Quick trip to Norway...Skis!!!

We drove to Norway this weekend to spend some time with our family before the holidays.  It was supposed to be about a 6 hour drive, but tons of snow and slow driving trucks later we arrived in only 7.5 hours Friday night.

On Saturday, Alex and Ben's grandparents brought them out shopping for a combined birthday and Christmas present surprise.  They sized them and bought them their very own downhill skis!  They boys were thrilled and can not wait to use them!

That's when they found out they were getting skis...

Ben trying on boots...

We had a nice visit with the family, Adrian their cousin spent the day with them, and their uncle Marius and Nina came to dinner and the next day we saw their Aunt Anne-Lise before heading back 6.5 more hours, again in a lot of snow. It all felt very Christmasy!

Ben's 9th Birthday...Ice Skating

Ben celebrated his birthday a lot this year...

It started with Alex and Ben shopping early for their birthday present from us...new ice hockey skates!  Both Alex and Ben chose that as their presents and even though Alex's birthday is in January, we got it for him early too...

This town has very nice sports facilities including ice rinks.  Each week they have many open skating times that are free to the public both on indoor rinks and outdoor rinks.  You must wear a helmet at all times, and you are generally allowed to bring hockey sticks or bandy sticks to practice on the ice or have a little pick-up game and the kids love that...

The indoor rink...

The outdoor rink...


Since they have gotten their skates, they have been begging me to take them as much as possible, and even Thomas went out to buy some skates so he could join in on the fun.  I may get some soon, but they are quite expensive...

The Saturday before Ben's birthday we took him out to dinner for an early celebration at our favorite Steakhouse in town with Thomas.

We have had some cakes here in Sweden, and while they are good, Ben didn't like the frosting here, so I decided to tackle an Angel Food Cake with 7 minute frosting that my dad always made for us for our birthdays growing up.

The main challenge is the frosting made with egg whites over a double boiler using a mixer...but it came out great and tastes almost like marshmallow!

The cake turned out great, and now I have a request from Alex for the same cake for his birthday...we may have started a new tradition...

On Ben's actual birthday Alex and I woke him up in the morning to open a few presents...Alex bought him a new soccer ball, we gave him a bandy stick to play with on the ice, and a surprise package made it just in time all the way from Gainesville, FL, USA!!!

FIFA 2014!  Thank you Blake, Austin, Emily and Steve!!!

In the afternoon, Ben brought his friend Matt home with him and we had cake and then headed to the indoor swimming park for an afternoon of fun!

On their way into the waterpark...

Ben heard from all our family and felt very special! It was a great way to spend his birthday!

Winter has arrived...

It has been a few weeks since I last blogged, but I have remained diligent collecting pictures.  For the most part we have been very busy and all of our free time seems to have vanished, but I will highlight what we have been doing and how it is going...

Darkness is the new normal...I have watched in amazement the days diminish seemingly quickly and now have hope that we are in the final stretch and it will only get lighter outside for longer after December 21.  Currently the sun is rising at 8:46AM and setting at 2:42PM.  In early November, this seemed depressing and made me very tired.  I read about the Vitamin D you get from the sun (deficiencies in this vitamin can make you very tired), and made a large effort to make sure I took advantage of as much daylight as possible, the kids have plenty of recess at school so they were getting lots of time in the daylight, but Sox and I make sure to take long morning walks after the kids get to school.  Also, we all started taking Vitamins making sure to get extra Vitamin D and I believe it has helped because I no longer feel as tired as I had been feeling in the afternoons after dark.  Finally, from what I have read, you should continue on in the evenings with plenty of scheduled activities and with all the sport practices in the evenings that I take the boys to, it does seem to keep us preoccupied and it makes the darkness less noticeable.

The sunset at 3:00...

In the fall, people warned me November was the coldest, darkest, most depressing month, they claim after that the snow lightens everything up.  I was prepared for it to be very dreary, but as I keep hearing, this November has been a mild one with very little rain and mild temperatures...(I keep saying the Duffauts brought the weather, but maybe it is global warming...)  I found November to be pleasant and I think that we are all adjusting to our new climate well.  It has hovered around 32 degrees and on "warm" days it even hits 40, which is actually not too cold if you have the proper clothes on.

