Trip to Anna in Sandviken

Merry Christmas! We will call everyone at home tonight at 6PM or after, when it is morning back home. Hope everyone is enjoying themselves. It is so strange not to have Santa visit or open gifts or have a Christmas tree or having a decorated house!

We have a nice breakfast with Solveig and Birger and Hans and Albin. We call Anna and see if she wants to have some visitors for coffee today. She says Yes! We watch CNN. Albin keeps us all entertained. He is so funny. Karli works on her paper a bit. She really needs the internet but does as much as she can without it.

We are ready to leave and Solveig says we need to eat! She has fixed potato pancakes with ham. Such a good meal.

We take off for Annas. It is about an hour drive. It is sunny but cold. We drive to Sandviken. We find her house and get there at 2 PM. The boys are so tall! Dan is 22, Anders is 21 and Patrick is 15. We sit and have doffee and a beautiful dessert that Anna has made. Cookies too. We talk politics mostly. Ulla is here too, from Dalarna. Anders seems the most interested in talking about politics and life in Sweden and U.S. Dan also joins in. What fun this is. The last time we saw them all were quite young. Dan is engaged!

We talk for so long. It is amazing. Another situation where you have to realize it will be a long time before the next visit. We are amazed on how knowledgeable the boys are about politics. We do seem to note that young people in Sweden are often able to talk world views. Ulla and Patrick sit on the stairs letting us have all the conversation.

Annas house is smaller than her last house for sure. She and Janne have fixed it up so nicely. The kitchen is beautiful. They have this special nook for the computers even. It has different levels. It is so perfect for them. I am very impressed. It is good to see Anna so happy and especially wonderful to see the whole family together. This is definitely an advantage of visiting in for Christmas. Families are together.

We say our good byes and hope that someone will come visit us so we can see them sooner. Maybe you Anders? Who will come visit us???

We go back to Solveigs when it is dark. We eat some smörgäs. She has some new meats out in addition to the ham. There are some things left over from the Jul dinner too.



We watch TV with Birger. There is a special show on the Olympics this last year in Bejing. At first it is highlights then it is a bloopers show. It was so funny. It was nice to be able to watch something without the language being a barrier. If it is CNN, Birger and Solveig cannot really follow the English. If it is Swedish news, we cannot understand it. Bloopers??? Fine for everyone.


We called home earlier. There is more snow than ever before. We call a neighbor to go over and check on Richard. The truck is stuck and we hope they can plow the driveway and get the truck out. They are going to make sure he has enough food and see if he needs anything. We get to talk to Katie and the kids. Merry Christmas Bren! Tammy is not home. Darn. Hi Siberts! Happy day to you Ziarell and Maddie! Merry Christmas Mark!