Twentyfour years ago, early in the morning, my youngest was born. Can’t believe how time flies. It was a snowstorm when we drove to the hospital in the middle of the night. But, today there is no snow, sunshine and about 10C outside. What a difference.
This afternoon my parents-in-law and sis w/ hubby and oldest daughter came over to celebrate. We had ordered a blue princess cake with congratulations on. It was from the local bakery which changed owners a while back so we decided to give them a try. The cake was delicious! I also had bake a cardamom cake which turned out great too.
Now we will make a nice dinner for the birthday boy! Happy birthday, son. Love you to the moon and back!
Advent 1st🕯
My favorite Sunday of the year – Advent 1st. Time to put up all the special candles in the windows and get ready for the Xmas countdown.
Today we gathered the whole family and celebrated the birthdays of my mother and hubby together with my sis w/ family. My mom had prepared traditional saffron buns, baked a cake and cookies. And we enjoyed the first glas of “glögg” – moulded wine – mmm. Thank you for a great afternoon!
Celebrations!
What a Friday! One silver in the women’s biathlon 7,5k run – the youngest of the two Öberg-sisters (Elvira) did great with a perfect shooting score. And one gold in the men’s 10k skating with a new world record – Nils van den Poel did it again! Yeah!
Today it is my mother-in-laws birthday and she has invited a few friends and family to a dinner-party at a restaurant in town by the water. Also they are celebrating 60 years of marriage this year so extra cause for celebration!
So nice to go out for a change and hopefully it will be safe for everyone to participate. The restrictions are gone and we are allowed to slowly go back to some sort of normal life again. We had a lovely time with great food and entertainment and it was a very nice evening. She got a lot of presents and I think she had a good day.
Happy birthday! Thank you so much for a lovely evening!
Spiken 50
A very special day for my family and especially for my parents. Today the competition “Spiken” celebrated 50 years on the same track – all events held and organized by my parents with some help from family and friends.
And today Hammarby honored my parents with these beautiful cakes, a big bouquet of flowers for my mom (since her birthday is coming up), a big silver trophy especially engraved and a nice speech from both the chairman of the committee and others. So nice that they got the extra credit and praise so well deserved. *so proud*
My hubby and I have spent 3-4 hrs putting up wallpaper all afternoon. Now we have crashed in our corners ready for dinner which is almost done. I made a taco pulled pork which cooks itself in the oven. Time to eat and relax the last hours before it is time to hug the pillow.
Medal of Honour
This weekend the Swedish championships in track& field takes place in Borås. My parents are there to follow the event but also to be part of the banquet that was held last night.
During this banquet my dad was decorated with the highest Medal of Honour from the Swedish Athletics Association. Our friend G was also decorated with the same medal – congratulations to you both!
This medal in gold is only given to those who already have received the silver medal (both my parents have). To receive the silver medal you have to have distinguished yourself and been dedicated for at least 25 years and your club can recommend you to receive the medal.
To receive the next level you have to have contributed in a particularly distinguished way and made a big difference not only within your own track&field club but also nationally and for other track&field organisations. The receivers of this medal are chosen by the board of the Swedish Athletics Association. A big honour indeed to be selected!
Our hammer-thrower Grete won a gold medal in her disciplin yesterday – congratulations to you too!
One more day of track&field. The weather-conditions have been terrible – cold and rainy. Slightly better today. I hope my parents are able to stay warm and won’t catch a cold during this event. And safe travels home tonight!
Happy New Year!
Another year has come to an end. A challenging year in many ways. We have been forced to find new ways to see our loved ones. New ways to get thru work and ways to solve problems. We have spent a lot of time infront of our computers – to see family and friends via Teams (both for celebrations, dinners, games or just a drink), online work meetings, online AfterWorks. And when we have dared to see the closest family it has usually been outdoors with a social distance. No closeness , hugs / kisses or cuddle up in a sofa together. No restaurant visits, going to the movies, gym, shopping. No travels. No visitors.
I am grateful that I have my family, that we have survived this year with all it’s ups and downs. I feel that we all struggle in different ways but in the end we have each other. Together we are strong and we will get thru this pandemic and go back to some sort of normal again.
We ended the year with a dinner together with my parents. We opened the champagne I received from work, enjoyed a lobster starter, tenderloin steak w potatoes gratin and then two kinds of fromage (raspberry and chocolate) for afters. We watched a movie on TV and then we met with our friends online for a couple of Kahoot-games. And we treated ourselves a magical firework outside as we greeted 2021 to start!
May 2021 be a good year. Be safe out there everyone!
Family day
Dad turned 80 years old in March and we gave hime a family day together but wanted to wait a bit to make sure everyone could make it. We also included our friend L in the present who turned 60 in August. And finally the day arrived! We met up at the Central Station in Stockholm and took the regular train to Läggesta where we got off and walked over to the old railway museum which has a steam train that runs a few time a day over to Mariefred. It was great fun – a short trip but with all the ingredients included.
In Mariefred we started with a lunch as the sky opened and treated us
a terrible rainfall with hale and lightning.. Haha not what we had in mind! But, it stopped after a little while and we could continue enjoying our day. A tour of the Gripsholm Castle and then the steam boat Mariefred S/S back to the city again. We had made reservations on the boat for dinner and they had given us our own dining room which was great! So we sat there and enjoyed our steamboat steaks as we watched the sun set.
A great day and I think my dad and L enjoyed their present. And extra fun that all eleven of us could come along!
Special day
Finally the day has come – my oldest niece is graduating from the “gymnasium”. This amazing, smart, sweet human being has completed her education and is now ready to take the next step and face the world. Or maybe continue with uni or college. She hasn’t decided just yet.
The day treated us excellent weather. And her parents treated us a wonderful garden party with great food and drinks, lovely decorations and great family & friends. A perfect ending of a perfect day. Thank you, sis and brother-in-law, for making this day so special! Love you!
Congratulations, Karin, and thank you for being the fantastic person you are! Have fun tonight out with your friends – but be safe and take care! Love you!
And congratulations, Sara, for completing the mandatory part of Swedish education. Wish you the best in your choice of education and “gymnasium”, in which I think you will be brilliant! You are a star! Love you!
21
Can’t believe my son is turning 21 years old today. Time flies. Picked these flowers for him from our garden!
Tonight we had the family over to celebrate. I had made a sticky brownie (not so sticky unfortunately) and served it with vanilla ice-cream, whipped cream, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and meringue. Mmmm. We had a lovely time and I think he had a good birthday!
Birthday party
Time to celebrate my little one’s birthday. Big 18. Allowed to do so many new things and I will be excluded from his life in some ways. I will need permission to access and or help him with his bank account, his medicine, his school work. I hope we have prepared him for the adult world but one never knows. Anyway, we have one more week to get ready since his actual birthday is next weekend. But since he is leaving tomorrow for his school in Belgium we gathered the family for an afternoon celebration! Everybody except my dad was able to make it. I bought two cakes in town yesterday and an almond wheat bread – didn’t have the energy to bake something myself.
F is building his own computer and his wish list consisted of two things – parts for this or money to buy parts for this. Lol. Soon he is ready to put it together. Still missing one or two things. But the parts are so expensive he can’t get all of them at once. But Xmas and his 18th helped a lot making progress.