Tagged: holidaze

22
Dec
2007

GATHER NEAR TO US ONCE MORE

You know, I love living overseas. I’ve lived overseas for 17 years, give or take a few weeks. 17 years! Not all at once, and not all in the same place but still, that’s a significant portion of my life…especially considering I’m…only 29. I like living in Europe. I like living in Sweden. There isn’t much I dislike about it (and even less I’d admit to in public). But the thing I dislike MOST about living overseas? Living so far away from my family. And the hardest? Putting my mom on the train and waving goodbye as she leaves for...

18
Dec
2007

WHAT A BRIGHT TIME, IT’S THE RIGHT TIME

I confess to being a tad envious of those of you who have snow. We have no snow and no snow in sight. We had no snow at all last winter, to speak of, and so, though one always wants to be done with it already come February, right now a little snow would be nice. Mom keeps asking me really hard crossword puzzle questions. It’s getting rarer that I know the answers offhand and it makes me feel alzheimery and dumb. It also makes me suspect my Trivial Pursuit crown would be in total jeopardy if I had anyone...

13
Dec
2007

DECKING THE HALLS

The smell of fat green pine needles fills the house, it tingles when you breath in then you get used it and all that’s left is the small start of surprise each time you realize there’s a tree in the room. Hey! There’s a tree in the room! I have a wish to always have a tree in the room and this time of year the wish sprouts and curls upward and blossoms. There are, as yet, no decorations on the tree, but really, I almost think it doesn’t NEED decorations. It’s decorating the room all on its own power!...

10
Dec
2007

MERRY CHRISTMAHANUKWANZAAKAH!

Today I’m performing over at Neil’s blog! Go check out all the great blogger music at the 2007 Blogger Christmahanukwanzaakah Online Holiday Concert! *** Big Bounding Beautiful Birthday Wishes to kachunknorge and fiveandfour!

08
Dec
2007

LAUGHING ALL THE WAY

Man, we’ve been busy! Too busy to post, obviously. We’ve been shopping, and celebrating Martin’s 10th birthday (by waking him up extra early with a birthday song and presents) and writing Christmas letters and wrapping Christmas gifts and going to Christmas parties and Christmas markets and Christmas tree farms and choir practice (me) and hockey (Anders) and Scouts (Martin) and karate (Karin) and just generally enjoying having my mom here! Martin turns 10 years old! In denial about being old enough to have a 10-year-old Who let that kid have a SAW? Christmas cheer is finally here! Still to come:...

02
Dec
2007

EVERYWHERE YOU GO

Time stretches and compresses and suddenly days have gone by without warning; this is how the year flies, how they all fly, until suddenly you’re aged and wondering where your youth and resiliance went. The house is full of Christmas glitter if not yet Christmas cheer: the windows are full of advent candelabra and golden Christmas stars, we’ve put up the snowman card holder made from felt by my great-aunt, the garlands of red and gold beading, the hand-knit personalized stockings, the cinnamon candles and santa figurines. Years worth of little tomtes made by the children are crowded into a...

25
Nov
2007

IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE…

Yesterday was our annual Thanksgiving potluck bash with good friends gathered around the dinner table, where silence reigned for all of 15 seconds during the first bite before everyone starting oohing and ahhing and remarking on how GOOOOOOD the food was. We had so much fun that we actually forgot for the first time in 10 years to take a group photo! *sigh* I enjoyed turkey leftovers for lunch today and baked the first batch of official Christmas cookies: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares that may just end up a family favorite. They’re DELICIOUS. They’re also for the AWC cookie exchange...

05
Nov
2007

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Do you ever actually sit and count your blessings? I suppose because it’s November now and getting closer to Thanksgiving, and also because we are reading Those Happy Golden Years in which Laura is now a schoolteacher boarding 12 miles from home in a horrible household and SHE is talking about how wonderful her home and family and life are in contrast, that I am thinking so frequently about my life and the things that are good in it. Even if you don’t believe in BLESSINGS, per se; the idea that someone, some higher being, some all-knowing, all-seeing power PERSONALLY...

27
Oct
2007

MONSTER MASH

67 kids, 61 adults and 3 hours of running around a huge indoor playplace. The only bummer was that the big bags of American candy I had brought were completely forgotten and didn’t get put out for the party. So I’ll be bringing candy to AWC events in the future, until it’s all gone. Karin won first prize for best costume with her “Mummy Karate Kid” that she thought up and planned herself. Martin was a “Boy of Summer” and I? Was a Magic 8-Ball! Whenever someone asked me what I was supposed to be, I said (in my very...

14
Oct
2007

SPOOKING IT UP IN DENMARK

Halloween is just not a big thing in continental Europe, not like it is in the States, though it originated in Britain. It’s always been one of my favorite holidays, though I’d be hard put to describe exactly why I like it better than, say, Christmas, which is admittedly a close runner-up. There’s just always been something magical about it, and maybe it’s just because I like cats and the color orange and full moons and pumpkin pie. Maybe it’s because it falls in autumn, my favorite time of the year. After 10+ years in Sweden, where Halloween is pretty...

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