I heard sometimes there was a snowfall in October, so when we got to almost the end of November with no snow, Ben started complaining...Finally we had about an inch a couple of weeks ago...Ben was in heaven! Alex too!

Just enough to make a few snowballs...

Last Thursday I got a friendly text in the morning from a friend who let me know I should be careful in the evening if I planned to take Alex half an hour away to basketball because there was going to be a lot of snow starting in the afternoon.  About 1:00, it started and lasted until Friday and started off this winter with about 6 inches or so of snow.  They say that is more at one time than usual because the Baltic Sea just half hour east of here isn't frozen yet so the moisture was picked up from there.  Once again the boys and Sox were in heaven!  All of their time at recess is now spent in the snow, and even when they get home, you can not get them inside.  The temperature is still around 30 so again it seems pretty mild compared to what it will drop to.

After 2 hours of snowing a lot accumulated!

Playing in the snow and "shoveling"...we do have snow removal in our rental agreement, but Ben wanted to get a head start...

Don't let him fool you, that fort has a hidden stash of snowballs ready for action!

Of course the best part is the hot cocoa after:)

Christmas time in Sweden...Advent...Julbord...Thanksgiving?

I thought that it was crazy when I first started seeing Christmas decorations in malls and stores before Halloween in the states, but I was really surprised when I saw the same thing here.  As soon as stores start moving their summer inventory out, the Christmas lights and decorations began showing up...They don't call them Christmas decorations though...here they put lights up for Advent so by the first of December, they have lighted stars and candelabras in the windows.  They save their Christmas tree for right before Christmas...

At the store before Halloween...

My friend gave me my first paper lighted star...it comes folded and you pop it open and hang it in the window...

We bought a couple more paper lighted stars, but these are on lamps...

I managed to get my pre-lit tree and a few strands of lights I didn't realize I still had plugged into a converter that Thomas bought for one of our tv's, and it worked! I was thrilled.  I haven't put ornaments on it yet, but it still looks beautiful!

The center of town in decorated with lights too and in some of the main round-abouts that had beautiful flowers growing from them in the summer, they have replaced that with trees that are lit up as well.

Every single house has either lighted stars or candelabras in almost every window and it looks very Christmasy...I had an impression that they didn't decorate as much as the American's, but I think that they do almost as much.  The difference is it is always white lights and no characters such as Santa or reindeer, but people have trees out in their yard, or bushes that they decorate.

We are going to miss a few celebrations because we will be headed to Florida next weekend, but they do some fun things that are very Christmasy around here.  For instance, this Friday evening, they will have the town's crowned St. Lucia singing in the town center and at their church.  For a month or so, there has been a ballot and in the town newspaper, they have the nominees who are high school aged girls that have singing backgrounds who you can vote on to be the town's St. Lucia for this year.  They sing traditional Swedish songs and I am hoping to make it to see this on Friday.

Last weekend, while we were in Norway, the boy's school had a Christmas Market that we missed, and next weekend there will be another Christmas Market at this hotel that Thomas was in town for last year that is supposed to be really fun too...

The one other thing that I will not get a chance to experience this year, it the Julbord (pronounced yule board).  It is a very traditional Swedish Smorgasbord for Christmas.  Many restaurants put on their own versions of this and it is mainly a fancy buffet dinner with traditional foods that Swedish people have for Christmas.  We were going to try to go with Thomas' company's International Club and it would have been a great deal because normally the adult price at this particular restaurant was $75, but the company was discounting it for this club and it would only have been about $40 for adult and $30 for child, but Thomas was traveling that day so maybe next year.  My friend who did go was so kind to send pictures though so I thought I would share what a very fancy Julbord looked like...

They typically start with cold fish...

Then they have cold meats (I have heard sliced bear is good) and pâté...

3rd course was hot food, Meatballs, Game (maybe elk?) Stew, etc.,

Moving on to Fancy Cheeses...

Dessert served in two bite portions...

The funny thing is IKEA is advertising a Julbord for about $20/person and I thought about taking the boys out one evening this week just to check it out, might not be so fancy, but we will at least experience our first Swedish Julbord. Stay tuned for that...




