The 25th with Anna´s family

Before we left for Solhäll today we were invited for lunch with Anna´s family - and we met her mother and Peter together with three of her sisters and one boyfriend - Hampus. We did enjoy meeting them all - and in March 2013 we will be Grandfathers and Grandmothers to Anna´s and André´s baby - and Elsa will for the second time become a "big sister"!

Anna´s mother Katarina and Anna with three of

her sisters and Elsa

 

Dark picture - but it is me, Hampus André, Peter

and Anna

 

And Peter, Sven and Katarina

 

And an Espresso before we = Sven drow to Solhäll

 

"Julafton" - Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at Jannicke´s partents in law´s place and we had a fantastic evening! We drank "glögg" - and although we were only six grown-ups and two children we did eat 30 "lussekatter", which Sven and I baked in the morning. Santa Clause arrived in a black Ferrari - at least he told us so - and the children got lots of presents and we some... Everybody was satisfied.

The food was excellent - and so the beer, "snaps" and wine - and the hospitality! It was a lovely evening....

Donald Duck on the TV "served with "Lussekatter,

 Pepparkakor & glögg"

 

Smile.....

 

Santa Clause has arrived..

 

And Toril & Embla get LARGE presents

 

Göran is preparing the ham

 

And Tobbe the delicious cheeses

 

And Anki the meatballs, the sausages and, and, and...

 

Sven is building "Pippi Långstump´s" house

together with Embla and Toril

 

And Toril is playing with it waiting for the

Swedish "Julbord"

 

The traditional Swedish "Julbord" with herring

 

Ham, meatballs, sausages and.....

 

The cheeses

 

 

"Lillejulafton" at André & Anna

We spent "Lillejulafton", i.e. the 23rd of Decmber, at André´s and Anna´s house together with Mark´s family. Åsa is still in bed with fever so we missed her and Filip. We had homemade "glögg", a fantastic turkey and a Christmas panacotta made by Mark. Wilhelm and Tuva-Li opened their Christmas presents from us and so did also André, Anna, Mark and Hanna-Fia as we will not see them tomorrow, i.e. the Swedish "Julafton". We had a lovely evening together!

 

 

Mark with his family

 

Anna was the Christmas "woman"

 

And she also got a present

 

Mark, Wilhelm and I are playing a Spiderman game

 

And mother and daughter is playing Tuva-Li´s game

 

And now all of us are playing together

 

Anna and Hanna-Fia with a sleeping Tuva-Li

 

Father and son

 

 

Jannicke 40 years old

On the 18th of December Jannicke celebrated her 40th birthday with champagne at their house and a Swedish "Julbord" with "snaps", beer and wine at a very "pitoresque" restaurant. It was a fantastic evening.... The only person we did miss was Åsa - Filip´s wife - who was in bed at home with fever.



 

 

Tobbe, Mark, Anna & André

 

Jannicke, Sven, Göran & Anki - Tobbe´s parents

 

Mother & daughter

 

Jannicke, Göran & myself

 

Me & Anki

 

The babysitter with Embla & Toril

 

The kids!

A couple in love!

 

Glögg in Västervik

 

 

We invited our best friends in Västervik for GLÖGG - and I took this picture before our guests arrived - and then we had so much fun so neither Sven nor I thought about taking pictures.Sorry about that but we had a wonderful eveing!

The 2nd of Advent

We celebrated the 1st of Advent in Cyprus in sun at the poolside and the 2nd of Advent - only a week later - in snow in Västervik. What a differens!

Wonderful sunny Cyprus

 

Wonderful snowy Sweden

 

Västervik

After having had two wonderful days in Lund - meeting everybody in our big family - we drow to Solhäll yesterday and Egon - Mark´s and Hanna-Fia´s dog told us that he wanted to have some days of vacation from Wilhelm - almost five - and Tuva-Lie - four years next summer. So of course he was welcome to come along - and he loves Solhäll and the snow!

Sunday 1st of Advent

Today we celebrated the 1st of Advent by lightening the fist candle at the poolside. Either did Sven not manage to put his feet into the pool or he immediately changed his mind. Too cold? No - the temperature is 17 degrees - and we are the Vikings!

Bridge again...

Our result of the bridge competition within the Swedish group this Tuesday was poor - probably due to me...

So yesterday Ulla & Ingemar - who are both very competent bridge players - gave us a lesson free of charge. And even I did enjoy the bridge last night - playing with Ulla.

Now the bridge evenings are over for 2012 but when flying to Sweden on Monday I will bring all the rules concerning how to bid and how to play so I do hope I will come out as a better bridge player in 2013!

Bridge evening

Rigmor and Lars came by to play bridge with us and we had so much fun! Tonight it is "serious" bridge - the weekly competition within the Swedish "Viking group".

Dinner at Olympus Village

Sven and I had six of our best friends for dinner yesterday and we did have so much fun! When buying the meat for the dinner at Kolios butchery we saw this little pig. So cute....

Nanne was in the citchen helping us and before leaving we made some alco tests of our friends. OK to drive - or sleep over in one of our guest rooms? The men did pass the test.

The PIG

All of us

Nanne helping us in the citchen

Alco test

And Staffan again who was a bit worried...

.

Lunch at Lizzy in Olympus Village

Today I was invited to a ladies'  lunch - and we had a FANTASTIC time. The food and the wines were excellent and Lizzy´s husband was a perfect "Keeper" - so well dressed for his "mission"! Although it is only 500 meters from our house - and so also from some of the others - we were driving because today we had many dark cloudes over us and it was cool and windy! It was a perfect afternoon for a perfect dinner indoors!

Graham - the "Keeper" so well dressed

The "Girls" - Dallas, the hostess Lizzy,

Joan, Angie and me

All of us at the so beautifully decorated table

and it was "Thanks Giving" in the US

something that we from Scottland, Germany, the UK

and Sweden did not know....

The starter was "stunning"!

"Scramble for two"

Today we were 24 Swedish Vikings participating in a "Scramble for two" golf competition - and Peter and I did WIN! Unbelievable - but Peter did play brilliant! Thank you! We did win both with and without handicap so I suppose you can imagine how well we played together! The price - two bottles of wine each - and of course the HONOUR!