Tagged: famdamily

15
May
2022

ROMAN HOLIDAY, PART 4

A big day and a big attraction: the Vatican! We were up at 8, breakfasted by 9 and it was another gorgeous sunny day. We took the Metro almost all the way to the Vatican and then stood in several lines: for entrance, for security, to exchange our vouchers for tickets, to pick up audio guides. We got in just after 11, which was almost an hour earlier than our scheduled prebooked time at 12. And we needed every minute of it. The Vatican museums are VAST and there is so much to see that you could literally spend days...

14
May
2022

ROMAN HOLIDAY, PART THREE

On Saturday, we went to the Pantheon, after a later wake up time and breakfast at 9 (as if we were on vacation, haha!). We had tickets for a guided tour at 11 and decided to walk (36 minutes) as the forecast said rain at 11, continuing all day. Instead, the sun came out and the forecast kept moving the rain back all day. We got there early and sat on the steps of the fountain across from the entrance for a bit before going in. Tickets for entrance were already sold out for the day, so we were very...

12
May
2022

ROMAN HOLIDAY, PART THE FIRST

We left for Rome on Wednesday, May 4, getting up at 4:30 am in order to drive to Copenhagen and make our 7:30 flight…nowadays the airport recommends 2 hours early for all flights, not just international ones. We didn’t have to wear facemasks on the plane but they were required in the Rome airport after we arrived. Living in a country that has basically ignored mask mandates completely, it was a bit of an adjustment for us (for me, anyway). EVERYONE in Italy wears masks…if they’re not wearing them, they have them quickly available. If they’re not wearing them at...

13
Feb
2022

COVID NO-VID

There’s COVID in the house, but even so, it’s hard to tell. Last week, after Anders got back from his ski trip with Karin (she stayed up north at a different ski resort with her girlfriend), his friend & colleague who had been skiing with him called on Wednesday morning to tell Anders that he wasn’t feeling well, had gone to get a PCR fast-result test and was positive. So, Anders came home from work at 10, and then at lunchtime HE went to get a PCR fast-result test. Later that afternoon, they called with the results: positive. EEEE Two...

26
Dec
2021

POST-HOLIDAY BLISS

It’s the day after Christmas, at the end of 2021. It was a good Christmas in many ways…the four of us back together and everything ready in plenty of time so no one was stressed. I had most of my shopping done by the end of November, almost all of it done online, and the last of the things I ordered arrived well in advance. Karin helped Anders with ordering stuff for me, so he wasn’t stressed out either, at least not that I could tell. 🙂 We did a big grocery shop for both Christmas eve and Christmas day...

23
Dec
2021

EK FAMILY CHRISTMAS LETTER 2021

This year started as the last one ended, with the pandemic still in full swing. Liz worked from home full-time all the way from October 2020 until the end of the summer this year, when she started back in the office 50%. She’s now up to 70% but is actually hoping to still be able to continue to work from home part-time. In January, Karin moved into a new apartment in Lund. She was still working at Flyinge School. Martin was working at Dominos Pizza in Detroit, still basically hunkered down in quarantine mode. On New Year’s Day, we got...

04
Dec
2021

COUNTING DOWN

We’re now in the end run, counting down through the last month of the year. The clock on 2021 is running out. Thankfully, the clock to the winter solstice is counting up and it’s only a month, give or take, until the darkest day, and then the slow return of the light. We’ve had snow on the ground for a week, and extremely cold temperatures. Here in Flyinge, for some reason, everything sticks and ices over and hangs on for weeks after the rest of SkÃ¥ne to the south of us has melted. It’s pretty, so I mostly don’t mind,...

28
Nov
2021

GIVING MEANS GETTING AND WE DO, IN SPADES

Yesterday was our annual Friendsgiving. We were looking forward to it SO much and it didn’t disappoint. It was the first time Martin has been included in 4 years (he DID have family Thanksgivings in Michigan with my mom, and occasionally my sister so he wasn’t totally deprived). The first year after we moved to Sweden, when I was hugely pregnant with Martin, we had Thanksgiving in our apartment, with my mom and Anders’ family, who had never been subjected to traditional American Thanksgiving food before and didn’t quite know what to make of the stuffing or the pumpkin pie....

20
Nov
2021

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEKEND

Dang, this month is getting away from me. It’s the weekend again and I’ve been thinking that I need to get a post written so here I am. This morning I woke up slowly, from very complicated, weird, but interesting dreams that of course I can no longer remember. It’s nice to wake up with a nice feeling like you were in the middle of a good story dream, even if it evaporates all too quickly. I wouldn’t tell you what it was even if I could remember it, because I believe dreams are of zero interest to anyone but...

31
Oct
2021

PUMPKIN TO TALK ABOUT

There’s no knowing when you will do something for the last time. I suppose this is why we cling so to tradition. It’s a continuation in an uncertain world. All those years of holiday celebrations, dressing up for Halloween, coloring eggs for Easter, cooking turkeys for Thanksgiving, filling stockings for Christmas; they’re all ways to hold on to what we have, and what we want to remember and most of all what we want to pay forward into our lives. Yesterday, I went and bought Halloween candy and filled our biggest bowl in anticipation of trick-or-treaters tonight. Last year, trick-or-treating...

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