I just activated a new member for the AWC: a guy from Texas who has been in Sweden for 10 years, and has heard about us since before he moved here, but never thought to join because, well, duh. It’s a WOMEN’S club. Right? Except, no, not really. It’s not just Americans and not just women, though we only have a handful of men at the moment. We’ve talked about changing the name for years, but no one seems to be able to agree on a new name and the one I would have liked has already been taken by another club in the area.
On Saturday, I picked up Camilla and we headed to Malmö to the SciFi bookstore. It’s been ages since I’ve been there and the incentive to go was an event they had posted on Facebook as a Magical Market complete with wizards and witches and goblins, but it ended up being 4 tables of Harry Potter-ish merchandise with dressed-up vendors. Still, lots and lots of people, kids and families, so the store was packed and felt very festive. I had a hard time keeping my pile of books under 1000 kronor, but managed to just squeak it in. The whole time I was dithering about buying actual books…should I get these on Kindle instead or go for the lovely hoarder possessive feel of holding bound paper and ink. I took several photos of books to add to the “check out to buy later” list and most of the books I DID buy were by favorite, tried-and-true authors; books I’d been waiting for, so that was fun!
So far, just for anyone keeping track (Megsie, I’m looking at you), I have bought Christmas presents for my daughter, my son and my husband. Mostly stocking stuffer stuff, but still, it’s a start. None of my first family has sent back the wishlist so obviously they don’t want anything this year, haha!
Tomorrow is Halloween and I have yet to carve our pumpkin or decorate the foyer and entrance. I DO have a humongous bowl of candy, as the annual trick-or-treating will commence around 6:30… that gives me time to at least throw some cobwebs against the walls of the house before the kids show up. I have little motivation to go all out for Halloween here, and my kids are either gone or…never home, so they’re not helping. I asked Karin this weekend if she wanted to help decorate or carve the pumpkin and she barely looked up from her phone to answer “Nah”. Is this how it ends for things like Halloween and Easter? Not with a bang, but a whimper, as your kids grow up and leave the nest. I’ll still decorate for Christmas, of course, but those other two holidays were so kid-driven. It’s sad.
We did have a Halloween costume contest at work on Friday and the woman who organized it ordered huge cupcakes with Halloween icing for the Friday fika. She decorated the office and there were prizes for various costume categories. I won “Laziest Costume” for my bat deely boppers. 😀 (I just looked up “deely boppers” and it turns out they are actually deely boBBers, and the name is a genericized trademark, like kleenex or thermos or google).
Here in Sweden, Halloween just doesn’t have the same oomph. Although, two of the costumes dreamed up by the younger set for parties this weekend cracked me up: Karin dressed up as Rufus the Naked Mole Rat from Kim Possible (though she said her costume sucked), and one of my colleague’s kids dressed up as Bambi’s mother…complete with bullet hole in the middle of her forehead! HORRIBLE, but OMG too funny.
In other news, found a spaghetti squash this weekend and now I have a huge pile of baked squash to eat this week before we leave for Stockholm! EEK