There were a couple of excuses for not celebrating Thanksgiving this year...
Thomas was traveling that day and we celebrated Ben's birthday on the Saturday after Thanksgiving...But one of the main reasons I didn't make the famous turkey dinner was the logistics.

Up until about one week before, I couldn't even find a turkey for sale, here is the one lonely turkey I finally saw for sale in the local grocery store...

I did manage to make a pumpkin pie (ok...butternut squash pie), from scratch the weekend before though and we did eat a bite on Thanksgiving...

Some Sightseeing in Sweden...Falun Mines, Vasa Museum, Strolling Old Town Stockholm

Since the kids had off last week, it was a perfect time to take some day trips.  We had planned on spending a couple days in Stockholm, but haven't quite found a place for Sox to board yet, so we decided on a few places we were interested in seeing and were on our way...

On Friday, we headed only 1 hour away to a town called Falun.  They have an old copper mine that is open for tourists and it was fascinating...For starters, when I say old, they began mining it in the 700s and continued mining it until December 1992.  It was a major export for Sweden in the 17th century and at times, this mine itself accounted for 2/3 of the copper needed in Europe and helped fund many of Sweden's wars.

The mine was open for visitors and we went 220 feet into the mine stopping at various places along the way with a guided tour.  It was a balmy 37 degrees inside and damp, it really gave you an inside look into the life of a miner.

 In 1687, the mine was open everyday of the year except for Christmas and Midsummer (a large celebration day in Sweden).  On that particular Midsummer Day, parts of the mine collapsed giving way to a 100 m deep pit...since no one was working that day, miraculously no one was hurt!

The typical red color you see on many Swedish houses today comes from this mine still.  The red paint gets its color from the waste heaps around the mine, copper-poor ores are allowed to oxidize in the air, forming "red dirt" ground into pigment for Falu Red Paint.

The next day we headed 2 hours away to Stockholm.  We had only been to an amusement park in Stockholm earlier this summer, but there are many things to do in Stockholm, including many museums.  The one we had heard was great was the Vasa museum so we headed there.  The entire family loved this museum and we got a lot out of the visit there and learned even more about some Swedish history.

On August 10, 1628, the Vasa ship took her maiden voyage and after sailing only 1400 ft, it sunk... 333 years later, they brought it up from the waters and today it is being housed in the Vasa Museum with 98% of it being original and intact.  

They estimated 30 people died aboard, but when they brought it up from the water, they found remains from 15 different skeletons and they were on display at the museum complete with reconstructed figures of what the people might have actually looked like then. 

We spent a good portion of our day there, then went strolling in the Old Town section of Stockholm which was charming with its shoppes...

We even stumbled past the Noble Museum which is still where they hand out the Noble Prizes each year...

It was a fun week and we enjoyed discovering many things about Swedish history. 

Halloween in Sweden...How We Celebrated it and How it is Celebrated in Sweden

I wasn't sure how Halloween was celebrated here, I had heard that some did go Trick-or-Treating, but not many and I didn't want to take the kids out to do that if people were expecting us (I also couldn't tell what day they actually celebrated it because it sounds like they might do it on the weekends), Since Halloween was one of our family's favorite holidays, I wanted to be sure it was fun here and so we planned a party!  I made invitations that the boys handed out in school (Ben invited his whole class of 24 kids, and Alex invited just the boys in his class, about 6 kids).  It is fall break this week and many are away on vacation so I had no idea who could come since I didn't write to RSVP on the invitation...I planned for 30 kids just in case, all the while thinking maybe 10 would show...
25 kids later, we had a party!!!

   Ben is a Zombie and I am a witch (Ben talked me in to the green face makeup)!

We prepared all week (since we were off and there wasn't a lot going on this week...

It started with pumpkin carving...We were able to buy pumpkins here and I had read that if you see them available then buy them ASAP because once they are out, they won't restock them so about 2 weeks ago I found one for about $10 which I though was a good deal!  Ben and I carved the pumpkin with a carving kit that I still had from previous Halloween's...

Then we prepared spooky food for the party, these Witches Fingers were like short-bread cookies, yummy!!!

