Scandinavian's largest interior design fair was an amazing experience. Those more jaded refer to Milan and Frankfurt where they have over 4000 exhibitors but for my friend Christina and I 850 booths was plenty - thank you very much. The exhibitors had decorated their booths so you could step into their world of design and be inspired. Even if the booth was small, like my friend Kajsa's, it was laid out so well with thought to form, space, light that you wanted to stay. None of the chintsy giveaways common to US fairs but rather a chance to meet, greet, enjoy a glass of wine or candy and exhange business cards. I pulled off a pretty good impression of power broker and managed to get some excellent information on trends, prices and products. Am now in love with Swedish metal chandeliers and lambskins plus everthing from Lappland, which conjures up such a romantic vision of snow, sky, trees and natural furs. Trying to decide how to get involved professionally possibly merging my interest in Sweden with my skills in marketing and interest in design. I have brainstormed ideas for a while but seeing that there is such talent out there and a large untapped market in the US, helps me believe that this dream could come true. Here are some pictures of the exhibition that don't do it justice.  One of my newest friend, Christina, helped make this trip happen. She arranged for us to stay at her sister's house which was a treat as her family is very welcoming and fun. Luckily I was also able to see one of my "oldest" friends too and meet up with her in Stockholm for a delicious diner of tiny mussels. Lena, it was wonderful to catch up with you!
Sent from my ASUS Eee Pad

Just got back from a sunny week in Lanzarote, a desert island in the Grand Canary Islands, close to Africa. We enjoyed exploring the island, getting some warm sunshine, and the New Years Eve celebration. My favorite visit was seeing the Cesar Manique Fundacion on the northern part of the island. Http://www.cesarmanrique.com. It's a former swinging 60's bachelor pad turned into a museum. Loved the creative use of the lava fields, the feel of it, and imagining going to a cool party there. ;-) But a picture is worth a thousand words so I'll let some pictures do the talking... lots of pictures.
Sent from my ASUS Eee Pad

This year my Christmas wishes all came true. Thanks to my handsome husband, courageous kids, helpful parents and reliable renters my dream of "coming home" to Sweden for a year came true. The wishes I secretly held for the holiday season also happened, so effortlessly it seemed almost magical.

First we baked, filling the house with good smells - sugar cookies, gingerbread, cardamon buns, cinamon buns, more sugar cookies and 55 saffron buns for Lucia! Then we decorated - David refused to spend Christmas without a tree and right he was! We got one and decorated it with handmade decorations, cookie ornaments, and some special borrowed finery from my mother and it looked prettier than many in the magazines. I had wanted to go to a "Julmarknad" (Christmas market) so off we went in old Chipster (the red Ford we're borrowing) to a market at a castle. With glögg, a nice chill in the air, Tomte (Santa) giving gifts, and burnt sugar almonds it couldn't have been better, or more picturesque. We even caught a market in Skanör with some wonderful singing, and one at Lorensdahl with special crafts that my mother and I oogled. And we made it to the Tivoli (www.Tivoligardens.com) in Copenhagen!

Speaking of singing, there's lots of it at this time of the year and I enjoyed it all. Reliving the songs of my childhood in church got me all choked up, and singing on Christmas Eve with my family was a longheld dream that didn't disappoint. Lukas even did some interpretative dancing! Kajsa let me lead her in a very special mother-daughter dance that brings tears to my eyes as I remember how beautiful and serious she looked. My mother took us to "Nalles Jul", a Christmas show for children given by the Malmö Symphony which was spectacular, and the kids and I saw Granen (The Little Fir Tree) by HC Andersen, so culture was not missed. Of course the Christmas season here is heralded by Santa Lucia and I enjoyed watching the kids in Luke's class doing it instead of me. :-) It was important to me too that our children be exposed to this part of the Swedish culture which is so meaningful to me, and learn the songs.

I was also so pleased by the amount of invitations we got to celebrate XMAS. Emma and Niklas, Eva and William, Anna and Tomas, Lotta and Carl-Henrik, and Jan and Marie, were all kind enough to have us over or celebrate with us and the children. This was quite an added and unexpected bonus because although I was sure we'd have fun family times (which we also did at Charlottes, Emmas, Ritas and my moms) I hadn't thought we would have friends to party with so soon after getting here. And Woodge and I always love a party. Also Christmas Eve at Mamma and Willys was so fun and delicious, just perfectly planned and orchestrated, but unfortunate that Willy missed Tomte's visit. ;-)

There's just too much to relay and so many pictures to download that I can't get it all down, but I can say that I am so happy and thankful for this Christmas although we missed our loved ones at home. The presents under the tree were the cherry on the top of what was already amemorable time. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday as well.

Sent from my ASUS Eee Pad

This photo slideshow personalized with Smilebox

For those of you who missed the post in October I made the very ambitious goal for myself of seeing all the castles in this part of Sweden, a southern province called Skåne.  Turns out there's hundreds so needless to say I've needed to scale back a bit.  But I have managed to see six and this is a good time to try to sneak in more as they open the more accessible castles for Christmas markets. 

