Fika with Erik and Britta Gun

We have a relaxed morning. You should have seen the sunrise! Wow! It was 8:30 AM. It was so gorgeous. It is both east and west but of course the sun is visible very low in the sky in the east. It is so bright and the sun is glowing orange. I take photos and Arvid goes out to "spark."

He loves it. He has been looking forward to it ever since we decided we were going to make this winter trip. It is called a sparkstutting in Swedish. They are like a chair with runners on the bottom like sled runners then there is a handle on the top. You kick like you are on a skateboard to move it. They are very practical and we see them quite a bit. You use them when the snow is fresh but not if they have sanded. Today is an excellent day to spark! Arvid goes about a kilometer. He marvels at how fast you can get going.

Ulla has made a bird feeding area for her feathered friends. She put up a little tree to help keep the bigger birds away. We enjoy watching them eat. Arvid goes out and puts more food out for them. The whole feeding frenzy can be seen out the window where we eat breakfast. It is amazing to watch. They are all yello-bellied with gray wings and black slashes across their eyes, white cheeks. They are quite fat!

Speaking of fat you should see the squirrel that scurries about 10 feet away. It is as big as a cat!It is wonderful to watch the activity of this bird haven with a back drop of glistening while snow.

This area of Dalarna is ideal for showing life of past and present. The quality of life at its highest, right here. The falun red color of the houses, the pristine snow, the spark, the nature, the slow pace, the trailing smoke from chimneys, the people out walking their dogs, the advent candles in every single home, the quaint cabins, neighbors stopping over, they have it all.

We go to town (Malung) and eat at Sibylla. We meet some pretty nice people here. It is quite evident that the holiday is approaching. Many people go to the mountains for a ski trip for Christmas. We see car after car going the opposite direction as us. There are cars of all kinds but the one thing they have in common is the storage boxes on top of the cars. They are like our Thule that we have on our Volvo at home. This family we talk to are very excited because they have rented a cabin at the mountain for several days to go skiing.

We go on to Erik and Britta Gun's home. We love this home. There is a lovely covered porch where we have had coffee before. Nope not this time. It's cold!

Mona Brit and Roger is there too. We have such a nice visit. Britta Gun is in a wheel chair but looks very good. Erik is laughing and very strong as he hugs us. They do not get any better people than this. We eat cookies and pastry. Of course we have lussebullar, sort of. These are saffron buns special for Christmas. They have a lussekakor. It is a saffron cake. We enjoy ourselves very much. It is hard to leave. It will be a long time before we can visit again

We make plans to visit Mona Brit at a shop in Malung where she and other artists sell they products. It is a handverk shop.

We drive to Sundkvist Skinn. This is a leather shop that was owned and operated by Viktor and Karin Sundkvist. Both of them are gone now, but we visit every year we come anyway. Their daughter Birgitta runs the shop now. We walk in and she immediately recognizes Arvid. How did she do that? She is so nice. Karli and Birgitta talk a LOT while Arvid and I shop. Karli does find a hat that she loves. We buy a few things for people back home. Arvid finds a hat with flaps over the ears. That should come in handy. We buy some hats for Alex and Max too.

The shop smells of leather. It has not changed in all the years that we have visited. We take some photos and continue talking to Birgitta and looking at the leather. Then we take off.

Back to Ulla now. We want to call Richard and have a neighbor come help out. There is too much snow at home. He can not get the truck out to go buy food or anything. He is stuck and is trying to shovel the snow by hand.