Midsummer: time to celebrate!

It's the time of year when Midsummer's here!
If there is one day, all year, when everybody shows up for a celebration, it's this day (OK Christmas and New Year are equally big).
Midsummer has a clear advantage of being in summertime and therefore a little warmer than Christmas. It rains, however, practically every year this day and this people are prepared for.

My boy got the umbrella. He was a little skeptical at first.

After four hours in a car it was good seeing our dear friends.

We got there just in time to start dancing around the maypole.

It so turns out, that this was a lot more fun than The Boy had anticipated!! He got into it.

We had a blast dancing!

In line for the Chocolate Wheel...

Where The Boy won a whole box of chocolates!

Isn't it the best? Spending time with friends.

Traditions

To me it was a completing experience, passing on the tradition of dancing round the maypole with my boy, together with friends on Midsummer's Eve.
I always did it as a child and loved it.

I firmly remember a whole bunch of Midsummers where we picked ten kinds of flowers, stuck them under the pillow in order to dream about Prince Charming - the man we were supposed to marry!
I don't have a daughter and I have yet to concieve a boy that wants to pick flowers, let alone stick them under a pillow...

Due to our moving over the years, we've never really formed a "Midsummer group of friends" and here people celebrate this day with groups of friends and new people are rarely let in. Thankfully our neighbors from our last house kindly allowed us in their group of friends and has opened up their home and family for us both for New Year's and Midsummer's. We're very thankful, since we couldn't imagine nicer or sweeter friends to celebrate with!

Dear and cute friends.

The hostess, my dear friend.

Their brand new terrace is the same size as our garden!!

I dare not think about what The Hubster is lecturing this pore bloke about ;-)
(yes, a laugh-out-loud pic!)

Busy host.

So, beside the maypole Midsummer demands all sorts of herring, sourcream, fresh local potatoes, chives and a particular kind of shots called "snaps".

Snaps are very strong and high on alcohol level and they are accompanied by certain kinds of short songs that are mandatory and very old. It's a huge part of the tradition.

The hosts of this Midsummer party also offered a very tasty pie of a special kind of cheese from up north in our country and that tasted heavenly, which was good for me since I don't eat herring!

A luscious table awaited us.

The pie and snaps in tiny bottles...

Having fun and enjoying around a table full of goodies, ain't half bad.

Older
The older I get, the more my life seems to turn into that kind of life that I dreamt of as a child. I hadn't thought about it until now but it hits me that it's like that. A wonderful husband, loveable sons, a house I really like (and even a garden) and the sweetest friends to share many parts of life with.

Who'd have thought?!

We opted for having the strawberries inside (yep, Midsummer is often kinda' cold), so Åsa could have a nice chat with the iPad.

To much delight!

After stuffing ourselves for hours, a walk came in handy. The kids jumped around, high on sugar!

Sights of interest were being pointed out.

Summer flowers were being picked.

Fun was being had.

I think "crazy" friends add spice to any gathering!

Late at night there was nothing more than....iPads going on for the kids...!

Going home the next day a maypole hanging in a crane was a fun reminder of the good Midsummer celebration we had.

Our moving away from dear friends wasn't all bad, since we now see each other at least two days, often three, each time we get together. We share breakfasts, lunches, dinners and we play games and laugh a whole lot. Because we can't go home, we get to know each other even better than we would have, had we still been neighbors. 

At least that's what I think.

******

Wednesday. Half of the second to last week before my vacation is done now. My brain is tuned into vacation mode, big time, these days so it keeps feeling wrong going to work. I try my best to chill so that the first week of vacation won't be consumed of winding down!

Have a grand second part of the week. Summer's here and every little thing is wonderful!!