randomness for the mellendagarna....

zoe was happy for christmas day, as she woke up and found that the american santa claus had been here last night and filled her stocking with glittery things and even left her a purple sparkcykel! but best of all it meant she got to wear another princess dress! as we headed down to spend the evening with our extended swedish family.
speaking of princesses, i was treated like one for my birthday, including breakfast in bed!
eijla has started sleeping in her own bed, but it only seems to work at night, not for nap time...
her second ever ponytail. what a cutie if i do not say so myself.
and we finally sold the tyringe house. but to avoid paying too much in taxes, we went through all our reciepts for the last 8 years, and organized and added them up. doesn't it look like i am super organized?
and tonight we are off to furulund for some frolic and new years fest.

christmas eve in röke

after a lovely lilla jul afton with the österströms, our happy little tomte enjoyed her breakfast in anticipation of what lay ahead for the day...
there was delicious food and drink. even some song, but thankfully no dance...
and our little tomte just continued eating...
then a big orange tomte came for a visit, bringing lots of presents. yeah! but eijla thought he was just a touch on the scary side...
after the good eats and presents, there was wii. farmor and farfar battled it out swordfighting...
there was wii bowling until the wee hours. and the morning after there was farfar snuggles...
tack för en jätte mysig julafton farmor och farfar!

our baby is ten months old!

and she even wore her first little pony tail today! man, she is growing up so fast. the other day, she decided to help pappa work on the house...

took even longer putting back all the pieces as eijla was so keen on helping! bonus point to thomas for his patience!

christmas candies! yum!

we had the pleasure of having the österström girls over to make all kinds of yummy christmas treats. there was english toffee (my favorite), peanut brittle, ischoklad, and all kinds of yummy combinations of almondmassa, maricipan, and nuget! yum, yum, and more yum!
even made all the girls names in mandelmassa...
thanks for a lovely weekend girls. always a pleasure, screaming kids or not!

lucia at röke dagis...

zoe finally is learning all the swedish holiday songs, and just in time too! this morning they had lucia at her dagis. she still is pretty hesitent when singing, but it is nice to see her participating. (she loves to sing, but mostly her own made up songs).

you know christmas is coming when you see so many tomtes and gingerbread kids!

who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?

nobody did! cuz zoe and pappa got caught red handed eating all the peppkak deg! fy på er!
zoe is trying her best to turn eijla into a girly girl too. i am afraid she might be suceeding!

what? more snow?

so what else to do, then play in it!




and we say thank you to bonita for the wonderful snowy escort!

the snow is not going anywhere, so might as well in enjoy with...

a walk to the forest during sunset...
a crazy sledding ride being pulled by your best friend, even when she makes you hit a bump...
and land on your face in the snow...
so that you scream bloody murder for all of 5 seconds...
then when those five seconds are up, it high times again being pulled on the sled!
or you could enjoy the snow in a warm cozy stoller, gliding over the ice and snow like a sleigh...
or not....
but definitely one of the best ways to enjoy the powdery white stuff that just won't go away, is to make super duper spectacular snow angels...
like these ones that got four thumbs up!
and don't for get the great hairstyles you get after wearing your tuch outside all day!
hope everyone is enjoying their weather, whatver they may have!

time for some christmas lights!

farmor and farfar came up for första advent and helped us decorate for christmas.


twas a great time, but i managed to catch the guilty parties in action, repeatedly!
ever wonder why the kids love the grandparents so much? it is definitely all the sweets they give them!

pure bribery!

say cheese!

trying to get a decent picture of the girls for the holidays has been impossible. but then decent is not so important anymore, now i am going for amusing!

cookies instead of turkey...

thomas worked all thanksgiving. and well, i am no turkey eater. so we made cookies instead. and not just any cookies. we made play dough cookies, or lollipop cookies. found a couple of different recipes for them, and they had different names, but zoe thought they were a lot of fun and very pretty.



i have the most colorful cookie jar in the village. these were a big hit, going to have to make them again soon!

a climber, a muscian, a hairdresser, an addict?

eijla is a super climbing monkey. she climbs on anything and as high as she can. she inherited this great learn to walk table from anya the other day. but she seems to think it is a learn to climb toy!
zoe giving eijla piano lessons. it was a great moment.
and then brave pappa came home and let zoe give him a new hairdo. pretty fancy having an exclusive hairdresser.
yes, our 9 month old is addicted to ice cream. yes, we are bad parents. but it is just too much fun watching the joy on her face, and laughing at the mess she makes.

eijla's first snow

though eijla was born on a very snowy day. she has never really experienced snow first hand, until today. here are my snow babies...
she discovered quite quickly it is fun to eat snow...
though i think the cold surprised her a bit. but after a couple of funny faces, she was back to licking everything snowy she could.
super happy because she figured out that she could put both her hands in the snow and lick them to her hearts content.