Christmas in Ale

 Christmas Eve was celebrated in Ale with mum, Maggi, Åke. Åke's parents and my brother with family were also there for a big part of the day but missed Father Christmas.



 These "kicks" are handy to have in the snow and the kids loved going for a ride down to see the sheep.

 Getting the four cousins to pose for a photo was nearly impossible.

 Waiting for Santa...

 When Santa finally came Jakob was so happy and excited and gave him lots of hugs.

 Isak on the other hand was not sure about the whole Santa thing. He took his present but walked back to mormor very quickly.

Christmas morning

At 8 am Christmas Eve in the morning Jakob and I went to dad's grave to light two candles. It was still dark and we were the only people at the cemetary. Jakob likes going there. He thinks it looks so nice with candles everywhere and it brings back happy memories of morfar.

 In the car on the way to the grave Jakob said: Mummy I don't want to live until I am 100 years old. I don't want it to be that long before I get to see morfar again.

Home again after a nice morning trip together Jakob got to light all four candles. 

Merry Christmas

The night before Swedish Christmas and all the boys (including the big one) are asleep. Tomorrow morning Jakob and I will go to dad's grave to light a candle and after that we will go to Ale to spend Christmas with mum, Maggi and Åke. Anders and his family will also be there for a few hours.

On Christmas Day we will celebrate Australian Christmas where we open the present from Australia in the morning. In the afternoon some friends are coming over for drinks and dinner. We are all very excited about.

Hope all of you will have a wonderful Christmas and we send some extra special Christmas wishes to grandma, poppa, Jason, Karen, Hugo and Arabella over in Adelaide!

Christmas

 The past couple of weeks have been fun and busy with trips to the riding club, seeing friends, dagis, work and lots of birthday parties. This week we have had 3 birthdays, mum on Wednesday, Sigrid yesterday and Anders today. The only negative is trying to get Jakob to leave the parties. He has been very upset with me the last few nights...

Both Isak and Jakob are really well at the moment apart from Isak having a light cold. Isak is still not talking but he understands a lot and he communicates in his own way using just one word and pointing and grunting to get what he wants. He is extremly cute (I know I am his mum...) and very cuddly. He loves holding hands and he still loves sleeping. He wants to do everything Jakob does which I guess is pretty normal but can be annoying when he is determined to pour milk by himself from a full milk container just because Jakob does it. Very small problems though and because he is so cute it is hard to get upset with him when he for example stands on the kitchen table with a big smile.

Jakob is a great big brother and the other night he was so proud of himself when he managed to undress Isak and take his nappy off to get ready for bed. Isak loved it and did everything Jakob told him to do: Isak, sit down. Isak, stand up. Isak turn around. When I do it he runs away laughing :-)

Christmas fika

 Jakob helping Carina baking some "lussebullar"

Families together again

Last weekend we were invited to Micke and Zara, it was nice to get together with all the children again. Jakob was very happy to see Finn again. Micke cooked a delicious lamb dish and Zara made a yummy dessert so that on top of nice company made the evening a success.

 Isak is a sweet tooth like me... he was the only one who couldn't take his eyes off the ice cream for a photo...

 Isak wants to be were Jakob is and wants to do what Jakob does...

Lucia at dagis

                                                          

The Lucia day is on 13th December and dagis had celebrations in the morning with a Lucia train outside at 8am for parents to come and watch, and after that fika inside.  

Jakob loved it all and was especially happy to see his friends again!                                             

                                                        

Isak was a bit scared at first and didn't want to be a part of it. After only a couple of minutes he pushed off me and started walking towards the other kids. He looked so cute in all his thick winter clothes with the santa dress on top.

Busy Sunday

After an early morning for Jakob he kept going strong all day. Adam took him skating and he loved it and didn't want to stop. Normally he only lasts for a 20 min or something but this time he skated for nearly 2 hours.

 Later in the afternoon I took the kids (and mormor) to the yearly Christmas party in Ale. It is always relly nice and starts with Christmas porridge and sandwhiches.

