Tagged: holidaze

For the past 8 or 9 years, I’ve participated in an AWC event on Thanksgiving evening. It’s nothing to do with turkey or tryptophan or football or parades because none of that exists in its American holiday form here in Sweden. Instead, our Thanksgiving celebrations with friends and/or family has always been scheduled for the weekend after (or in the case of this year, the weekend before). Because the fourth Thursday in November is just a regular workday here, it’s been a pleasure to have a holiday event scheduled on that evening instead, something that has now become a tradition...

My costume idea was so excellent, but I think it left something to be desired in the execution since no one even asked me what I was supposed to be. When I told people what I was, they laughed their heads off, though, so I give myself points for that. I was a piece of salt licorice, the Swedish candy that makes people around the world shake their heads and say, “EWWW!” I wore a sparkly black shirt and then I spray-painted my top half and my hair black (not my face) and then sprayed glitter all over that. Let...

One of the biggest problems we’ve encountered with Halloween every year is that Karin wants to have different costumes for each Halloween-related event. It’s hard enough to come up with costume ideas for the four of us ONCE, but when she starts wanting a different costume for the school party, the neighborhood trick-or-treating and the big AWC party, it’s enough to make me grind my teeth. Today she attended a party at the after-school daycare (for once, they got the date right) and because it was cold and rainy, she opted not to wear her surfer costume that is slotted...

This year, because ozswede was so kind as to send us a pumpkin carving kit for the kids, I made them do their own dirty work, though I did cut the holes in the tops of the pumpkins and scoop-scraped out the insides (though I had help from Anders on one of them). Usually I have to wield the knife (*evil laugh*) so they draw their pumpkin designs and I execute (HA!) them. Even though they got a packet of ready-made designs in the package they elected to go with traditional jack-o-lantern faces this year, though both of them wanted...