An AMAZING Birthday Week

What a fun week!  As a kid, my mom would always make my birthday special.  In our family, when it was your big day, you were treated like a queen.  Everything revolved around the birthday girl!  This tradition has carried on into my own family, and now my boys are treated like kings on their special day.  Hitting 40 was really tough for me.  I know it's only a number, and aging is all about how you look and feel... but I'm struggling each year as it creeps higher and higher.  Despite being 42, this birthday was extra special.  Thanks to wonderful friends, I didn't focus on the number, but instead focused on the amazing friends that I have made in such a short period of time.  Upon moving here, I was so worried about my life, and how I was going to find things that I loved to do, and if I would ever make friends here in Stockholm.  I told myself that I would never find friends like the ones I have back home.  Well... I was wrong.  Over the past five months, I've met some amazing people that I am honored to call friends.  The bond we share is deep and very different from other bonds I have.... because we are on a journey that only we understand.

Lunch out with the girls to celebrate my birthday

The amazing gifts the girls gave me

My favorite gift this year has to be the my giant slipper that Lori and Claudette gave me.  Upon entering my home, you can choose a pair of slippers to wear while you're visiting.  It makes me laugh every time I look at it.  I found the perfect place to hang it too.

choose your favorite color

More on my birthday week below.....

All of our Saturdays consist of hours and hours of soccer.  Steve is now coaching Chase's team, so they had their first two practices and the boys and I were even able to watch a practice.  Chase is out there with boys twice his size and a bit older.  He seems to be in his element, smiling and having a great time.  Having two big brothers pushing him around all these years, has paid off.  They were so proud of him as they watched practice.

Chase ready for practice to begin

My boys kicking the ball around before practice

This is what happens when the ground is filthy here and we have go indoors.  These are my feet,  during Chase's practice.  Now, when I get dressed,  I worry more about the socks I'm wearing more than the shoes.  All shoes and boots are left at the door, while the socks remain on your feet for everyone to see.

All shoes removed in public places

The older boys have practices both inside and out.  The temperature is in the low twenties and they come home with their cute little red noses... wanting hot chocolate to warm them up.  The snow is very consistent. Each day you will see at least flurries, if not a more steady flow.  I'm not sure if the snow made things seem brighter, or the fact that we gain six minutes of daylight each day, but it no longer seems dark all the time.  Now, when the boys are playing after school, I can actually see them on the playground.  Today the sun actually came out for a few minutes.  It's amazing what a little sunshine will do for your spirits.

Steve and were able to get our babysitter Sam to watch the boys last Saturday night.  We went to a new restaurant, (new to us) Zink Grill.  Then saw the movie Twelve Years a Slave.  What a powerful movie.  If you haven't had a chance to see it..... go this weekend!  Date nights with my hubby are very different here.  We walk, in the freezing cold.  Steve always wants to take a cab, but I prefer walking.  This seems to be my cure for falling asleep in the theatre.  The cold air keeps me awake through all the movies now.

We've been promising the boys we would all go ice skating for weeks now, but soccer practice has been consuming our weekends.  Since I'm all about a day that we as a family spend time together, I decided it was time to go skating and keep my promise to the boys.  Smith and Steve woke up early Sunday morning for his practice, while Jake, Chase and I stayed home.  When they returned, we took a bus to Kunsträdgården, put all of our skates on (not an easy task when it's snowing and you are battling for space on the bench to tie everyone's skates).  Steve and I looked at each other and each decided we needed to take a "warmup" lap before we acted as Chase's balancing bar, since neither of us have been on skates in over 20 years.  Once we got the hang of it, we were able to teach Chase.  By the end, Chase was a lot more confident and the other two were zooming all around us. As for Mommy, I was FREEZING! The temperatures were in the teens and it was snowing.  It was a really fun time though!

Go Smitty Go

Jake waving hello

Sunday continued as a day of activity.   Sam came back over for a few hours after skating, and Steve and I headed to Salk for some tennis.  After playing for a half hour, one of Steve's coworkers saw us, and him and his wife challenged us to a doubles match.  She speaks very little english, they are from Italy, but it was still a great time.  We had a follow-up match set for this Saturday, but Steve has been under the weather, so we had to cancel.  We are both getting good use of our new rackets.

I mentioned that the temperatures are quite chilly.  Thanks to my friends Alex, Heidi, Nancy and Meg, I am able to show you these beautiful pictures of Stockholm... frozen.

