The beginning of 2018 was pretty calm and we hosted a New Year’s Eve dinner with friends here in Flyinge. Liz was recovering from gall bladder removal surgery, so she was taking it pretty easy. Anders went skiing again with colleagues, now an annual tradition. Martin returned to college in Detroit for the second half of his freahman year, even though his flight was cancelled and rerouted, and he ended up getting to spend a couple of nights with Liz’s sister in Connecticut. Karin and Liz participated in a gospel fest choir festival together, Karin’s first big choir event.
In February, Anders had a 2-week trip to South Africa. Liz continues to be very active with the AWC Malmö and is still on the board. In March, her oldest best friend Becky came for a visit with her friend Jennifer and Liz took them touring around Lund and Copenhagen, and over to Helsingør to visit Kronborg castle. We also had a family visit from Liz’s cousin-in-law Heidi and her daughter Ryane, who was studying during the spring in Copenhagen.
Karin had a super busy spring, playing in her school’s floor rugby Superbowl tournament, playing soccer with the Lund’s Women’s team and performing, writing and organizing the school’s annual musical about the French Revolution, playing Marie Antoinette’s daughter Marie-Therese. She has done a ton of traveling throughout the year as well, with weeks in Prague, Budapest, Kos and Florence, and work trips to Stockholm and Paris, as well as a family weekend trip to Kalmar.
Ar the end of May we started a family and friends visit extravaganza with Martin coming home from school, Liz’s mom arriving for a 3-week visit, and Liz’s brother and family for a week. Full house! In mid-June, Karin attended her Senior Prom and then graduated from high school and we threw a huge Swedish studenten party in the backyard. End of an era!
At the beginning of July, our good friends Kathey and Russell arrived in Europe, as Kathey was running in an international race in Odense, Denmark. We went over to watch the race and cheer her on with Russell and then brought them back to Sweden for a 3-day visit and party with old friends. We’ll see them again at Christmastime, bonus!
Martin returned to Detroit to work for the summer at his college, mentoring students in the same pre-college program he participated in last summer. He also got a job at the school’s AV Center, and has been working steadily throughout his sophomore year. Liz is still working at Axis and enjoying it, despite the unbelievable amount of stuff to do. Anders is still at Tetra Pak, working in the Technical Training Center…thankfully he didn’t travel quite as much this year, but still managed a few trips to Italy. Karin worked all year as well: she works at a café in Malmö and at the end of June, she got a summer job at Liz’s company, which got extended through January 2019.
Anders is still mountain biking as well, and participated again this year in Cyckel Vasa. He had started building a kayak in March, based on the kayak blueprints that Liz gave him for Christmas the year before, and took a kayak course in Malmö. And at the end of August, he made his water debut with his hand-built wooden kayak! It’s a real thing of beauty. And Karin finally got her driver’s license, which was a big thrill for her and for us!
Now we are home for the holidays in Michigan for 3 weeks with Liz’s mom and Martin. We hope you and yours are having a wonderful holiday season as well and we wish you a happy new year!