Tagged: holidaze

25
Dec
2015

RETROSPECTIVE

hristmas Day is here and I have a pocket of time in between all the items on the to-do list, so I thought I would sit down and fire off my yearly retrospective. I know it’s a little early, but we are leaving super early tomorrow morning and I won’t be back until after the new year, and I don’t want to post my retrospective for 2015 in 2016! We’ve had a lovely Christmas, with much time spent with Anders’ family, celebrating his mom’s birthday (and her return home), Christmas Eve with her yesterday and the whole family tonight for...

23
Dec
2015

EK FAMILY CHRISTMAS LETTER

How in the world has it come to this? Writing a Christmas letter for 2015 when I swear I JUST WROTE THE LAST ONE?? Time flies when you’re having fun, I guess! 2015 has been full and busy. Anders had lots of traveling for work, though Liz didn’t have any, for the first time since 2007. 🙁 He went on a ski trip back in January with work colleagues, to the Czech Republic and then again with Karin in February for a week in France. For work, he went to China twice, Thailand, Italy twice, and Germany, most often for...

22
Dec
2015

FINAL COUNTDOWN

Done! Done and dusted! I went shopping after work, for TWO hours at the biggest shopping center in Scandinavia. It was bad but it actually wasn’t as bad as I was dreading, so that was good. And I found a store that sells American candy and junk food like Cheetos and Pop-Tarts that I didn’t know existed. I walked around it drooling. I may have restrained myself. I may not have. I’ll never tell. I was only shopping to get the last stocking stuffers I needed to make sure everyone’s stockings are thoroughly stuffed, and I succeeded so now the...

13
Dec
2015

JINGLE ALL THE WAY

I am steaming through the Christmas to-do list! Tree is up and decorated, house is decorated, Christmas letter is written and ready to be printed, photos are cut and sorted, and the vast majority of my shopping is done. DONE! So late this year, but at least I’m nearly done. I still have a couple of things to get for Karin, stocking stuffers and a present for Anders’ mom, and that’s it! Next week I have to bake cookies for a work fika (I am avoiding baking cookies otherwise…if they’re not in the house, I can’t eat them, see?) and...

07
Dec
2015

GETTING IN THE MOOD

Liz: *sitting on couch, holds up iPad with something funny on it* Hey Martin! Look! Martin: *leans over and looks out the doorway of the computer room on the other side of the house* I’m not a hawk. Today, Martin turns 18. ADULTHOOD! Woot! Do I get a prize for successfully steering my firstborn through to adulthood? Oh wait, I already got one… when he was born. *rimshot* The first email I got this morning was one from the school system officially locking us out of his information. Since he’s now officially an adult, we no longer get to know...

22
Nov
2015

SOMETHING TO BE THANKFUL FOR

Things That Got Forgotten at Our Annual Thanksgiving Potluck Last Night Black olives Late night snacks Group photo for posterity People That Were Not There, Sadly Barbara (work trip) Camilla (sick) Alex (Angie’s oldest boy, better things to do) Emily, Martin & Molly My first family We were supposed to be 21 people but ended up 20 after Camilla called last minute to say she was sick. I took Friday off in order to be able to deal with shopping and cleaning and preparations and it really helped make things less stressful. Karin had the day off too, so we...

22
Jul
2015

HAPPY TOGETHER: CROATIA (PART 3)

Vacations, for me, aren’t just about the places we go and the things we see. They are, in a big way, about the people I am with. Family vacations are the best kind of vacations, where we get to see loved ones that live too far away for frequent contact…and that is pretty much all of my family, except my husband and kids. So, it was a REAL bummer that John wasn’t able to be with us and participate in the week. We had a good time and it was fun, but it would have been so much MORE so...

21
Jul
2015

COOLING DOWN: CROATIA (PART 2)

On the third day in Croatia, we found a great way to beat the heat. First we drove for 2 hours (aaaah, air-conditioning!) through twisty, windy, wiggly mountain roads until we reached Plitvice Lakes National Park. John and Simone had been there years before and raved about it, and they told us it was easy hiking, gorgeous scenery and above all COOL temps under all the trees. Sounded perfect, and so it proved. The only drawback was that everyone in Croatia had the same idea to escape the heat…the paths were literally lined with tourists and hikers. Still, you didn’t...

20
Jul
2015

HEATING UP: CROATIA (PART 1)

We had plans to do a lot more while we were in Croatia, but the heat flattened us. Okay, okay, it flattened ME. I knew it was going to be warm down there…intellectually, but I wasn’t really prepared for just how hot and humid it actually was. The day we arrived it was 38 degrees Celsius (damn hot). Barky promptly curled up and died. The other thing that flattened us was my brother’s ambulance ride to the hospital during the night of our arrival. I don’t think our heart was in Croatia. I know mine wasn’t. Maybe someday I’ll go...

19
Jul
2015

PALACES, PARKS AND POMP: VIENNA

We didn’t give Vienna a chance, really. I don’t know if we just weren’t in the mood or what. We spent three nights there which equaled 2 full days and we barely scratched the surface. No one wanted to pay the money to go see a concert (and frankly, it was only me that was really interested), and the Spanish Riding School is closed for July (drrr) so no dancing Lippizaner horses for us. After Prague’s lovely candy-colored and Old Europe impression, Vienna struck us as too big, too modern, too OVERDONE, somehow. People there were rude to us for...

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