                                                                                   

 The birthday week began for me on Tuesday.  I worked out with my girls, we added two more ladies to our Tuesday/Thursday Circuit workout.  After my workout, I headed to tennis for a singles match at 11:00 and a doubles match at 12:00. The ladies found out it was my birthday and sang the Swedish birthday song to me on the courts.  It's a much nicer melody than ours by the way.  After talking to them, I learned that in Sweden, many celebrate not only their actual birthday, but also Name Day.  Here's the link so you can find your Swedish Name Day!  Gives me another reason to buy and receive gifts.  I like it!  http://www.behindthename.com/namedays/country/sweden  My Name Day is July 10th.  
That evening, my boys made me a lovely dinner of scallops, baked potato, and salad and followed it up with a delicious gluten and dairy free cake.  Since Jake was trying to convince me to "want" a chocolate cake for my birthday, Steve bought separate slices of chocolate cake for them.  They are all quite boring when it comes to cake.  It's chocolate only for my boys.  I, on the other hand, like to be creative with my birthday cakes.

lactose free cream and fruit with almond crumb base

After dinner I was surprised with clothes from my favorite store here in Stockholm.  You know you might be shopping a bit too much, when your husband walks in the store to pick out a few things and the owners know exactly who you are and are able to lead him to the perfect choices. Of course my favorite present this year, my trip to Paris.  The boys each made me their own sweet, sweet card.  Each one was so unique and brought a tear to my eyes.  I am definitely turning into my mother!  She always cried when we bought her cards, and we would all laugh at her.  Jake knows that if he gives me a card, he must also hand me a tissue with it.  

my new shirt 

All the fun stuff

I guess my boys really do love me

In bed that night, I turned to Steve and said, "thank you for the best birthday".  He was so surprised that such a simple birthday was labeled as "the best".  The reason, because I felt so much love.  And that is what birthdays are all about!  

The love did not stop there.  Friday, my wonderful friends organized a birthday lunch.  Fifteen of my closest friends here in Stockholm were able to come and celebrate.  The restaurant Lori and Claudette chose was Coco and Carmen, address: Östermalm, Banérgatan 7.  It was perfect.  The service was amazing.  The waitress was so patient with us and they were so tolerant of our LOUD table.  hahahah  The food was delicious and very pretty to look at as well, so I had to post some of the meals chosen.

this was mine...avocado and shrimp salad

pretty much ham with smothering of cheese

chicken caesar salad

Swedish version of a club sandwich

seafood stew.... this looked so delicious

As I said earlier in this post, I love to experience different birthday cakes each year.  Lori did NOT disappoint on her choice of the cake.  It's not only beautiful, but was one of the most delicious cakes I've ever had in my life.  

Raspberry, passion fruit cheese cake

Bebop... I already told you what I wished for

The morning started with a breakfast at Cafe Egoist with Lori and Claudette, followed my a manicure at Five Five Nails in Mood Mall.  This was the first manicure here in Stockholm that felt like the ones we are used to in the states.  The price was high, but not too terrible.  I treated myself to pretty nails before Paris, but in the future, I will be manicuring at home.  My sister April is very good at this task... I hope I can learn a thing or two from her.  I definitely don't enjoy doing my own nails.

To continue sharing about my fun birthday week.... I will back up one day and tell about our "Cooking through Sweden" adventure.  Heidi bought the book The Swedish Table by Helene Henderson.  We will meet once a month at a different host's apartment, and cook our way through the entire cookbook.  Monica hosted this month, and not only was the food delicious, but her apartment was beautiful.  

the kitchen overlooking a gorgeous patio and these colorful apartments

Heidi chopping almonds for the cheese cake

I am one of few people that doesn't cry when chopping onion

Our cooking group

The finished product.... pea soup and apple cabbage salad

Now I'll back up another day.  Wednesday was spent with my favorite seven year old.

Smith had an appointment that morning at 10:00.  As I was dressing, he walked in my closet to check out my clothes... and I quote, "Mom, I hope you are dressing nice today (like me)".  "Why Smith?"  "Because that's the rule here, people dress really nice in Sweden and we both have to be dressed in nice clothes for this appointment."  My leggings and sweater with boots seemed to meet his approval, so all was well.  Instead of bringing him back to school afterwards, I decided he needed a day with his mom.  We had heard of The Bagel Deli... so we decided to check it out by ordering some hot chocolate.  Smith also ordered a bagel with cream cheese.  The deli (more like a cafe) was very cozy, and the staff was very friendly.

