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| Sergels Torg |
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| 4pm on December 6th |
I love this time of year.... it's chilly (well, quite cold), the city is dark, but white stars and candles light up the streets. Store windows are decorated so beautifully for Christmas, and there's a buzz in the air that only Christmas season brings. The schools are filled with happy children anticipating flying around the world, or cozying up at home, preparing for their family holiday traditions. As for my home, we are fully decorated Swedish style, and loving it. At first I was bummed that I didn't bring any of my Christmas decorations with me, (Steve is thrilled) but now I'm so happy that they aren't here. I love the Swedish Christmas decor. It's very simple, but beautiful. Stars, candles, tomtins.... whites, silvers and a splash of red and green are scattered around my home. My apartment is surrounded by large windows, so beautiful white stars light up both my home, and the street.
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| My happy window |
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| I love this view.. picture doesn't do it justice |
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| Isn't she cute |
The Payne's are doing something very different this year for Christmas. We are celebrating the holiday, just the five of us, in Venice Italy. We will spend two days in the city, then rent a car and drive into the Dolomite mountains for a week of skiing and outdoor fun in Cortina.
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| hoping this is my view |
Throughout this post, and throughout this month, I've been reflecting on the people that I've lost in my life, and how I see their spirit in my everyday activities. I will be adding these tidbits in as I write, how my "angels" in heaven have shined their light on us over these past few weeks.
Before I get too excited about Christmas, let me catch you up on this last month. Living in Stockholm brings so many wonderful things to the table, but I will say the one day of the year that I wish I wasn't living here, is Thanksgiving. I love this holiday. It's about nothing other than spending time with those that you love, and expressing thanks for all that we have. Knowing that all of our family and friends were back in the U.S. prepping for the big turkey dinner, and Thursday, enjoying the day together, was a hard day for all of us. A few of my American friends decided to reserve a table at one of the restaurants that serves a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We had a great time... and yes, we were still able to give thanks for all that we have, and for our friendships.
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| Claudette, Lori, me, Michelle, Lauren |
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| a long table of fun |
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| some of the kids (Jake was actually having fun) |
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| Steve, Craig, and Cliff |
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| more of the kids' table |
Since we couldn't be in America for Thanksgiving, we decided to celebrate this holiday twice. Steve and I hosted our very first Thanksgiving meal in Sweden at our home, the following Saturday. We invited three families that we've grown to love since moving here, 15 months ago.
Cooking a Thanksgiving meal here in Stockholm, brought on a few obstacles that needed to be overcome. First and foremost, how to cook a large turkey in a small oven. Instead, we bought two smaller turkys, and learned about a trick that saved our Thanksgiving dinner. More on that to come....
Obstacle#2: a very small refrigerator and freezer.
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| this is actually quite comical |
All I could do was marvel in the thoughts of my extra large fridge and freezer in Atlanta, then I shed a small tear, and moved on. This is what I had to work with, so we made the best of it. Thankfully, my friend, and neighbor Heidi, offered her kitchen while she was back in the states for Thanksgiving. We originally were going to use her oven as well, but since I learned the amazing trick (that I will share soon), we no longer needed that. With the temperatures in the 20's and 30's, we had a natural refrigerator right outside of our kitchen, we were able to keep all of our drinks outside until everyone arrived.
Obstacle #3: shopping. This is a two-fold dilemma. For one, I don't have a car, therefore the food had to be picked up in shifts or my arms would have fallen off. I did take the granny cart one day and stocked up on all cans, bottles and large heavy items. The second part of problem #3: the language barrier. Things that I took for granted in America, like chicken broth, don't exist here. Trying to figure out the translation of recipe items is quite time consuming, making what should have been a 30 minute grocery store run, a 90 minute run. Stuffing mix, doesn't exist here, but thankfully I thought ahead and stocked up when I was home in September. I actually enjoyed the obstacles (at times) because it made it that much more challenging. hahaha Steve worked from home on Friday as I prepped all the ingredients and made three pies, and a batch of cookies. In between calls, he would help me in the kitchen, or set up the apartment, so it was ready for our guests the following day.
We were a perfect team.
