Tagged: holidaze

06
Jun
2007

NOT A PERFECT DAY, BUT PRETTY DARN CLOSE

Summer turns me upside down, summer summer summer! It’s like a merry-go-round…because I seem to spend most of my time turning about filling up my eyes with green and growing things, with bright and blooming things, with the endlessly endless never-ending blue of the sky. There are pink paradise bushes blooming everywhere, we have dozens of hard green baby cherries on our cherry tree, the swans out by the highway are nesting, and the horse on the street before ours has a little brown skippity foal. We scored super-big at IKEA today. Because it was Sweden’s National Day and just...

13
May
2007

TO THE WORLD YOU MIGHT BE JUST ONE PERSON, BUT TO ONE PERSON YOU MIGHT JUST BE THE WORLD

Because I couldn’t spend time with my own mother on Mother’s Day, being as how she is 8000-some-odd kilometers away, when one of the members of the AWC organized a Mother’s Day Luncheon today, I took my mother-in-law, which is what all of us who attended did. Our mothers-in-law who have helped to welcome us to a foreign country, made adjustments in their lives and their ways of thinking in order to bring us into the family, and who have helped the ongoing acclimatization with which we struggle on a daily basis, no matter how long we have lived here....

01
Jan
2007

WHEEL TURNIN’ ‘ROUND AND ‘ROUND

For the record, there is no better party-opener music for a New Year’s Eve bash than Steely Dan’s Reelin’ in the Years. And this might be the quintessential New Year’s party dinner menu, Chez Anders: Roasted Asparagus with Tarragon Lemon Sauce Lobster Soup with Cognac and Snow Peas Filet of Beef with Garlic-Herb Sauce Potatoes mashed with Truffel Oil and Porcini (Karl Johan) Mushrooms Vanilla Creme Pudding with Champagne Jelly and Raspberries Despite the excitement and fun of the past week I am more than ready for our regular routine to return, so much so that I was having urges...

23
Dec
2006

CHRISTMAS CHEER FOR CHRISTMAS NEAR

Except for a little bit of stocking stuffer wrapping to be done, everything is ready for the big 2 days coming up. When you’re an American in Sweden, Christmas is so nice, you do it twice! Tomorrow we’re having Anders’ family over and watching Kalle Anka, having a visit from Tomte (sssh!), giving gifts and eating julbord (lost count). On Monday, with John and Simone we’ll have the American version with stockings and more gifts and a big turkey dinner to round things off. We even have freshly baked Christmas cookies for dessert: Iced sugar cookies, Rice Krispie Holly Bars,...

17
Dec
2006

I WAS GOING TO COUNTDOWN BUT I ONLY HAD FOURS AND FIVES

Only 4 more days until the solstice and the days will begin lengthening again! Only 4 more days of work before Christmas vacation! Only 5 days until my brother and Simone arrive for a week! Only 5 more little presents to buy and I’m done! Only 5 more days to payday, thank goodness! Things That Made Me Happy This Weekend: talking to my oldest best friend Becky last night and hearing how well things are going for her this year after a couple of really rough ones; reading the pregnancy announcement of a dear online friend; receiving a box from...

14
Dec
2006

HOW WE SPEND OUR DAYS IS HOW WE SPEND OUR LIVES*

Oh, hey, I KNEW I was forgetting something! *waves* Hi there, little neglected internet! How ya doin’? Are you busy with the busyness like me? Julbord count: 4 There’s been a lot of music in the air this week. Maybe I am hyper-aware of it because I’m a singer. Tuesday evening one of our printing company took a bunch of us out to dinner at Wallmann’s Salong, a big dinner theater place in downtown Malmö. While the singers had good voices and were clearly dinner theater veterans and very good at what they do (which didn’t include their sideline as...

10
Dec
2006

I DON’T KNOW IF THERE’LL BE SNOW, BUT HAVE A CUP OF CHEER

I joke about stressmas, but the truth is, I love Christmas preparations and I love Christmas. I do as much as I can to make sure that the holiday magic is there for both myself and my family. If that means knocking myself out for a month, so be it. The thing that actually causes the stress is that I can’t leave off doing all the regular daily stuff to just concentrate on the holidaze! Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the cookies, the tree, the ornaments, the nativity and all the hope that goes with it, the decorations, the cookies,...

09
Dec
2006

HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE STRESSMAS

It’s late and I’m wiped out, but I’m not done yet with the things I wanted to do today. The kids and I went through all of their bookshelves and cleaned out a knee-high (on them) pile of outgrown books to take to the AWC Media Sale (and thus donate to the international school afterwards). We stripped all the beds and re-made them with clean, sweet-smelling sheets. Karin insisted on having a “grownup” comforter, even though her bed hasn’t been pulled out to the full twin size yet. They helped clean up the entire kid’s department, although it was a...

06
Dec
2006

GRANDPA’S UNDERPANTS, ALSO HOW TO DRIVE YOUR CHILDREN INSANE IN UNDER A MONTH

When it’s bathtime, the kids usually get about 10 minutes to play because it is also a chance for them to soak the dirt out (more necessary in the summer than now, granted, but still). Then I (or we) come in and help them shampoo and scrub down. A few days ago, when I came in, they were playing a Swedish children’s game the purpose of which is to get the other person to laugh. The rules of the game go like this: the person who is doing the provoking asks the other person questions. The provokee can only respond...

03
Dec
2006

NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING, NOT EVEN A ….UH, OH

2 Things I Really Didn’t Need Today: Waking up with a headcold and sorethroat AGAIN, which effectively put the kibosh on singing in the 3 concerts scheduled for this afternoon. Opening the boxes of Christmas decorations which Anders kindly carried down from the attic only to find they were full of…you guessed it…mouse turds and chewed styrofoam and paper. sigh The mice ate several decorations that were styrofoam-ball based, and one which was made of salt dough (for which I bear no grudge), and EVERY PIECE of dried, green-painted macaroni that Martin had painstakingly glued to a cardboard Christmas tree...

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