that much, thankfully. There were four of us last night, only Angie wasn’t along for the fun, and we met up at the parking garage at the Hyllie train station outside of...

05
Dec
2013

THAR SHE BLOWS

We’re in the middle of storm number 2 so far this winter…60 mile per hour winds: it sounds like a freight train outside. It’s not cold enough for snow, but the forecast is for sleet. We’ve lost power already once, right as I was preparing dinner, so our halfway-heated mashed potatoes were warmed with the bernaise sauce that Anders had JUST finished making. Thankfully the schnitzels were already done! It could go out again any moment, so this will be a short one just in case. I have my list of Christmas cards to start working on, plus Martin’s birthday...

01
Dec
2013

ANTICIPATORY

1 day until my niece’s birthday 2 days until AWC julbord 3 days until the house is decorated 5 days until Crazy Christmas Cabaret in Copenhagen with the Wonders 6 days until Martin’s 16th birthday 8 days until our intro driving course with Martin 9 days until mom arrives! 12 days until my work Christmas party 13 days until we go Christmas tree hunting (though we may do this earlier) 14 days until Christmas cookie baking extravaganza 16 days until the full moon 17 days until sushi out with Emily and mom, the first day of vacation and the expected...

30
Nov
2013

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

It’s the last day of November! It’s Ek Family Thanksgiving Day! It’s Saturday! I have posted every day for 30 days and I have to say I’m pretty proud of sticking to it, when I was so doubtful at the beginning. It’s hot in the house because the oven has been going since around 10 a.m. this morning. Two turkeys are done and resting on the countertop (under guard) and Anders is peeling potatoes. I have asked twice if he wants help but he keeps refusing me. I bought 9 kilos of potatoes. That’s something like 100 potatoes. We have...