We each had our tasks, and it worked out great. Steve was the turkey man... which leads me to our newly learned trick. My friend Tanya was telling me about this in passing one day, and since we had the obstacles above to overcome, we thought we would give it a whirl. We cooked turkey #1 in the morning, and it was finished around 1pm. The trick is to take the turkey immediately from the oven and wrap it in layers of aluminum foil. Wrap a large towel around the foil. Then place the turkey in a cooler (without ice) where it stays insulated and warm. The next turkey went in at 1:00 and it cooked until dinner time. In the meantime, we were able to make the gravy and have plenty of room in the oven for the other items. When Steve sliced turkey #1, it was even better than the one that just came out of the oven. It was so moist and so hot! In the future, this will be our new Thanksgiving plan. An added bonus, you can clean the kitchen before guests arrive.
As we all know, timing is everything on Thanksgiving. There is nothing worse than a cold dinner. So my other trick was to make the mashed potatoes the day before. The following morning, I put them in the slow cooker on low, added more milk and butter. They were so deliciously creamy and HOT. The sweet potatoes and broccoli fit in the oven once the turkey was out, and the stuffed mushrooms we served as an appetizer, so they didn't take up additional room in the oven.
Obstacle #4: converting all of our recipe measurements to the metric system. I really wished I would have paid more attention in math back in middle school, because it would come in handy right about now. The pies were cooked the night before. This was the first time in my life I have ever made a pie. I know some of you are laughing at me right now, but I don't bake! I don't enjoy baking! I hate having the sweets in my house, because I'll eat them. So, I don't bake! Can you imagine how much more I dislike baking, having to convert measurements and oven temperature? But here are my masterpieces:
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| pumpkin pie |
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| apple crumble |
Obstacle #5, is not an obstacle for me at all, but must have been a huge obstacle for my mom 30 years ago. Surfing the internet for the best recipes, tips for cooking, and what ingredients could be used as substitutes for others, is a gift that we take for granted. She loved to cook and always made the most amazing food. She rarely used cookbooks, but I'm sure she would've loved to have information at her fingertips when her creative mind was at work. I thought of her each time I grabbed my phone for help from our friend, the internet.
And finally, obstacle #5: Seating for 16 people in my apartment. Steve and I went back and forth with this, but finally agreed that the kids would eat at the large table (used now as our craft table in the playroom) and the adults would eat on folding tables in the entryway of my apartment.
The kids seemed to like the dinner
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| the adults.... |
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| enjoying dinner together |
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| lots of boys... and one little girl (not in the picture) |
The evening was great. We did exactly what Thanksgiving is all about. Ate and spent time with the people in your lives that mean the most. This might be our new tradition for as long as we are living in Stockholm. This takes me to my 'angel", daddy, who was shining on us that night. He loved to have a house full of people for the holidays. He was a people person.. the life of the party in his younger years.
A few weeks prior to Thanksgiving, we took a trip to Årland, Finland for Jake's soccer tourney. It was quite the interesting place to visit in the winter. From what I understand, it's really nice in the summer months though. This adventure started on Friday, when we planned to pick the boys up from school a few hours early so we could have lunch with some teammates, and then board the ship to Årland. We had a two and a half hour drive to the boat, and therefore gave ourselves plenty of time to get there, until..... Steve's conference call went on a bit too long. In a state of panic, he picked me up, we flew to school to grab the boys, and drove to the boat. The timing couldn't have been any more perfect, because the second we arrived, the cars were beginning to load on the ship and we were getting ready to take off. Besides being a bit frazzled, we made it safely. The ship was fun for the kids, with an indoor play area for them to go crazy. The parents, especially those of us that don't do well with motion sickness, were not quite as happy. Between the loud screaming kids, and the wild seas, this girl was not feeling so well. I was thrilled to see land after a few hours.
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| boat fun |
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| this little cutie loved it |
We drove to our hotel, and it clearly had different standards than what we know to be a five star hotel. This was actually a joke among all of us this weekend. The "free" dinner that they provided, was not going to cut it, so we walked to a local pizza place, which turned out to be really good. The owners definitely hit their quota that night, and therefore will probably take the rest of the winter off. The island is so dead in the winter, there were only a handful of restaurants open. We know this because in between games, the parents decided to venture out in search of one. After coming upon the "cafe" attached to the gas station that only served cabbage soup, we settled on a Thai place, that ended up being surprisingly good... but in hindsight, I can't believe I risked it. The highlight of the weekend, besides watching the boys play, was finally seeing where Graceland is. For those of you that think it's in Memphis, you have been misled. It's in Årland, Finland.
The boys played their hearts out that weekend, coming in second in the tourney. The indoor facility was beautiful and it was a well run tournament.
The following week we celebrated our favorite five year olds birthday.
