Merry Christmas 2010!

2010 is coming to an end and I wish to take a moment and wish you all a wonderful Christmas and an exciting new year. As I write this Europe is covered in snow and most people who are getting ready to get home for Christmas are in for a challenge. Jochem is in the Netherlands for work but we hope he will make it back tonight to join us when we celebrate Christmas with my family in Skåne (south Sweden). With many cancelled flights at the moment and people trapped on train stations, airports and in traffic jams we keep our fingers crossed and hope that all of you travelling to family and friends find a safe way to get to your destination.

This is our second winter since we moved to Sweden and Ulricehamn and we have really had a chance to experience winter with lots of snow, low temperatures and outdoor winter sports. In the beginning of 2010 Jochem’s brother Harry with wife Miriam, their children and partners visited Ulricehamn for some skiing. The girls even got the local boys to take them on an ice-ride in an old Volvo over the lake and they kept skiing and snowboarding despite a temperature of minus 18 C.

In March Peter and Dorien visited us from the Netherlands and Jochem took them to our newly renovated summerhouse and arrived in a house with an indoor pool. Several pipes had broken when the electricity and heating fell out. It was a real blow to us and we had to redo the whole renovation but luckily we were helped by the talented carpenters and this fall, two years after we bought the house, we finished the project (well, all but the garden). It is a beautiful house with two apartments 30 meters in front of a lake, located 15 km south of Ulricehamn and we hope to use it a lot in the future.

This year Jochem took 5 months off work to spend more time with the family and to get to know Ulricehamn a bit more. He got involved in a local business project, fixed things with the summerhouse, worked on his two wooden boats, took care of the kids and time went very fast. In December he started doing some consultancy work abroad again but now he is trying to work more from home and less days per week. He is still trying to figure out what he wants to do in life but feels better than last year and sees many opportunities. As we celebrated 12 years of marriage this December we both joked about the idea of slowing down the pace in the coming 12 years but then realized that some people (us?) are just not very good at that, but we will try!

I enjoy my work and had a very successful year with several project proposals being awarded EU grants. Through my work I get to travel ever so often and had some fun and exciting trips to the Netherlands (with a bus trip home due to the volcano outburst), the UK and Brussels. I feel ready to increase my learning and hope that my new job in the strategic staff will challenge me.

The kids are all doing well and growing really fast. Ingrid (11) spent a month alone in the US. Well, not alone as there were 47 other kids and 30 adult staff but it was her first trip to the US and her first long camp. She participated in a “CISV – Building global friendship camp” (an international peace organisation) and had the summer of her life. She spoke English for a month with kids from 12 different nations and learned about peace, tolerance and dialog. CISV has become an important part of our lives and Elsa (10) is now getting ready for her camp next summer. I am the president of CISV Borås (local club) and the girls take part in weekend camps and other activities.

Nils (who just turned 7) also went to camp this summer, or at least that is what he calls it. He spent 4 weeks with my parents and learned how to swim while Jochem and I worked at the summerhouse. Elsa helped us out and realized that it feels different being the only child and missed her brother and sister a bit. All the kids enjoy the Montessori school, different after school activities (tennis, table tennis, football, skiing, sailing and drama), to play with their friends and we feel that they are settled and feeling very much at home here.

We had many wonderful visits from the Netherlands, Norway and from other parts of Sweden this year. We visited friends and family in the Netherlands a few times and in November we spent a great week on Sicily. Thank you all for visiting us and for being such good friends! Right now we are taking part in a local project (as a family) trying to become more climate smart and learning more about climate smart choices and attitudes so hopefully we contribute to a better climate (I even have a Swedish blog about it http://klimatsmartfamilj.blogspot.com).

As I write this I sit by the laptop of my parents in the house I grew up in. My parents retired this year and are both doing really well and keeping healthy. We are about to celebrate a traditional Swedish Christmas with my parents, my sister and her family (who are also doing very well) and tomorrow we go to my cousin Petra and celebrate the big family Christmas. For two days we will be surrounded by lots of people, many children, too much food, lots of talking, laughing and exchange our gifts. Christmas to me is about spending time together, enjoying each other’s company and laughing a lot. I hope you all get to laugh a lot this Christmas and that the new year ahead will be filled with many wonderful happenings.

