Merry Christmas and God Jul

California was great! What else could it be? The day after I got there it was almost 70 (that's 20 for the celsius people) and just beautiful. We (my brother, Kim and I) went to a good American breakfast with Matt & Cynthia. The sun was shining, people were out walking around enjoying the beautiful morning ... it was great. Then we went on a little nature hike that afternoon. Here's my favorite picture from that.



I then spent some quality time at my parents home watching all the taped shows they had saved for me. Nothing like sitting in front of the TV for two days to make a person relax :) I also, I have to say I am very excited about the direction that West Wing is headed! Oh, I got a quick chance to do dinner with Nate, Kristy and Karna ... always good to see them and have some yummy Mexican food.

Then the festivities began. My mom and I went and saw the musical White Christmas in San Francisco. It was so good, although both of us keep comparing to the movie which is pretty funny. We then meet up with Chris and Sven (he had just flow-in) did a little shopping, had dinner and headed back to Sebastopol. For Christmas eve Chris made a wonderful dinner and we all enjoyed being home. On the big day we all were pleasantly happy with our gifts and as always everyone came over for the big dinner. This year Chris was in charge of the BBQ so everything was done early (usually it's late, very late when my dad and Brad do it), which stressed my mom because Steph was home sick so she had to try and pull everything else together. But all went very well and dinner was lovely.

The day after we played cards and relaxed. On Monday we went to Healdsburg where Sven was able to get his favorite hamburger then we walked around in the rain. Tuesday is the way the day before you head back always is; filled with all the stuff you were supposed to do while you were there for 10 days. But we did get most everything done and that was great.

On the day we flew out we went early and stopped in Sausalito. It was a beautiful day to walk along the water and look at SF as the clouds were clearing. I got some great pictures on my new camera. You can check them out by going to our picture gallery.

It was a wonderful trip and a nice chance for me to feel refreshed headed back to Sweden :)

Off to California

I'm off to Northern Cal today ... first time back to the US since we moved to Sweden. It's strange how on a normal daily basis I don't really think about how far away the US is. But when I'm looking at a day of 20 hours of travel, it does seem very very far. I am excited about heading back.

The things I'm looking most forward to (besides seeing my family) is seeing the sun. Right now in Gothenburg, the sun rises at 8:52 and sets at 3:25. But the strange part is that the sun is so low in the horizon that it never really gets above the buildings. And on top of that it's overcast and rainy here most days (so it's never sunny, just a little bright outside) ... so basically I haven't seen the sun in forever. Besides the sun factor, I'm looking forward to mostly food related things. Mexican food, waffles, different vegetables, Mexican food ...

Well I better go finish packing. God Jul to everyone!

Lucia!

I went to my first St. Lucia celebration this morning with Annica. It was so beautiful! We went to the celebration for my school so the entire church was filled with students. It's a bit weird to go to church at eight in the morning and see students who never really rise before nine in the winter. The lucia girls and boys sang beutifully and the sun was rising as they were singing ... so pretty ...

You can find out more about Lucia by go to this site.

My blog ... finally

When we decided to move to Sweden, I thought about having a blog so that I could have a journal of our adventures and to communicate with everyone in the US. Finally, after four months we have it setup. It's amazing how long it takes to finally get settled in a new place and get some of the fun things you want to do done.

I'm sure my postings to this won't be regular but, something is better than nothing. I'm going to post some emails I sent over the last four months to bring the blog up to date. Have fun reading ...

London

Just got back from London. It was a great, fun weekend :) On Sat we did a bit of shopping and hung out with Sarah in the West End. We had lunch at a pub with a pint (well I had a half pint). Then Sven surprised me and we went and had high tea. It was very British. That evening Matt, Zoe, Sarah, her boyfriend and us all went and had curry then out to a pub for a few drinks. On Sunday we went back into London to have lunch with some other friends and went for a nice walk along the Thames. Then Matt cooked us a traditional British Christmas dinner. It was wonderful. We decorated and then ate and laughed a lot ... So fun.

I have a swedish yule party tonight at the school pub .. should be fun...