holidays/new year goals

A follow up is in order concerning a few things about our holidays. Well, more than just the holidays, but we'll start there. Seems like a lot of stuff has been going on. If only life was nice and chronical like a blog.

-It was great to have all of Mon's family here at mormors house. Our boys can hardly contain themselves when their Swedish aunts, uncles and cousins come over. Even being in Sweden this long regular playmates are hard to come by. So when the cousins come over, the kids just go nuts. After three days of non-stop running, playing, gaming and staying up late our boys were pretty spent but always happy to see their cousins and sad to see them go.

-Our Christmas Eve dinner table had about every farm animal on it. Beef, pork, lamb & chicken (via mormors deviled eggs w/caviar). We also had salmon and I got to try a little beef tounge. The tounge was non-traditional but I can say I tried it. The Fear Factor fan in me had to. Fear is still a factor.

-Thanks to everybody for the cards, emails and notes of encouragement during the holidays. They really meant a lot this first Christmas out. We also want to thank Tracy, Aunt Margaret and Aunt Christine for sending huge care packages. We were blown away especially after seeing the shipping cost alone. Wow. They even took time to individually wrap presents prior to shipping. We ended up with so much stuff that we actually opened packages on two nights prior to our family gathering and one night after. We didn't want visiting cousins to feel bad so we opened before and after they were here. Tracy - Jake loved Chick and Sam his Bus. Margaret - we watched Goonies and the kids love Twister. Funny to watch Sam try to stretch between the red and green circles. Christine/Olivia - as you've seen from the pictures the boys love their Cars jackets. Thanks for all the other stuff as well.

-It was great to visit with the family in Ohio via webcam during their Christmas gathering on the 23rd. It was great to get 'one on one' time with nearly everybody. It was especially touching to be included in the prayer before dinner. Everybody formed a circle that included the computer, as if we were standing there too, just like old times. Nice! And everybody gathered at the computer to wave goodbye at the end. Hope the hats fit. We didn't keep the receipt.

-I don't think we have any New Years goals other than the usual - read more, lose weight, but we do have some trips in mind for the upcoming year. We just booked our flight back to Ohio for this summer. No set plans yet, but I'm sure that will take care of itself. I was thinking tonight, man, what I wouldn't give for a scoop of UDF brand cookies and cream ice cream. Yum. I look forward to eating it when we come. We're also looking into a trip down to Spain to see Mon's Dad for a week and perhaps a driving trip up north to the family cabin. To fly from here to Spain for the four of us is only $771 USD round trip. Hard to pass that up. I think that's about the cost of a single round trip ticket from Des Moines to Cincinnati.

-We do have some goals for the boys this year, as much as parents can encourage their kids toward a goal - for Sam to graduate potty training and for Jake to try new foods, maybe even take up a Swedish sport such as soccer or floorball. I think for Jake too we'd like to help him read more English. We are very proud of them how quickly they've adjusted to life in Sweden. Been a big year for them and us.

-An unwritten goal for all of us is to continue to build our network of friends here in Sweden, where ever we can find them. Natural friendships will grow from job(s), school, church and neighbors. I(John) will also be starting up a writer's circle this year with some other expatriates in Sweden from the site Amerikanska.com. I hope to pen some kids books, put this past 6 years to the page and see what comes up. Man, if I can publish something I'd be beside myself. But that would be another post.

Here's to the new year.