How can my baby be five already? I want to bottle him up and keep him young forever. He has the most hilarious personality, which takes me to our next "angel" moment. Chase is a mix between Papa Joe (my dad) and Bebop (Steve's dad). He is so funny, making everyone around him laugh. He is also a ladies man, like my dad was. All the ladies loved my dad with his friendly, sweet smile. So... our sweet little Chase is a great mix of his two grandpas whom we miss so much!
On November 20th, Chase's actual birthday, we celebrated at home with a taco dinner and a homemade chocolate cake.
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| look what my brothers bought me |
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| legos are still my favorite |
On Friday, November 21st, Steve and I walked 12 of Chase's Pre-K friends (from the school) to the bowling alley where we had a party to celebrate turning 5 years old. They had a great time and it was fun to see these little cuties in action.
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| Adrian will be moving in January |
Chase is one of three boys in his pre-k class. I love these sweet little girls.
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| Adelle would only let Steve help her bowl |
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| Hikaru and Chase have been friends since Day 1 |
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| Elvira and Chase are good friends too |
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| Fiona and Natsuki |
Pizza, cupcakes and presents made this party complete.
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| Smitty was a great helper at his little brother's party |
At the end of the party, I looked at Chase's feet and realized that he wore two right shoes the entire party.
Something that has been consuming a lot of my time this month is a fund raiser that Tanya, Lori and I are organizing. SIS is sponsoring a school in Nepal. I've attached a link where you can read more, if you are interested. http://www.intsch.se/index.php/about-sis/168-nepal-project. Be sure to click this link when you are on the page to see a very powerful video presentation that our 5th grade teachers put together while they were in Nepal last summer:
The fundraiser is a week long event in January called Fit For Nepal. Students, faculty and parents will be involved in helping raise money for the Shila Devi community in Nepal, and also bring awareness to fitness, and a healthy lifestyle. Since January is a time for new beginnings, we thought it appropriate to host it this month. We have been working behind the scenes for two months in conjunction with the art department, who is designing all of our posters and promotional materials, along with the students who were challenged to design a logo for Fit For Nepal. The P.E department is providing equipment, gym space, and encouraging students to attend the classes that will be offered throughout the week. I will be teaching various fitness classes in the morning for all parents, and classes in the afternoons for students and teachers to attend on various days. Friday is celebration day, where the entire SIS community will come together for an afternoon of "goofy teacher relay races" and a pie throwing contest, where a few lucky students will have the opportunity to throw pies at the teacher that raises the most money throughout the week.
This event is near and dear to my heart... leading me to my next "angel" moment. My entire life, my dad gave to a charity called Compassion International. He would sponsor children from all over the world, giving money so they could have food, attend school, and grow up to be productive members of society. We loved this organization because the children would write us letters throughout their journey, and when they were financially stable enough, Compassion would let us know, and we would have the option to choose another child. We always had pictures of our "sisters around the world" hung throughout our house, with letters attached. Well, not too long ago, maybe five years, I reconnected with one of these girls on Facebook. Her name is Jelly Yang. I remember her so well because my dad always spoke of her, he seemed to have special bond with this one girl. She found my sisters and I on FB to let us know how much she loved my dad, and how much of an impact his "compassion" had on her life. She was able to attend college and choose a career that she enjoys. Since my dad had already passed away by the time she contacted us, he was never able to see how much of an impact he had on her life. Being a part of this Nepal Project makes me smile, knowing that my father, a very compassionate man, taught me how to give to those in need.
I'm proud to say that my boys are continuing in Papa Joe's footsteps, they too are giving to those in need. They have decided to donate their Christmas gifts from all aunts and uncles to families that need a little extra this year. This makes me smile, and I know that my dad is smiling on them as well.
One of my favorite pastimes here in Stockholm is volunteering in both Smith's 3rd grade class, and Chase's Pre-k class. Teaching children to read has always been my passion. I love to watch the lightbulb go on when they understand how to decode. This year my boys are blessed with amazing teachers that have this same passion for children. I have offered to pull out any students in Smith's 3rd grade class that need a boost in reading and twice a week, I pull six children from his class. I have my own lesson plans and homework assignments for them, and I love it. In pre-k I am in the classroom, working with those students that are ready to read. These little ones are so sweet because a whole new world of words and books is opening up before their eyes. I miss teaching so much, and I am anxious to be get back in the school one day. But for now, this meets my needs, and the students needs, and who knows if something will open up in the future for a more permanent position.
