Tagged: famdamily

30
Dec
2022

RETROSPECTIVE

urprisingly, 2022 did not totally suck like the two years before it. Even though COVID finally visited us twice, no one was very ill, and Martin missed it completely. We had a couple of big milestone birthdays, with Anders turning 60 and Martin turning 25, and 2 big, very fun trips, to Rome, and to Bornholm. Mostly, life continues with the usual bumps and ups and downs. I’ve taken 2 weeks of vacation, here at the end of the year, and today is the last day if you don’t count the New Year’s weekend. I start back to work on...

23
Dec
2022

EK FAMILY CHRISTMAS LETTER 2022

This was the first year that started to feel like the pandemic might, just might, be over. Until Anders tested positive for COVID…twice (!) in the space of 2 months. He had no symptoms at all the first time, and nearly none the second. Karin also managed to get it twice, and Liz is pretty sure she also had it the second go-round. Good thing we all got our boosters! In between bouts of COVID, Anders and Karin managed to fit in a week of skiing, up north in Sweden, and Karin went up again a couple of times to...

04
Dec
2022

TO-DO TO-DO DOBIDO

I probably shouldn’t be sitting down to write anything here, since I’m not really in the mood, and don’t know what I want to write about. It’s a kind of blah day, partly because I woke up with a headache, got up and took a pill, and went back to bed, and didn’t wake up until SUPER late. It’s gray and rainy and I don’t have any plans until later this afternoon, apart from finishing my book. At 4 I’m calling my mom and sister to plan my trip for the spring. I started working on the flight booking last...

26
Nov
2022

ANTICIPATION GLITCH

All morning I was looking forward to the things I had planned for this afternoon and evening. Even yesterday, when Anders and Martin and I were eating dinner, I mentioned that I’d be gone the second half of today so that they knew about my plans. There is a maker’s market that we went to in the early fall that was happening again as a Christmas market over the weekend and then Debbie and Camilla and I were going to meet at Camilla’s tonight for dinner and to exchange Christmas presents. Only all that was on the calendar for December...

20
Nov
2022

GOOD STUFF and GOODBYES

What a weekend! We had our annual Friendsgiving dinner potluck yesterday and it was a smash success. I was quite worried to begin with because I invited too many people, or rather, I invited so many people that we weren’t at all sure how we’d manage to set up the tables and chairs so that there would be space for everyone, or even if that many people would fit. But we did, and they did. I should remember that inevitably there is always someone who cancels last minute and sure enough, 3 people on the invite list weren’t able to...

16
Sep
2022

THREE WEEKS OF LOVE

Mom and Sarah came back with us to Sweden, from Bornholm. Three weeks! Luxury! It was so nice to have them here, and of course, as always, the time went too fast, and they have already left and returned home to the US. Since they had to share a bed in Germany and on Bornholm, we gave them separate bedrooms at our place (since Karin isn’t living at home it wasn’t too difficult). We had lots of things on the calendar for their visit, and we added a whole pile of stuff as well that Sarah wanted to do since...

15
Sep
2022

BORNHOLM DAYS

There’s something really special about being reunited with family that you love. After a long absence like the one caused by the pandemic, it’s even more special. We drove to Ystad on September 20, with Martin and Karin, and took the ferry over to Bornholm. After arriving in Rønne, we ate lunch in the main square, walked around a little bit, and then headed north to the campgrounds just outside of Allinge which was to be our home for the week. John had arranged the cabins months in advance, and we had two of them: one for 4 people which...

08
Aug
2022

IT MOOSE BE LOVE!

During one of the lulls in the pandemic, my manager gifted her husband with a moose safari for his birthday. !!! I got all the details from her and promptly told my family that I, too, wanted a moose safari! I added it to my Christmas wish list, and the kids got it for me! The moose safari in question was at a moose park in Markaryd, which is quite a distance from us, approximately 1.5 hours north. But last year, when we were visiting our friends Mats and Annelott, we saw signs for a NEW moose park in Skäralid,...

04
Aug
2022

MISSING PEOPLE

When was the last time I saw you? It feels as if the pandemic has squashed all conception of time, and I’ve lost track. I feel like I haven’t seen most anyone in years, apart from my husband, kids, two best friends Debbie and Camilla, and my colleagues. The last time I saw my mom was June 2019, for a week in Seattle. That was, incidentally, the last time I saw my oldest friend Becky, and Chuck (and got to meet his wife). I saw Russell in Stockholm in June 2019 as well, but the last time I saw Kathey...

03
Aug
2022

PLANTY, PINCHY, PERSPIRING

It’s super hot and muggy today, the kind of weather I like the absolute least. We’ve got every fan in the house going, all the windows are open, and even the front door, trying to get a cross-breeze. I was just out in the garden watering and the water was sucked up by the earth as fast as it came out of the hose. Martin and I went to the plantshop after work and bought a new coral-colored rosebush for under the trellis and Anders already planted it. I hope it’s as prolific as the previous one was. I doubt...