Snow!

The inter-holiday week has treated us to the season's first snowfall. Unfortunately it disguises sheet ice under the surface, making any excursion treacherous.

'

The kids are enjoying it though. (Harry, Erik, Klara, Bea)

Bea and Klara went ice skating today too.

Juldagen and annandagen

Christmas day we invited all the neighbors over for brunch. Hans made sticky buns with pecans and brown sugar, and there was scrambled eggs with kale, smoked salmon, and citrus salad.

The guests made themselves comfortable in the living room.

We even had the next door neighbors over for a turkey dinner, topped off with plum pudding and Christmas crackers.

Boxing day morning we opened the packages from the States. Thanks everybody!

Julafton

We had a quiet Christmas eve at home and with our neighbors up and down the stairwell.

The morning started with Bea bringing the filled stockings into her parents' bed...

...Santa did come!

He brought a Lego Friends school building.

Neighbor Erik came over after church and helped Bea start building it.

Then it was time for the traditional Christmas smorgasbord.

We were treated to a few flakes of snow, and then exchanged gifts.

Bea bought Madeleine some small spoons with origami paper patterns.

 

Bea got a Swedish edition of Scrabble.

And then we went to the neighbors' to visit and sing Christmas carols.

Da'n innan

December 23 was celebrated preparing for the big day. We did some last minute decorating:

Wreath from tree trimmings.

Bea  helped make struvor.

And finally the stockings were laid out on th kitchen table with care.

Trimming the tree

Christmas is just around the corner, and the tree got trimmed after Bea's final day of school on Thursday...

A litte shorter this year, but perfect for the apartment.

We were invited to the Nowlins' new apartment for fish soup on Saturday. Alice was glad to have a chance to play with Bea.

Christmas preparations

Lots to do before the holidays...

Hans really felt like Santa's Little Helper after picking up a gift in a sack at the local post dispensary.

Sorry foodies, this ain't no eatin' tree.

Christmas decorations

A few little Christmas decorations craft projects to keep us busy.

Snowglobes with giraffes and a Porsche join the Eiffel Tower. 

Lotsa whippets

Veronica, a local dog lover we met at the park, brought her whippets over to play with Gaspard today.

Holiday spirit

Bea and Hans visited NK to see the Christmas windows and leave a wishlist to Santa.

The cookie factory looked an awful lot like home. 

The wishlist is off to Santa. 

This year's cookie plate, prepared for Maya's family. 

We saw the Lucia procession in Oskar Fredriks Kyrkan, followed by fondue with the Holmdahls-Aportas. 

Nobel day

They're celebrating the Nobel prize awards today at Bea's school, so she dressed up for the occasion.

Gingerbread house

We have so much gingerbread dough left over that we had to make a house...

 

Pepparkakor marathon

1000 pepparkakor! We'd been joking with Maya's family about making 1000 cookies in some marathon baking day since October. There was talk of acquiring a second hand oven to keep on the balcony to aid with the baking process, though we never went through with that. Nonetheless, Hans did make about 8 kilos of dough on Friday and on Sunday we spent about the whole day baking. Did we make it to a thousand cookies? Maybe not, though 600 anyway is a good estimate, and there are still a couple of kilos of dough in the fridge.

We had a number of different sprinkles to decorate the cookies.

Matt came over with Alice.

Gianni brought Emil, Maya and Zoe.

Jenny, Erik and Isa came over for a spell.

We had snack food out, and a pot of bean soup was on all day.

Eventually the kids decided to perform a Lucia procession.

Cookie baking

Tis the season, the fridge is stocked with butter and the cupboards filled with four and sugar.

Bea wanted to make some chocolate covered pretzels, and we gussied them up with snowflakes. 

Maple snickerdoodles happening here.