Lots of love from us to you! Thank you for wonderful letters and cards. It is always great to hear how you are doing and to get the latest news from all over the world!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

The people of Ulricehamn

We had a world premier of the film Angelfarm – third time around in Ulricehamn last week. About 20 years ago the British filmmaker Colin Nutely came to Ulricehamn and the small village of Liared. He fell in love with the place, made a documentary film and wrote the script of Angelfarm. A few years later the film hit the screen and was an enormous hit depicting the Swedish countryside, the pros and cons of small town life and what happens when something odd and unexpected arrives in a little village. This summer, 16 years later, the film team arrived in Ulricehamn to make the third sequel of the film and last Thursday Jochem and I went to the world premier. Most Swedish films have their film premiers in Stockholm and Ulricehamn has never (to my knowledge at least) had a world premier before so this was a real treat. I had no hopes of getting invited to the premier but Jochem run in to Colin Nutley when he was here and they got talking about Ulricehamn and about how it is to live here. The love Nutley feels for this place is deeply felt in his films and somehow Jochem told him about our move from big town to small town and from the Netherlands to Sweden and suddenly we were invited to the premier. We had such a nice time and it really felt like a huge thing for Ulricehamn and I think many people enjoyed it just as much as we did. Lots of famous actors arrived and I sat next to Jochem explaining who is who in Swedish film.

Since November we have had a steady flow of more and more snow. It is almost amazing what kind of heavy winters we have had here in the last two years and it is not typical for the region. Naturally we enjoy it and the good skiing brings more and more tourists which is good for the town but one cant help wondering about a changing climate and if this is something we should get used to? Currently we have about 70 cm of snow and another 40 cm expecting to come within the coming days. Today the kids had a outdoor sports day with school and spent the day on the hill and as Jochems flight was cancelled due to the stormy weathers around Europe he joined them skiing and snowboarding. This evening he got a flight to the NL and I hope he will make it back before Christmas.

As we are getting closer to Christmas we have enjoyed several Christmas parties, Lucia celebrations and Nils 7th birthday. We celebrated Nils birthday in Lund last weekend which was great except for the fact that I forgot my handbag, sent Jochem to get it while my quick mum brought it by taxi which resulted in me and the kids getting on the train. Jochem missed it. The kids cried, Jochems phone was not charge and I had his money and credit card in my bag. It was an exciting day but in the end we met up in Borås with a special banner saying “Pappa”! The last 4 days we have gone from festivity to festivity ending it yesterday with a treasure hunt party for 9 seven year olds. Needless to say we were wasted last night but also happy with the fantastic friends we have made here in Ulricehamn – friends from many different countries, of different backgrounds but with one thing in common – we are all people of Ulricehamn!

Who moved the cheese?

Jochem is back working in the Netherlands and I visited Stockholm for two days so my parents came to help out with the kids. They arrived from Malaga (Spain) on Sunday and left Lund (south Sweden) early Monday morning to help out in Ulricehamn. On Wednesday they had to go back home as they had a release party to attend with an author in the evening. I sometimes joke with my sister about where our busy globetrotting parents are off to next but I really think they deserve the health and life spirit they show. They have taken charge of their lives since they retired early this year and are making every day count. I see too many people not taking charge to their own lives and letting life pass by without getting on the train. We are all different and not everyone is interested in social activities or travelling but I think it is important to realize that life is what we make of it. I am responsible for my choices and also for not choosing and sometimes we forget that a path not travelled is also a choice.

At work we are in the middle of a large reorganisation and from the beginning of next year I will move to the strategic staff department and work directly under the two CEOs of the municipality. I think we need a reorganisation and I think there is room for improvement in all parts of our organisation. Still, this reorganisation creates a lot of tension among the staff and many are worried about how it will be in the end (if you think there can be an end in an every evolving organisation!). For anyone in the middle of a change I have a book advice. The book is called “Who moved the cheese” by Spencer Johnson and it’s a bathtub book. It is long enough for a nice bath and I would like to suggest it to anyone who is in a change of some kind. In a simple and fun way we get a look into the human mind and how we can choose to look at a change and how we can choose to react upon it.

It took my hardworking parents some time to get used to the idea of retirement. My mum worked 6 months extra after turning 65 and my dad worked part time for 4 years ending his doctors’ career at the age of 69. But, when they finally retired they had a plan on what they want to do and what makes their days special. See the changes and see the possibilities as they are always there! And get the cheese book!