A spectacular discovery

The boys have been learning about dinosaurs in school lately. Naturally there has been a lot of talk about different kinds of dinosaurs at our house. But Alvin shared the most interesting fact with us: "In 2001, dinosaurs found the skelleton of a 50 year-old man." He is so funny!

Musical fun!

Saturday two weeks ago (I clearly don't write here often enough) I took Alvin, Ivar and Lovisa to the Consert House in Stockholm City. There we were able to listen to Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf", performed by the royal filharmonic orchestra.


It was the kids' first experience of listening to classical music live and they actually enjoyed it. They had a story teller reading the exciting story and that made the whole thing a bit more interesting for the kids. I loved the consert. It reminded me of all of the conserts I've listened to or played in over the years. I really miss it.
After the (30 minute...) concert, I had a surprise for the kids. I had told them that there was going to be a person there that they would enjoy seeing. They were so surprised when their favourite kids TV personality, Nassim Al Fakir, walked out on the stage!


He led the several hundred kids in singing and dancing. It was a lot of fun. When he was done he was going to be standing in the main lobby to see all the children and write autographs. I think we stood in line for about 20 minutes before it was our turn.

Lovisa walked right up to Nassim and hugged him! Ivar whispered: "His hair is really messy, but he is funny anyway." They they got his autograph, and they were so proud of it!

Next, the kids had the opportunity to try some musical instruments. We walked around in the many rooms and corridors, up and down the gigantic stone stairs and looked at many different instruments.

They tried woodwind and strings, but they enjoyed the brass instruments the most.

By the time we were done playing instruments and walking up and down the stairs to find them all, the kids were hungry and tired.

Good thing they had hot-dogs and fruit juice. With a little food in our tummies we took the bus home.
What a great day!

Winter fun

Last week we finally had some real winter weather! Tuesday, Jens took Alvin, Ivar and Lovisa to Svartsjön (Black Lake) so that they could go out on the ice. They thought it was a lot of fun to be walking on the lake where they swim in the summer!

Alvin offers Lovisa a helping hand.

Hot chocolate and lusse-buns.


The next day we all went sledding on a slope close to where Jens went to school as a kid. It was a really nice day but freezing cold. The kids enjoyed themselves and had a competition to see who could go the furthest.

The kids were excited to try out their new sleds.

Of course we brought some hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls to keep us happy and warm.

New Years Eve

We spent New Year's at our house. We had a nice dinner and then we watched "Nanny McPhee" and ate snacks and delicous chocolate pralines which were made for the occasion. The kids got to stay up as late as they wanted, but the last one was out by 10.20 pm... The rest of the night Jens and I had a nice and quiet evening to ourselves. I love New Year's! It gives me such an energy boost to think that a whole new year lies ahead, and I can make it a great one!

Christmas

In Sweden most people celebrate Christmas Eve more than Christmas day. We try to celebrate both, using Christmas Eve as a festive present-opening and eating-loads-of-delicious-food-day. Christmas Day we try to keep more calm, reading the Christmas gosple, and talk about the person who's birth we are celebrating. Of course, the kids also play with their new toys and we more delicious food..!

This year we started the celebrating in our house, opening presents and eating rice porrige with cinnamon and sugar, like the rest of Sweden.

Egons favourite present this year was a panda bear. He calls it "Nanna" and loves to carry it around, pet it and kiss it.

Egon also enjoys his new harmonica, and the rest of us get to hear him enjoy it!

Alvin and Ivar were very excited about the note books they got. Why buy expensive gifts when they get this happy over a note book..?

We went to IKEA a few days before Christmas, and Alvin and Ivar saw a pile of blue cuddly sharks. Alvin got really excited and cuddled one, but then he remembered that he was six and probably shouldn't want a cuddly animal for Christmas. Then he spent the next couple of days saying that he didn't want a cuddly animal.

But this is how happy they were when they got them! Maybe they weren't too big after all?


At one o'clock it was time for Christmas dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Rydgren's. It's amazing how great food tastes at Christmas.

At three it was time for The Donald Duck Christmas show on TV. An interesting tradition that we shared with over a third of the population this year. After that most of the family went for a walk while a few of us cleaned up and got out the dessert.

After dessert it was time for Santa to come with his sack of presents. This year, Grandpa Rydgren played a trick on us. Usually the person who is supposed to dress up as Santa says something about going to buy a news paper, when he leaves. So Grandpa Rydgren said that he was going to do just that, and walked out the door. All the kids screamed when the doorbell rang. When they opened the door, Grandpa came in with the NEWSPAPER! A few minutes later, Santa came in the door, and everyone was so excited!

One of the presents the kids got was a puppet theater. What a fun present! Lovisa also got a cute apron with ladybugs on it, so now she's going to help out even more in the kitchen!

Christmas was wonderful this year, for all of us. Thanks everyone for making it special!

At last the fourth candle was lit...

...and Christmas was near!

Egon is getting ready to blow out the candles.

Gingerbread cookies

Every year, a couple of weeks before Christmas we bake about a ton of gingerbread cookies, using our secret family recipe. We also make hearts to hang in the window. Everybody gets to decorate his or her own heart.