En fantastisk hvid jul i Värmland

Hej alle,
i kan tro at julen kom til Värmland. Det tog godt nok 10 timer at køre de 550 km, men det var det værd. Hos svigermor lå der 15 cm. sne. Nok til at vi kunne køre med kælk ned af hendes bakker. Børnene fik også deres børneski på og prøvede, med blandet held at lege Ingemar Steenmark ned af løjperne.
Den 23. var jeg sammen med mine svogere og alle børnene ude og hente et rigtigt fint juletræ i svigermors skov. Det blev pyntet op efter alle foreskrifter, selvom det kostede et par glaskugler livet.

Den 24. stod vi op sent og hyggede til klokken 14 hvor vi spiste et traditionelt svensk julebord, med sild, skinke, laks, köttbullar, prinskorvar og Janssons fristelse. Efter madden var der dømt fælles sneboldkamp og Lenny blev det største offer med tre hits lige i øret. Klokken 1730 kom 'julemanden' i kane med hest. Stor succes, selvom Ida bagefter udtalte at julemanden hed 'Carin' og det hele var fusk! Men hun er også 7 år. Alle blev glad for julegaverne og efter Ris ala Malta, blev der leget igennem. Om aftenen spillede de voksne spil til midnat.

Den 25. var alle lidt trætte, men hen på eftermiddagen begyndte det at sne og dermed tid for at bygge en snehule. Marie, hendes søster og børnene sled i 2 timer, til det var helt mørkt, men resultatet var en rigtigt flot snehule.

Den nat kom der 40 cm ekstra sne, og den store vejsneplov lavede endnu en potentiel snehule. Alt var dækket af sne og kun de modige begav sig ud. Men køerne skulle have mad, og det krævede hele familiens samlede hjælp. Elias og hans fætter Pontus gav den som stor bønder. Pigerne legede bjergbestigere, på alle de nye hvide snetoppe

En skøn jul som var præcis hvad doktoren havde ordineret.

A little Christmas story

Hi all,

as some of you might know, I am a bit absent-minded . Marie would of course disagree, she would leave out the 'bit'. Tomorrow we are driving the 400 miles through snow covered Sweden, to spend Christmas with my in-laws in Värmland. That means a lot of planning and packing. Everything went well, cloths and gifts went into bags ready to be carried down into the car. Games for long winter evenings and chocolates, cheese and cameras.

However, one thing was missing.
The kids had, according to tradition, each got a present on Sunday. As far as they know, its from the Christmas Elf, but Ida as always was very suspicious, but cames around. She discovered that we had used the same wrapping paper as the Elf. The got three Disney DVD's to watch in the car on the trip to grandma. Now I, as the responsible parent, hid the two remaining movies, so the barbarians wouldn't run too wild. This is where my absent-mindedness comes into play. Monday evening was spent looking for the movies. At first I thought the kids had taken them, so they got a good grilling. With no result. Then I spent 60 minutes looking into every cubbard, every bag, under all the couches and beds. In all the drawers. This meant I didn't pack anything. When Marie was done packing, she started looking as well. 30 minutes later, it suddenly occurred to me that maybe I had hid them so well, even I couldn't find them.

The I looked on top of the closet, beneath a layer of pillows. And, low and behold, there they were. In mint condition!

Marie was furious, as this was my 8th soiree into the country of the absent-minded. I will let you in on the other 7 later.

But Christmas was saved. Phyyyyyyyy poor Marie, what she has to go through! It just makes me love her more.

Our summer vacation to Dalarna 2009 - a little late :-)

We went to see how the world famous Dalahorse are made in the small community of Nusnäs right next to the lake Siljan. The horses became a symbol of Sweden and can be seen around the world as all IKEA stores have one. They are hand crafted from one piece of wood and finally painted for hand in beautiful colors; the original is falu red, made from copper from the great copper mine in Falun.
The kids got to follow the whole process real close from the first piece of wood to the final product. The horses came in all sizes from 1 cm to 5 m. We had the fortune to witness a 50 cm horse get painted in 10 minutes without making a wrong paint stroke by a worldclass craftsman. The kids got to pick their own miniature dalahorse. Elias went for the black and Ida for the pink. Olivia as always went her own ways and bought a light blue horse.

Tuesday the 21st of July we went to visit Santa World in Dalarna. This is a park filled with fairytales, trolls, Santa’s helpers, a witch and other creatures from the woods.
The adventure started when we entered the park with the adventure of Santa’s helpers that had taken Santa’s Power bole, the kids were involved in the story and loved it. The play took place throughout the park and the kids where following the characters around, especially Santa’s 2 meter tall elf were the kid’s favorite.
The story went on for 4 acts throughout the day; the kids could almost not wait until the adventure continued.
The kids also got to se Santa’s house, his workshop and the troll’s house. They also learned to speak troll language. The girls also had a secret class of witch craft and did not want to tell us anything about it, since they swore secretsy to the witch; I was amazed how good they were to not talk about it. Elias was too afraid to go into the witch’s house.
The woods creatures were to see all around the park and they were talking with the kids in between their part in the fairytale.

Wednesday 22nd July, Naturum treasure hunt. The weather had not been too kind but Wednesday was pretty fair all things considered. We drove 25 miles to the southern edge of Lake Siljan, to go on a nature treasure hunt for the kids. The view across Siljansnäs and Leksand was beautiful from the ground, but from the 50 m tower is was glorious. The kids had great fun running around looking for clues, and after half an hour they were rewarded with a pierce of fake gold and a handwritten letter. The rest of the day was spent being lacy in the garden of the cottage, playing games and eating candy.

Every year the small town of Rättvik is transformed into car lovers heaven, during ‘Classic Car week’. Hundreds of classic cars from the 1920s and onwards fill the streets. A lot of the drivers dress up in authentic clothes and hairdo. It hardly mattered that it rained a bucket. Ida started counting the cars, but stopped at 100. And this was only the first day of a weeklong bonanza.
Olivia was especially thrill over the petit camping home.