Sälen skiing

Matt, I and the dog took a couple of days off and drove up to the mountains of Sweden to go skiing. It was such a great time. Sunny and just a few degrees below freezing. Oliver got to stay in the cabin while we were having fun skiing but he did have his fun in the snow too.. He definitely loves the taste of snow.. if there really is a taste. It was a great valentine's weekend with lots of outdoor fun, good eating and lazy nights with the family. 

Hemmakväll (Home night ... )

Friday night was going to be a night just for me. A girly movie and popcorn. Just me and the puppy. Well, I ended up meeting up Matt and his friends for a concert instead, but I am really glad I did. We saw the band Club Killers and Titiyo and it was such a good time... well, it was kind of scary with the 'mosh pit like' dancing we did in front of the stage.  But no bruises just some good times. 

US in January

I went back to the US for a conference in Orlando, FL and a meeting in Chicago in January. Matt came with me so the trip was both play and work. Orlando was fabulous in the way that Disney always is.. no financial crisis, bad people .. just a very happy clean place on earth. Matt's parents and brother drove down from South Carolina to hang out with us and we went to Epcot park together. We also met up with Amy and Jeff for drinks, it was good to see them again. After a few days in Orlando we drove south.. in search for warm weather and sun. It was only in the 40s F in Orlando. I felt yipped. We drove all the way to key west and it was such a nice and scenic drive. I instantly fell in love with this laid back town. We took a boat tour to Dry Tortugas and went to ship wreck museums. This is truly paradise. Then we went to Chicago where it was freezing. I went back to work, had lunch with my friends and went out to dinner etc.. it was just like being back at my old life. Kind of weird but it really felt good to see everyone again. They did a surprise birthday celebration for me on the last night at Full Shilling. It was so good to see everyone!  

Xmas and New years

The holidays was spent just the way I liked it.. lots of relaxing times, family and friends. We took the train up to Gothemburg where we stayed with our friends Elin and Nish and then we spent Christmas eve at my sisters house where she had cooked food for a small village. Of course Santa was there to give out presents.. no one wanted to be Santa so my niece who is the youngest one dressed up.. It was hilarious.

Then we went back to stockholm and stayed with my parents until after new years. I met up with some old chicago friends; Mia and Elisa and got to see their adorable little babies. For my birthday we went to a sushi restaurant on Söder i stockholm and had yummy drinks all night. Linda, Leila, Paula, Katti and Matt was with me and it was great to have some girl talk.. Matt probably did not enjoy the girltalk as much as I did.

On new years we gave Oliver his first haircut. We got soma clippers and tried to do it ourselves. It was a pain.. He hated it, it took 2 hours and there was hair everywhere.. but in the end I actually think we did a pretty good job. I think that Oliver lost half his body weight with the haircut.. We will not let him become such a wholly beast again before we give him his next hair cut. That night we went over to Linda's for some champange, food and board games.. Matt and I totally lost the charades game but it was lots of fun.

Weekend in Prague

Last weekend Matt and I went to Prague for our anniversary. We had a great time and I recommend for everyone to go there. Beautiful town, good food, good beer and nice people. The first day we took a walking tour and got to see the castle and the old town area. Very beautiful but a really cold day. I also got to hear how the swede never made it into the city during the 30 year old war... the guide was extra happy to have a Sweden on the tour so that she could point that out to me. That night we took a 'bar crawl' tour where we were suppose to learn about Prague culture and beer. Well we did not learn much.. the guide just hung out with us and took us to any bars that we wanted to go to and then he hit on the single girl in the group.. the good thing was that we met some fun people to hang out with so we had a blast anyway. Sunday we had time to walk around and shop.

I know where Santa lives

So today we did not do much, slept in and had a big breakfast with Mari and Janne before they took off to go back home to Gothemburg. We did also take a walk on the town to see the Christmas decorations. However, before we headed out we were very very lucky. We figured out where Santa lives.. he lives across the street from our apartment. Yep, from our livingroom window we got to see a glimpse of Santa when he got some help from some body double Santas that were helping him pushing his sleigh out...

Germany for a day

The really good thing with living here is that you can go to two other countries in less than 3 hours. My sister Mari and her boyfriend came to visit and we drove down to Germany for the day. You might wonder why a lot of people do this but the only reason is..cheap booze.. so we loaded up the car and spent a few hours in Germany shopping for candy, clothes, and beer. It is crazy but a case of beer is cheaper (by almost half) compared to a case of Coca Cola.. Matt is really starting to think that Sweden is weird.