We had a great time chatting.  I love one-on-one time with the boys... it happens so infrequently, but when it does, I always learn something new about them.
Since Smith really needs new shoes, I thought we could go to this great children's shoe store, not far from our house, and let him pick out the ones he wants.  We attempted to go on Saturday, but the store closed at 3:00 and we ran out of time.  Most stores close that early on Saturdays.  It's so strange!  Wouldn't you know that we when we arrived on Wednesday, there was a note on the door saying they were closed until mid February.  Since my Swedish reading skills are non-existent, I'm assuming they were either remodeling, or relocating.
After that, we headed over to Claudette's new apartment to help her unpack a bit.  I put her address in my phone and relied on google maps to get me there.  It seemed easy enough.  I caught the bus which took me almost directly to her front door.  When I arrived, I put the door code in but it didn't work.  I soon realized I typed in the wrong address.  With only 15% battery life, I quickly entered the correct address, hurried to the bus stop, jumped on another bus, and got off a few stops later.  My battery was now down to 9%, but that should have been enough to get me the few blocks to her apartment... so I thought!  I had heard horror stories about people's phones dying in the extreme cold temperatures... but didn't experience it until that moment.  So, here we were, about 3 minutes from Claudette's new apartment, in unfamiliar territory, with a dead phone.  Poor Claudette is home waiting for me to arrive, but I have no way to contact her and let her know that I'm not only lost, but now wandering aimlessly through the streets trying to find a train station.  Did I mention that it was already 2:45 and I had to pick up Chase at 3:20?  Well.... I figured out where to get on the train and made it back to school in time.  By the time I got home, two hours later, I had texts and messages from Claudette wondering if I was alive.

It's now time for things I took for granted in America.....

Public bathrooms!  They used to be readily available, pretty much anywhere I was.  There were bathrooms at parks, in malls, at soccer fields, in grocery stores, in most free standing stores... you get my drift.  I bet if you're living in America right now, it never occurs to you that this is not how it is in other parts of the world.  Well... having boys does pay off here in Stockholm.  They don't always need an actual bathroom to do their business.  But, I, being a girl, do not have this same luxury.  So, after Chase's soccer practice, after I drank a bit too much water, I had to use the bathroom really badly.  Unfortunately, the bathrooms in the school we were in were all locked.  Having no choice, we headed to the train station.  I hoped, very wishful hoping I might add, that there would be a bathroom there.  Hahahahah... not a chance.  So now, I'm in serious trouble, especially because I had to go grocery shopping and I was sure there were no bathrooms there.  The thought of going home, then going back out to shop, was not even an option in my mind.  So, Jake and I left the rest of the clan when we got to our train stop (my grocery store is in my train station) and we walked into the mall (which is also in the train station).  I'm sure there's a bathroom there.  We stumbled upon it and realized we needed 5 kroner to enter the bathroom.  Since I didn't have any change on me, I decided to sneak in when the next person came out.  As the door opened, Jake and I sprinted past the little boy that was exiting.  As we walked in, I realized that we just might be in the men's bathroom.  Since there were individual doors/stalls, and I was about to pee my pants, I stayed, did what I snuck in to do, and then laughed about it for the next five minutes.

Booking vacations over the phone!  We are going skiing in a few weeks in the northern part of Sweden.  It took me a long time and many attempts to figure out the phone recording, just to actually speak to a person.  At one point, I pushed every number on the phone in hopes that it would direct me to the operator.  When I finally reached a human voice, it took another hour to book the vacation.  The positive that came of it... I learned my Swedish numbers.

A Warm Home!  Throughout the winter, the playroom upstairs has been very cold.  As the temperatures have dropped into the twenties and even colder at night, that room is freezing.  I actually wear a hat and gloves if I'm going to spend a decent amount of time in there.  One day, we went in, looked under the window, and my hair blew.  Which is when I decided it was time to ask the landlord to check it out.  The man came, put some foam insulation in the space where the air was coming in... and told me it was as good as new.  A few hours later, my neighbor came over with a thermometer.   I guess my landlord called him to check the temperature after the worker came.  It read 18º Celsius.  He looked at me and said, "perfect".  "That is the normal temperature in a home here in Sweden."  Anything between 18º and 22º.  For those of you that don't know the conversion, that is 66º Fahrenheit.  Now you know why I wear hats and gloves in my home.

It's super late and I have some packing to do for my big trip in two days.  My next blog will be about my adventures in Paris.........