Midsommar Weekend

I had a terrific time in the U.S., first time without husband and kids. This gave me the devoted opportunity to spend time with family, a few friends, travel to Utah for Bev and David's wedding, return to MN to spend time for my nephew's college graduation and my sister's birthday and of course, little league games. It was very busy. Week two I spent with my sister who was now on vacation. I also had lots of time to shop and did so until money ran out! As things are generally more expensive in Sweden than in the U.S, I bought many clothes for myself and for Liv who has outgrown everything, and also lot's of birthday gifts for the girls to give to friends. Luckily I had those in my bag as when I came home, Mattias said Hanna had two parties the next day. He hadn't done any gift prep. What else did I buy...hmmm, dvd's (although the girls can't appreciate Jack Black's humor in Schoolhouse Rock--he was kind of frightening to them); kids workbooks; suncream although we don't need it as the weather is bad and various foodstuff like Ghirardelli chocolate chips, maple syrup; brown sugar; vanilla and salad dressing. So I was over the luggage weight limit but by being nice and friendly, plus a decent tip, I saved myself $150.00 with the nice curbside baggage check man.

So I came home to Sweden and the next morning, Mattias left for work on the other side of Sweden. A few nights later he came home for one night and left for Florida to travel with our sailboat, Windfall, and get her to Ft. Lauderdale to be prepped for shipment over to Denmark. He arrived in Florida on Thursday, spent one night in Ft. Pierce. Lucky for him it was the weekend. The marina crew was training so they could use our boat as an experiment and got Windfall into the water a couple days earlier than planned. She was dry inside and not a scratch outside. That really took the edge off Mattias and he was able to get a 2 day early head start down the IntraCoastal to Ft. Lauderdale. His buddy Ted is flying in to meet Mattias today and will assist and catch up with each other before Mattias flies home on Thursday. The weather in Florida has been bloody hot with afternoon/evening rain. Mattias said he caught a picture of a funnel cloud twisting some 1/2 mile from shore......Great!

It's summer in Sweden but you wouldn't know it by the weather...rain, rain, and more rain, plus kind of chilly by U.S. standards. The ground is really dry here so I guess I can suffer for the environment! It is also Midsommar weekend, the lightest time of the year in Sweden. With Mattias gone it has been a little quiet...we've been two ships in the night. The girls and I spent Midsommarafton at Mattias' dad's house. A delicious lunch with herring torta, different kinds of herrings; fresh potatoes; home smoked salmon and lax; sliced moose and ham with horseradish cream; little ham and cheese pies; chicken skewers marinated in homemade wine; schnapps; beer and of course, a strawberry and cream tort roll up with raspberry filling. The actual Midsommar day the girls and I went to a manor home for the annual festivities. It was very windy that day but we managed to hang on to our paper plates. Girls ate waffles with whipped cream and jam. We danced around the super tall maypole decorated with birch branches and watched a really good magic show. Back to Jan and Britt Marie's for leftovers!

Then today...it was raining the whole day. I tried to get our bedroom in order as clothes are piled to the ceiling. (With a smaller house we have double duty to keep it neat and tidy. I will have more organizing to do as I brought several more boxes over from Jan and Britt Marie's that we had in the small house there). We have a forest just a few houses away from us with a nice path that folks walk thru, ride or run. The horse trail runs right next to it. At night they light the path so it is a well used trail. We took a break and Hanna took my by the hand and said she knew the way as it was my first time. Sure enough, she led me right to the fire pit area where her dagis goes to during the weeks. We spent a good 2 hours walking and exploring. Came home to go to the grocery store and after I made some soup.

After some late nights up since it is so light out at night, the girls had to hit the hay earlier tonight. It is after 10 p.m. and still light out after all. Both have dagis or fritids tomorrow. I am into the Euro 2008 fotboll (soccer to you) championship. It has been fun to watch as underdogs have won several games. Tonight it is Spain vs. Italy. 78 minutes into the game and 0-0.

More later,
Carrie