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!!
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