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.

Christmas Letter 2008

This passed year has gone by faster than any year so far. A couple of high-lights from the year were our week in Toinis family's summer cabin and our trip to Småland and Öland. There we stayed on a farm and the children got to help take care of all the animals. While we were there, we also visited the beach and an old castle, dating from the 12th century.

Being a family of six, there is always something to do, something to look at, something to worry about and something to laugh at. We realize more and more as time goes by how blessed we are to be part of this family. Every individual brings to it his or her special spirit and personality, which makes it a colorful blend.

Egon is develloping fast. He just turned 18 months and he never rests. Constantly moving from one place to the next, he is trying to quench his thirst for discovering and learning new things. He is fascinating to watch, and very demanding to keep up with. Egon loves to play with his siblings, and always falls for their silly attempts to make him laugh. When he does, you have to laugh with him. His laughter is just so contaminating.


Lovisa continues to be a headstrong little girl. When she has set her mind to something, good or bad, she will not budge. She is always up to something, and leaving her on her own for very long can prove disastrous. Last fall, Lovisa started playschool three days a week, which she enjoys very much. Lovisa loves to sing and play house. In addition to her dolls, her "babies" include a rabbit, a ragdoll, a horse a sheep, a polar bear and a dog. Lovisa is a very happy little girl - a ray of sunshine in our home.


Ivar is a very studious boy. He started school this year and he loves it - especially maths. He is also very fond of playing computer games where he can learn new things. This year the boys have been taking swimming lessons and Ivar is excited about learning how to swim. He is very good at taking care of his little brother and is really patient with him. It is very important to Ivar that things are fair, to him and to others. When he thinks that something is unfair it really upsets him.


Alvin is very creative and loves to do crafts. Recently he gave his mother a "jewellery box" made of two ice cream boxes and some string. The other day he asked why she still hasn't started using it. Alvin also enjoys school a lot and especially playing with his friends. He likes swim school even though he wishes he could learn how to swim a lot faster. Alvin has a real roller coaster temper. He can go from happy to angry in a matter of seconds. But when he is in a good mood, which is most of the time, he is a joy to be around.


Toini has had a busy year taking care of the children and trying to adjust to having children both in school and in playschool. She continues to be a stay-at-home-mom, and is also working a few hours here and there as a translator of TV and movies. It is such a blessing to be able to work from home. Toini has also developed a couple of new interests this past year. One of those interests is blogging and the other is road biking, something that she was introduced to by her husband.


Jens continues on his script-writing course, closing up on his last semester of four. He has been focusing on a script for a feature film for children which he hopes to finish this spring. It is fun for him to work towards what he really wants to do. In the meantime, he still works extra as a busdriver. Last April Jens took up road biking, which he absolutely loves! Now he eats, sleeps and breathes road biking and bikes.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

from the Rydgren Family

Lucia celebration

Here in Sweden we have a tradition that we share with about ten other countries. This tradition dates back to the late 1700s and is named after Lucia who was born in a Syracuse, Italy, around 283 AD. Lucia was girl with strong faith in God. Emperor Diocletianus persecuted Christians and when he heard of Lucia he saw to it that she was tortured and killed for her Christian faith.

Every year on December 13th Lucia is celebrated by a procession. Or rather, by several thousand processions throughout the country... A young woman representing Lucia, walks at the head wearing a white gown, a crown of burning candles on her head and a red sachet around her waist. Following her are young women in white gowns with a burning candle in one hand. The candles have ever since the birth of this tradition been used to spread light in the midwinter darkness .

Originally that was it, but nowadays the tradition has become a mixture of things that have to do with Christmas. Now there are men in the procession as well, dressed in white gowns and cone shaped hats with gold stars on them carrying a gold star in one hand. They actually represent the three wise men who came to visit baby Jesus. There used to be a day in January where they were commemorated, but now they are represented in the Lucia procession instead.

When children do the Lucia procession there are also boys dressed as Santa's little helpers at the end, as well as some boys and girls dressed as gingerbread cookies... I have no idea why. Probably just to give the children more to choose from...



Here is a picture of Alvin's and Ivar's Lucia procession. They were Santa's little helpers, like most of the boys.

In Lovisa's procession, like in every other procession with the youngest children, there were about 12 Lucias.

Lovisa, of course, was one of them.

Lusse-buns. It really is December.