Happy New Year!

Today it's another grand day: New Year's Eve!
We're off to celebrate with very good friends and we all can't wait. Our son is good friends with one of the couples' daughters, so he can't wait either.

I wish everyone here a Happy New Year!
See you in 2011 :-)

40 something!

The day was good. Picture proof follow!

The day was cake and parents and the evening was dinner!

I had a very nice and lively gentleman by the table!

I think this is probably The Best restaurant in our town. My first visit there!

Husband helps the small one with the cutting.

It was all very tasty!

Later... goofing off with a silver bowl my parents gave me.

Thought that it looked like fashion from the fourties'.

Suited for the 40 year old!

Updated version of me: 4.0!!

Yep, today is the day: I hereby declare that I'm 40 years old :-)
Wow!
It feels great, like every new year does, I think. I'm a little wiser, a little more experienced.

My boys (hubby and little son) served me cake-breakfast with thoughtful gifts and a lot of friends sent FB-wishes. Thanks to all!

Now I'll continue my fourtieth birthday by doing.... nothing. I hope. For a while. Before my parents show!!!

Rice porridge - for lunch!

Yes, it's rice porridge time again! In this house we love it and it is as much Christmas as it can possible be. For dinner it will be left overs from the Christmas table.

I and my dog went jogging this afternoon and before that I played boardgames with my five year old. It is cosy times and tomorrow I'll be back to work again.
Tomorrow evening I will meet three girlfriends, in the city, for dinner. One flies in from Scotland and one from my previous hometown and it will be a wonderful evening. Well needed, too.

I just hope that the trains or replacement busses will work, so I can get home afterwards...

I leave you with a pic of the son, being Gingerbread man in the Lucia celebration at pre school!
Hope you'll have a truly wonderful day!

Oh, what a great time it is!

We had a wonderful Christmas. Yes, it is still Christmas but my first born son already went back home, since he has to go to work tomorrow.

Here are some pics of the perfect Christmas time for me, with the ones I love the most:

By the evening of Christmas Eve, I was able to eat again, for which I was ever so grateful! So, I too had turkey, porridge and sweets :-) And "glögg" which is almost the same as glühwine.

I wish all of you some more good Christmas days.

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve and the best day of the year!
My sons are here, the tree was decorated by the two of them. As tradition holds.
I just put the turkey in the oven and will now start making gravy (will keep it all clean and not touch anything). Rice porridge is another tradition in this country, so I'll start making it soon also.

My sons slept in the same room and got their stockings filled with gifts and the small one just simply can't wait 'til Santa gets here!! He's so excited and thrilled.

I just froze a second this morning: my sons talked by the table, my husband threw a glance at the morning newspaper, the dog was "snutting" with his blanket, Christmas music in the background.
Perfection. Total happiness.
I felt like freezing the moment for....forever. Love this wonderful life.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas. I will save some more moments, I'm sure, during the day...

What a prelude!

Well, how's this for a prelude to Christmas: during the night two things happened that somewhat effected the day:

-a severe snow storm placed itself right above us. It's indescribable and we couldn't even open the front door!

- a stomach flu placed itself in my tummy which means no cooking (or eating) and I had had the day booked for Christmas cooking.

Because of the snow storm there were terrible delays and a eventually stuck train, that was carrying my son, coming down for Christmas. Busses were ordered, he was told, but "not confirmed"?!
To top it all off, my son's phone ran out of battery.....!!! We didn't know what happened from then on...

Thanks to Facebook I found that a colleage/friend was on that very same train. She managed to find my son (they had never met before!) and lent him her iPhone. So as we speak, my hubby has found the son and they have now embarked on a very snowy and stormy car ride home.

Can't wait to see that son of mine! Last time we spent time together, was in a warm New York. Now it's a cold and snowy little coastal town in Scandinavia ;-)

We managed to dig ourselves out. The dog still finds that "hopping" is the best option, in this weather..!

Can't see out, at all...

Our snowed-in-by-far home!

Oooops, there's the Christmas tree.... Hmmm.

Well, it sure can't possibly feel any more Christmas:sy than this. I'm so happy!!

Sunday greeting from our "Moomin home"!

Our home is as cosy as ever and today we finally bought a new "sleigh" for our son, since the old one got lost in the move.  So tomorrow we'll pull him to pre school in it!

I made some more Christmas candy today and then cleaning, dishwashing, jogging and dog walking. Enjoying every second, watching tiny snow flakes falling and the little one crazily excited about it being Christmas Eve soon!!!
Good time of year, for sure.

The cosiest little street in the world: I love it and can't wait to celebrate our first Christmas here!

A friend of mine said that she thinks our house looks like the Moomin House here!

Candy. Freshly made by me. Will also be part of x-mas gifts for a few lucky recievers...!

I wish everyone a grand week!

And even more snow!

I have got to get to show you my great snow pics!
I'm amazed by all this snow and all this snowing: it never ends. It still snows so much, that when you've shovelled it in order to get out of the house, in order to go grocery shopping, you need to shovel it again when you get back!
The dog started jumping on three legs, half way in to the walk, because of snow clumps at the paws :-)

Well, the backside aswell as the front side looks divine: picture perfect for Christmas. Below you'll see yet more photos of our winter wonderland!

Our backyard. The hop mat really ought to have been folded ahead of time but who could guess?!!

The outdoor furniture!! Doesn't look inviting or like we'll BBQ anytime soon...

The front side has to be shovelled over and over again. Good excersice!! Well, hubby is the one who does it...

The bushes are starting to give in under the heavy snow pressure. And it got worse before hubby made it better :-)

Continued snow report!

Yes, the snow kept falling last week and I just had to take pictures of it, since it amazed me and caught the whole area off guard.
I was snowed in, from work, and had to work from home a couple of days. It was/is an adventure with all the snow even though it was/is really cold aswell and the boy sometimes cried walking home from pre school, getting ice cold snowflakes pushed up in his face...

Ande there was still more to come...!