Christmas No. 1

No this is not about Tage making it to the charts (surprisingly enough) but rather about the first of this year’s Christmas celebrations. At the weekend we took a roadtrip down to Småland, in south-eastern Sweden, to my parents to celebrate Christmas No. 1 as we will spend actual Christmas in the UK.

We discovered that finding an open reststop in south Sweden after 7pm in the winter is not so easy. Finally the bright lights of Sibylla burger bar appeared and we all had a stretch and some food.

Tage's meal came with a rather odd toy. Tage was so excited that it seemed that Christmas was already here.

Finally at our destination we got to enjoy some swedish Christmas food. Tage was causing havoc with his cousins Alfred and Ella.

(Ella standing on her own)

Story time with Kerstin reading Huckleberry Hound (a book that has been waiting in my parents' attic since the 70s when it was read to me and my sister).

 No Christmas celebration without presents.

A quick break to build up the energy before opening more presents.

 Tage was exhausted after such an exciting weekend and fell asleep after approximately 2 minutes in the car going home. To give us a real wintery feeling we were were accompanied by snow all the way home (which slowed us down by a couple of hours but best not grumble...).

Today’s blogging was a little bit rushed so I apologise for any crazy language that might have sneaked its way in. It’s all foreign anyway. Now time to head for the airport for Christmas No. 2. Bring on the turkey and the yule log! 

Lucia

This week there were Lucia celebrations at Tage's nursery. Lucia was an Italian saint that is now celebrated by Swedes for some reason that I can't quite remember on the 13th of December (I’m sure the World Wide Web can enlighten those of you who are interested in a history lesson). In a nutshell this entails a procession headed by one person (traditionally a girl but in these times of gender equality, of course everything goes!) wearing a crown of candles on her head. For the children it’s an opportunity to dress up and apart from Lucia there are usually many girls with glitter in their hair and boys tend to dress up as santa or gingerbread men… I know it sounds nuts to those of you who have not experienced it but to those of us brought up with it it’s actually a really nice tradition.

Tage was dressed up in a little red santa suit. He got a little bit scared entering the room were all the parents were sitting but soon calmed down and sat down between me and John as we all joined in the singing of Christmas carols. The actual procession and singing session was a little bit difficult to capture in pictures so therefore you’ll just have to settle for a couple of pictures taken after the performance when coffee was served to the parents and much running around was done by the children.

Also for those that are curious about the Singer-Lundblad gingerbread house you can see it on Poppans blogg

The challenge

It all started last week with a provoking picture of some perfectly made gingerbread cookies in the shape of Pippi Longstocking characters. It arrived on my phone from my friend Helen who, despite her two small children causing havoc, still managed to find the time and patience to make perfect ginger bread cookies. With an attitude (probably egged on by the hip hop music coming out of my radio) I swore to defend the McWilliams name and before I knew it had entered into a challenge – who would make the best gingerbread house?

When John came home he made the perfectly fair point that the last gingerbread house we made looked more like a shed than a house and only held together long enough for us to take a picture. But with my reputation as a mother at stake (or probably more down to old fashion stubbornness) I was determined not to give up.

Sunday morning we set to work. Tage was helping.

Well, at least until he realised that the dough was quite nice to eat at which point all helping activities stopped.

Amazingly we managed to make a gingerbread house that didn’t just hold together for the photo shoot but is still looking good. It’s not exactly the finest gingerbread house in the world but we’re still proud. My sister, quite rightly, questioned the red light inside the gingerbread house (created by my bike light which was the only one I could find in a hurry). It is possible that we have created the very first gingerbread strip club.

Now we’re waiting in anticipation to see what Singer-Lundblad family´s gingerbread house is going to look like? Are the Stockholmers going beat us?

After all this work we took a coffee and hot chocolate break at café Drömkåken where the over the top decorations and live music made Christmas seem that little bit closer.

Songs, silly hats and a birthday cake

The snow has arrived! Actually it arrived in such hoards this morning that I was wondering if I would have to take Tage to day-care in a sled. Makes the world look just that little bit prettier and is putting us all in a more Christmassy mood.

During the week Tage has shown that he is capable of eating his body weight in meatballs. As this picture shows he is also able to eat the meatballs whilst driving his Thomas the tank engine truck and holding his snuggly blanket (and also shows that I am a bad parent for letting him eat whilst running around in the living room).

There was also time for a haircut (involving a serious raisin bribe)

As you all know Christmas is just around the corner and practicing Christmas carols are just as important here in the sticks as everywhere else. Managed to catch young Master McWilliams in the middle of a practice run – enjoy!

As John was having fun with his colleagues at the company Christmas do me and Tage decided we should have our own party. John had luckily made an extra hat (a requirement for their do) which suited Tage perfectly. 

No party without music. DJ Tage on the decks with Fluff-Lasse chilling and enjoying the tunes.

Finally, thank you all for your nice birthday messages, cards and presents that came my way on Tuesday. I had a lovely day and was even treated to some birthday cake in the evening! Bought myself a scratch card as I had the feeling that my 36^th birthday was going to be the day I was to become a millionaire. It wasn’t.
 

 

A busy weekend

Me and Tage started the weekend straight after nursery on Friday with a coffee at our favourite café, Drömkåken. We are so lucky to have this lovely place on our doorstep.

Unfortunately the rest of the Friday was not quite so relaxing as I later that evening had to pay 1200kr (approximately £120) to tow the car 2 meters on the driveway. Well, actually it had to be towed from slightly off the driveway back onto it… It was a special moment indeed. No pictures were taken of this proud moment but considering how many of the people passing on the road that slowed down and took a good look, the memory will be kept alive anyway. 

The next day we decided to start fresh and headed into Stockholm. Tage got to spend some time causing trouble with his two cousins Alfred and Ella so that his parents could hit the town and drink a couple of beers.

Alfred.

This may not look like much of a picture but I will tell you that is one of very few (possibly the only one?) of Tage, Alfred and Ella. It is amazingly difficult to capture three such lively people in one picture.

A city break sounds exciting for us country bumpkins but as always staying somewhere other than home with young Tage is not necessarily a treat. At 3.15am on Sunday Tage decided that it was morning. We tried to ignore him but as he started to jump up and down in his travel cot shouting ‘Heja Traktor’, i.e. ‘Go Tractor’, it was clear that morning had arrived. What would parents do without coffee?

The afternoon was spent at a very fancy do in Rådsparken where Poppy was celebrating her second birthday. Tage was joining in with the games while his parents drank copious amounts of coffee to stay awake.

Tage and the birthday girl enjoying the cake buffet (although out of all the amazing cakes Poppy chose a dry cracker and Tage mostly ate satsuma). 

Just to finish off the weekend on a jolly note we got stuck in major tailbacks following an accident on E18. Tage of course slept nicely all the way home after his early start and all the games and sugar. Finally made it home only to discover that the electricity had tripped and the house was 12 degrees warm (or rather, cold). Thank god we have open fires all over the place!

Next weekend I think we’ll spend at home…

This is Tage

This is Tage. It is now a year and a half since Tage arrived and turned our lives up-side down.

This is our house.

This is Fluff-Lasse. He is so important to Tage that 'cat' was his first word.