Some castles (which as you can imagine are quite expensive to maintain) were bequeathed to the state and those are the ones you can get a good look at. But incredibly many are still private dwellings -- can you imagine the heating bills?!  I have allowed myself to call one of these private castles "seen" although it was hardly glimpsed at all.  The others I've visited so far include:  Torupslott, Kronborg Slott (in Denmark, Elsinore in Hamlet was modeled on it), Bosjökloster near Höör, Svaneholm and now Malmöhus slott. 

A happy coincidence occured there.  My cousins happened to be at the museum there last weekend, while we - at the same time - were nearby at the Tekniska museum (science museum).  I called Jens and when we realized that we were literally across the street from one another we had a nice coffee with the whole crew, and got invited to Emma's house for a delicious supper!  How someone can whip up soup for 15 I'll never know but we had an awesome saffron fish stew, and it was so much fun catching up.  That's what I call synchronicity!  Thanks Sanna for inviting us.  ;-)

Dear Swedish/American/English friends,
Are you having a tomte come to your house this year to pass out gifts to the kids? How do you arrange this?  There's a guy in Arlöv who you pay to be tomte (250 krones plus mileage).  I thought we might go this route, since we don't know someone who could trick the kids.  But it seems weird to have a random guy come to your house on Christmas Eve, even it if would make for some good pictures!  Would either of you be interested in sharing this guy, or do you have other better ideas? 

Also I'm not really clear on tomte's back story.  Who is this guy anyway?  I read that he was a gnome who stayed with the family during the year but who visits with gifts on XMas eveso that's what I told the kids.  Luke doesn't belive in Santa Claus but Kajsa does and she's trying to piece this all together. And boy does she have questions!  Does Santa just deliver to the Us?  Is Tomte his envoy?  Does Santa just work morning shift, and only visit American kids?  Is Tomte an evil entity who needs to be placated with rice pudding?  And sine he's so small (elf size) does he grow big on XMas? 

All advice is much apreciated as we bumpinto Tomte everywhere including the local Ica, and need to get our story straight!  Tack + God Jul,
TINA

The Swedes take their Christmas season seriously and it starts early around here so you can get in all that carousing, shopping, eating, Christmas-lighting, and glögg-drinking by 12.24.  Plus they take days off to really get their holiday jollies in, days like lille jul afton, and annan dag jul, etc.  Days I don't quite know what they mean, but that add up to a three week vaca for the kids and numerous days off for those, unlike poor Dave, lucky enough to work for a Swedish company.  My hubby gets only one day off at Christmas, 12/26 and in comparison to the Swedes this seems a little Scrooge-ish.  At any rate, we also started our festivities early at Svaneholm castle's jul marknad (Christmas market) on 11.12, scoring one more caste and a visit with Santa all in one go!

My darling daughter Kajsa turns seven on Friday.  Can't believe it myself.  We love and enjoy her so much.  She's so much more savvy and confident than I was at that age, but she still loves her mummy and curls up like a cat around Dave's neck when he reads to her.  She is very decided that she wants an American birthday cake even though there's nothing better than Swedish ones.  She wrinkled her nose in disdain when I mentioned whipped cream and God forbid that there be raspberries on the cake.  So it looks like I'm baking again... Betty Crocker where are you when I need you?  Normally it wouldn't be such a big deal but I have no pans to bake the cake with, no time because I'm working, no recipe, and the flour is different here too.  Also there's the little matter that I already got roped into making 55 lussekattor (Lucia buns) for the school's Sankta Lucia celebration on 12.9.  Oh yeah, birthday and Christmas time all rolled into one!!  Gotta love it, the race is on... who can be organized enough to plan birthday party, St. Lucia and Christmas plus cook, bake and shop for all those in a mere 24 days?  If not me, who?  David? An army? Anyone? :-D

It seems that the longer we're here, the more American we get.  First a Halloween blow-out and now Thanksgiving with all the trimmings thanks to my mom's hard work.  It's wonderful to be able to visit someone else and just bring a little something, in this case cornbread and pumpkin pie, isn't it?  I've been spoiled first by Julie, my mother-in-law, who always makes a delicious bird and this year my mother, Bitte, who decided to do it up.  I'm very thankful for the food, the good times, and not having to cook!  The guests this year included the four of us, Rita and John (my mother's sister and husband), Peter and Annika (my mother's brother and wife), and of course Bitte and Willy who were our gracious hosts.  We ate until stuffed, hung out and talked (Dave snuck off for a traditional Thanksgiving nap while we chatted in Swedish) and then we played Chinese Checkers.  Check out the pics!  

Last weekend we took a trip to Skånes Djurpark with Mormor. We all were suprised at how fun it really was, especially my mom. We all had a good time seeing the animals in a natural setting, a woody setting in Höör. Luke's favorite animal was the elk, Kajsa's was the fox, and mine was the little grey Artic fox. Check it out...
Sent from my ASUS Eee Pad