We also had Mummy hot dogs and I usually make them with cresent dough from Pilsbury, but I improvised with premade Pizza dough that was just as tasty...

Other treats included apples wedges with caramel and Halloween sprinkles we called Poison Apples, Bloody Punch, and more...


I think everyone that could make it did and the kids from Ben's class were very well dressed for Halloween!  (Alex and his buddies chose not to dress, but that was ok:))  I didn't realize it, but in Sweden I think it is customary if you are invited to someone's house to bring something so it was so cute when the kids showed up, they handed us gifts such as bags of candy, flowers, and chocolates...(It was like my kids went trick or treating with all that these kids brought us.)  Also, everybody was very prompt...Literally everybody showed up at once (about 5 minutes early), and they left at once as well...I think at one point about 10 minutes before the party was to end, I saw parents gathering outside so I went out to ask if I was to get everyone ready and send them out...I'm still not sure, but after that the parents came to the house and the kids got ready to leave, and of course we gave them a Trick-or-Treat bag filled with candy:) Everyone had a good time!


So I have been asked a lot how is Halloween celebrated here in Sweden and I will tell you what I know...

Like I mentioned, there are people that go Trick-or-Treating, we actually had about 8 kids come to the door on Halloween (it may be because our house was lit up with ghosts and cobwebs from our American decorations that worked with our converter thanks to Thomas), but I do not think all kids go nor can I tell if they go on a different night like this weekend (I have heard it's usually on a Saturday so we will see if more come).  But there are celebrations that go on and it is mostly planned through the schools for the younger children.  Alex's class had no celebration, but Ben's class actually had an evening party where the parents organized it and it was actually very impressive!  It was held at a High School gym and there was dancing and Halloween type food and everyone was in a costume! It was held the Friday before Halloween.

We saw stores carry some Halloween decorations and costumes, and especially at a few stores at the mall...

Other than seeing stores carrying things, we really hadn't heard of any extra celebrations outside of Ben's class party, but we happened to find a new mall in the large town next to us, and while we were there Halloween day, they were adding decorations to all the stores and out in the center areas preparing I think for Trick-or-Treating at the stores.  I even asked if they did anything special in the mall to one employee and she said they were staying open 2 hours later until 9:00.  There was one store we saw there that was only opened seasonally to sell costumes and they were quite impressive, they also would do Halloween makeup for you for about $10...

That is what I know about their Halloween celebrations, on a side note, we had our time change a week ahead of the US, and now it is getting pretty dark here around 4:15 in the afternoon, we are getting very close to the shortest day of the year though in December and from then it will be getting lighter and lighter so I can't wait for that!  We have had a mild fall from what I understand and got through the month of October without a snowflake (some claim they saw some at 6:00AM one morning, but I didn't so it doesn't count yet:))...

Fall is beautiful here! Preparing for winter

When it first got cold in September I thought I would never last through the fall, but the rest of September was better weather and October has been pleasant as well. Everyone has been saying its unseasonably warm, and I guess that means it could have been a lot colder. It's funny, when its 40 degrees now I say it's warm! That's my new perspective!

The leaves have been changing colors and I have captured a few pictures. 

Alex and I were walking Sox and it looked like it was raining leaves...

So I have been noticing they do many things here to prepare for winter so all the signs are here that snow will be here soon...first thing I noticed was all the people putting their trampolines away back in September. Next, I noticed the poles being placed on the sides of the roads and in our driveway to indicate to plows where the roads are...

Luckily they are made of rubber so if I hit them, I won't ruin my car:)

Last weekend when it looked like it finally might be so cold this week that the base filled with water in the basketball hoop might freeze and crack, we took down the hoop for the winter...

It was so sad:( but I promised to take Alex to these outdoor courts as much as possible, so Monday we went and the fall leaves in the background were beautiful!!!

Then this week it rain during the day on Wednesday, but when the temps dropped in the night supposedly it snowed...we didn't see it, and there was no evidence the next morning, but the boys did find a frozen puddle and were prepared with winter jackets...

Finally, this weekend, Thomas has taken on the task of putting on winter tires for my car. They have spikes so now I'm prepared for the winter!

I guess fall is over soon...