Tagged: holidaze

10
Aug
2007

IT’S NOT THE YEARS IN YOUR LIFE THAT COUNT, IT’S THE LIFE IN YOUR YEARS*

Happy birthday to me! haha! Woken up just after 7 a.m. to singing and hugs and presents. Spent the day with family and friends at the zoo, we watched the seals get fed and admired all the little animal babies. The zoo was crawling with baby animals: wolf cubs, lynx kittens, wildcat kittens, fox cubs, otter pups, kids (goats), lambs, wild piglets. We got home around 3:30 and power-napped for an hour, then made dinner and went to the grocery store and afterwards I frosted the spice cake I’d made yesterday with home-made buttercream almond frosting: YUM! The boys are...

04
Aug
2007

REBOOTING

It’s only after a week plus of vacation that I can feel how much my body needed this: leisure time. Time to spend doing things around the house that I never get to, time to finish projects and go shopping in the middle of the day. Time to read new books and re-read old favorites without having to put them down and turn off the light because the alarm will be going off before I know it. Even though I have been busy, it’s been at my own pace, with no schedule, no real plans and the wonder of not...

30
Jun
2007

OH SAY CAN YOU SEE

Here in Sweden, next Wednesday is just another work day. The majority of people with whom I spend my time every day don’t know or care that the 4th of July has any special meaning. Considering that the Swedish national day is a latecomer and had nothing to do with winning independence from anyone, it’s not really surprising that national feeling doesn’t run particularly deep for a patriotic holiday. In fact, there are other countries nearby who actually celebrate THEIR national holidays on the day they gained independence from SWEDEN. I don’t know how it is for the rest of...

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,...

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