We can now look back on the two-and-a-half-week Christmas holiday with happy memories. We hope that all our blog readers will have similar happy memories of a relaxed festive season period.
For us it remained a happy time but one in which we were more acutely aware than usual that we were missing seeing and spending time with friends and family. Fortunately, though, that did not overshadow anything; it felt less painful than at the start of our Swedish adventure. We therefore made a point of having as many as possible facetime sessions with friends and making extra contact with family to share the Christmas spirit.
Luckily for all of us we have been welcomed here with open arms and people remembered to include us in the celebrations. In that connection we were invited to dear neighbours several doors away to enjoy a traditional meal with them one lunchtime just before Christmas: a Julbord (literally a “Christmas dinner”). Especially for the boys they had made a little treasure hunt through the house with, at the end, a small gift for each of them.
On Julafton (“Christmas Eve”) Susanna took the boys to the Värmland Museum in Karlstad. After having been at home for several days it was nice to get out and about. All the other days were effortlessly filled with playing games, doing puzzles, listening to the Top2000 and watching the occasional film. In other words, for us it was just like any other Christmas holiday in that respect. One enjoyable extra was the in-house sauna which we used quite a lot at that time. Vidar loves the sauna but Rune still prefers to go in the bath to relax.
All in all, we opted for a combination of old and new Christmas traditions. Like the Swedes, we celebrated and unpacked all our presents on Christmas Eve and enjoyed plenty of Disney animated films. This year we did not adhere to the Dutch Sinterklaas tradition on December 5th.
By cooking a Christmas Pudding and a pile of mincepies – two things with dried fruit and for the sweet-toothed – Susanna managed to get plenty of British flavours and odours wafting around the house. For her it especially brought back memories of childhood Chritmasses in Guernsey with all the family there. As a final Swedish touch, we baked a number of cinammon buns together: something none of us can get enough of!
Soon after Christmas we invited our dear landlord and landlady around for a British Christmas “fika” with Christmas Pudding, mincepies and scones. We also repeated that for our kind neighbours several days later.
At the end of December Rune went with his little schoolfriend Nova to Leo’s lekland (a huge indoor entertainment area) in Karlstad to celebrate her birthday and he had a super time there! Meanwhile we thought it would be nice to do something with Vidar so we took him to the by now familiar outdoor park known as Mariebergskogen, also in Karlstad, which he loves. The whole complex comprises a massive nature reserve with a visitors’ centre devoted to wild life in general (Naturum Värmland) and a series of playgrounds.
Gradually New Year came into view bringing with it a colder spell. On the last day of the year the boys played outside on the green lawn which rapidly turned white during the night. In line with the Dutch tradition we made a huge supply of oliebollen (akin to doughnuts) in the deep-fryer. We prepared a healthy buffet to go with it and posed each other questions so that we could reflect on the life-changing year behind us and also look ahead to what is to come. It was good fun.
The boys went to bed fairly early because the next day promised to be quite exciting for them. Whilst they were asleep we watched the traditional Dutch New Year’s Eve ‘review of the year stand-up comedy’ show, done this year by Pieter Derks. It turned out to be a great evening with only about 5 fireworks let off around midnight after which the peace returned.
As forecast and thus as predicted, the New Year bestowed upon us a new white world which added up to fun and games for everyone.
During that period the temperature rapidly dropped. The lowest minimum temperature we recorded at night was -25.3°C whilst in the daytime it didn’t rise above -13ºC. Despite the cold, the lads managed to stick it out for an hour at a time playing in the snow. Meanwhile we took it in turn to go for walks in the countryside. The sun shone brightly and because of the snow the conditions were perfect for spotting animal footprints: within a mere couple of kilometres of our house we found evidence of badgers, elk, roe-deer and even a lynx. A week later we saw a white-tailed eagle in a meadow not far from the house. What a magnificent sight as the bird took flight!
On the Friday we took the boys to Karlstad for the day. Particularly Rune enjoyed the trip so clearly it’s something we can repeat. We did nothing very special: we walked through the city and shopped for essentials. For him having a sushi was a real treat!The following weekend was splendid and the glorious winter weather continued. The nights were particularly clear. On the Saturday night we saw again the northern lights making it the second time since we moved to the country. That was fantastic!
On Wednesday January 8th we all had to get back into the term-time routine. In fact that went beter than expected. The boys weren’t worried about going back to school and fortunately it was a short school week. Inspired by his little friend Willem in the Netherlands Rune decided that he wanted to cook dinner for the whole family. He took his recipes from a children’s cookery book and, with just a little help, managed to cook 2 meals for us that week.
We rounded off the first proper snow period of the winter with a magnificent excursion. On the Saturday we set off at 8 a.m. and, following the longest river in Scandinavia, the Klarälven, we drove some 120 km in a northerly direction. We were off for husky sleigh rides: yet another thing that had been on Susanna’s bucket list for a number of years and the guys simply had to join her. Despite the relatively short distance traversed it was as though we’d actually crossed a climate frontier. That morning we set off in rain but arrived in snow: a deep layer at that. As we neared our destination the surrounding hills were tinted red by the glow of the sun rising above the river banks. After a short guided-tour of the kennels, we watched the dogs being hitched up in pairs along the gang line and then Susanna and Rune went for the first ride, Mathijs and Vidar went straight after. In spite of the cold and sitting still in -10 °C (how does one then keep one’s feet warm?) it was super! On the way back we stopped off near a lake to grill sausages for a late lunch and that made the trip complete!
The following day we went for a super afternoon tea (”fika”) with our landlord and landlady in their lovely apartment overlooking the Vänern lake. That brought our memorable weekend to a close. By then things had turned slushy as the alternating thaw and frost periods had set in thus producing some slippy, icy situations. Anyhow, as the winter’s not yet over we hope for more magical snow scenes before the season comes to an end.