  

                   Åsa and Mikaels little Vilmer is not so small anymore and I have a feeling that he will love running after Isak and Jakob when he gets a bit older.

                         In the old school building where the party was they have a room with some gym machines. Isak and Jakob did some heavy work out and Isak didn't want to stop even though he fell backwards hitting his head a few times.                          

                                                    

Lucia train with all the other children. This was the first year Jakob was really in to it and did well singing and participating in the train. Even Iska did pretty well trying to be a part of it all.

                                             

                                                          

Lucas, Jakob, Moa and Isak, the four cousins all in the same photo. Doesn't happen very often.  

                                                               

Isak getting a present from Santa...

                             And Jakob getting one too...                            

Isak relaxing after a long day. They both fell asleep in the car on the way home.



Ginger bread

                            

Sunday morning Jakob woke up at 3.15 and didn't go back to sleep. Adam was also awake so they hung out in the middle of the night, not really sure what they did. At 6.30 I got up and took over so Adam could have some sleep. Jakob was of course not interested in sleeping at all so when Isak woke up we started baking ginger bread.

                                      

Jakob did a great job baking and Isak did a great job eating the cookies. I ate the dough when nobody (Jakob and Isak) could see what I was doing...



Snow

Second day back and more snow! hard to believe we had green grass only a few days before these photos were taken. Jakob was so excited about the snow and wanted to go outside as soon as he woke up. Even Isak, who didn't really know what to do, seemed to enjoy it.

                                              

Jakob didn't even mind getting snow all over his face and body !



Finally, after nearly 5 weeks in Australia, Adam, Jakob and Isak are back home again. I have missed them like crazy and especially the last couple of weeks have been tough. I have kept myself very busy and taken the opportunity to do things I normally don't do (like the trip to London) and over all I have had fun, but 5 weeks is a long time.

They have had a great time with grandma and poppa in Australia and during the first weeks away they didn't miss me for a second. Jakob's English has improved a lot and it feels like he is a lot bigger and older since I last saw him. When I met them at the airport today Jakob was really excited but Isak started crying when I first took him and wanted to go back to Adam. It didn't take him long to warm to me again though and on the way to the car he was happy again.

This afternoon we have played and played and put up the Christmas tree, had tacos for dinner, had a bath etc. The kids were coping extremly well, Isak looked very tired a couple of times but pushed through and seemed very relieved when I put him in his bed just before 7pm. It didn't take Jakob many minutes to go to sleep either. Adam crashed around 6pm after an impressive effort to travel by himself with the two freaks all the way from Australia, on 4 flights. Jakob who is an experienced traveller nowdays had been great the whole way but Isak on the other hand was up for adoption a couple of times...

Finally we have some snow here and last night and this morning I had to shovel snow for the first time. Today when we were having dinner the neighours kids came over and did some more shoveling for us! Those children are amazing, such a nice thing to do for us!

Better go and check on the angels in their beds. So happy to have everyone home again :-)

London

 A few weeks ago I spent a long weekend in London staying with my dear friend Isabel. We met each other when working in Israel over 15 years ago and after that we have travelled in Africa together and visit each other many times over the years. Isabel now lives in Camden in a really nice place.

 The first day in London we walked and walked and walked through parks and other really nice suburbs in the less touristy areas. At the end of a long day of walking we stopped at Camden market for a foot massage from a Vietnames man that told us lots about Asian astrology. Isabel looked after me and cooked me a nice English dinner that we ate in bed watching a movie.

 Day 2 was another big day of walking, I just love London! today we treated ourselves to a Maroccoan Hammam, something I have never tried before, it was great! After that we went to the cinema and saw The Help. I read the book (Niceville) at home and loved it, the movie was also really good but as always not quite as great as the book.

 Day 3 we took the train down to Brighton to have lunch with Isabel's parents. I haven't seen them for many years so it was nice to meet them again. Last time I saw them they lived in London but a few years ago they moved down to Brighton. After a delicious lunch cooked by Isabel's dad we went for a walk along the water.

Isabel and her mum...