Another pastime is the various PTA groups that are available to all families at SIS. One of these groups is "lunch club". Once a month we eat at a different restaurant around the city. Our fearless leader, Lan-Ling, does a fabulous job of not only choosing a variety of restaurants, but also making reservations for a large crowd. This past month we ate dim sum in Gamla Stun. It was my first time eating it, and I loved it.
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| some of the ladies in our lunch club group |
Some of the food we ate:
A fun afternoon was had by all....
This picture of Vanessa was taken in Cafe Art, in Gamla Stan. It makes me smile every time I look at it. It's the entry way and I love that her and I don't have to duck to avoid hitting our heads on the ceiling.
It's that time of year again where the darkness has taken over. I actually enjoy it, especially during the Christmas season. It's very cozy. Here's a picture of our school at pickup time. Each of my boys has a light on their jacket, so I can find them on the playground. The kids still play after school as if it's sunny and warm,
We are trying to keep active during these dark days, because it's quite easy to stay home and lie around. It always feels like night time. Chase asks me everyday after school if it's his bedtime. So, some of the things we've been doing...
Family Game Night
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| puzzle fun |
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| Left Center Right |
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| Smitty was the big winner |
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| Chase is the winner |
Visiting The Christmas Markets....
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| Gamla Stan |
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| We picked the winning number |
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| waffles and chocolate fudge... yum |
Visiting the NK Store Windows....
I love how they appeal to the children. Thanks Claudette for sharing your wonderful photos.
And of course, if you live in the Payne household, you play soccer all the time. So here's to Chase's team, playing outdoors on this cold, foggy evening.
And.... indoors for his last game until January.
Jake in his outdoor tournament this weekend. It was freezing, but the sun did peek out for a few hours.
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| Jake avoids the tackle |
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| Jake dribbling down the field |
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| The sun shining down |
Baking.....
Smith's math homework was to bake or cook a recipe using the metric system measurements. He chose to make M&M cookies. They were delicious.
Advent is huge here in Sweden... it's actual meaning is the arrival/ or coming. The custom here is to light a candle every Sunday during Advent. So much of the decor has four candles, one for each Sunday in advent. The stars hanging in all of the windows became popular back in the 30's, but have been used in Sweden since 1894. It represents the Star of Bethlehem. Customarily, stars are lit the first Sunday of Advent, and aren't removed until January. Children open a window in the Advent calendar each day until Christmas Eve. Chase's class is doing this, where a different child gets a treat if their name is pulled. It's a very sweet tradition that he looks forward to each day.
The Nobel Prize and dinner is held here in Sweden each year on December 10th. In honor of Nobel Day, Stockholm International School has it's own Nobel lunch, where the students are served a special meal and are asked to dress in their finest clothes.
St. Lucia's Day is another beautiful tradition in Scandinavia that takes place every December 13th. St. Lucia's Day is celebrated by a girl dressing in a white dress with a red sash around her waist and a crown of candles on her head. She walks with a candle in her hand. The crown is made of Lingonberry branches which are evergreen, and symbolize new life in winter. A popular food eaten at St. Lucia's day are 'Lussekatts', St Lucia's day buns flavored with saffron and dotted with raisins, which are eaten for breakfast.
Each year the 5th graders at SIS have their own St. Lucia celebration. This year Jake was the narrator of the show.
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| Audra was chosen as St. Lucia, in the middle with the crown |
The rest of the performance had it's own 5th grade touch.... the boys transformed into Elvis and sang Blue Christmas....
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| my little Elvis is on the far right |
Christmas season always reminds me of my mom. She loved Christmas and always made it so special for us. There were always Christmas songs playing in our house, so each year, when I hear them, I both smile and cry, thinking of her. When I see my children singing in their performances, I can't not shed a tear. As I was tucking Jake into bed tonight, I felt angry, that she never knew him, or any of my boys. She missed out on her grandchildren, and that makes me both angry and sad. So, all I have now are memories, and all I can share with them are stories of my memories.
Christmas shopping while living here in a city is quite different than when I lived in the states. I can no longer buy large gifts and just throw them in the trunk of my car. I now have to time my shopping sprees, giving myself enough time to walk the gifts home and then hide them, before I pick up the boys from school. I also have to consider certain gifts based on size, can I physically carry that home? Watching people walk through the city carrying their Christmas trees always makes me chuckle. It's such a different lifestyle than what we are used to.
Thank you for all of the Christmas cards that have been steadily coming in each day from the states. We love seeing all of our friends and family on the cards, and we wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND BLESSINGS IN THE NEW YEAR!!!
The Paynes are off to Italy.
Stayed tuned for the next blog......
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| Merry Christmas |
