Dark Days, Too

And then there was dark. And rain. And ice.

I thought it fitting to write about the dark since my last post was about light. It is dark here, especially when it's cloudy. And it's still mostly dark when I bring Lucas to school in the morning. Earlier this week we were on our way to school, and the wind was blowing. Henrik's bike slipped on the ice, and down he went, crying because the handlebar hit his side.

A Swedish woman walking by stopped to help, and by random coincidence, she'd been born in California. This didn't help Henrik, though, who refused to bike the remaining way to Lucas' school. Lucas couldn't go ahead because of the construction on Henrik's preschool. (They are building his preschool, right behind Lucas' school, and it should be ready in March. Not that I'm counting down, or anything.)

It reminded me of Alexander's No Good, Very Bad Day, a book I loved to listen to my mom read when I was young. In it, the little boy is having one of those days, and he keeps saying he wants to move to Australia. And his mom says, "They have bad days, even in Australia."

The day redeemed itself, though. On the way home, Henrik and I got to witness up-close the crane putting the last piece of the preschool pre-fab building together. That afternoon Henrik and I had a Mommy Preschool field trip downtown to buy some office supplies (my reward) and to visit the hot dog stand (Henrik's reward.)

And then the sun came out.

Northern Light

Whenever I told people I was moving to Sweden in December, I'd hear, "Be prepared for the dark!" Before we moved, I'd only been here in summer or late spring, so I didn't know what to expect.

We live in the very south of Sweden, where, in the dark of winter, the sun comes up around 8:30 a.m., and sets around 4:00 p.m. In the north of Sweden (above the Arctic Circle) it's more extreme, as they may only see an hour or so of light in a winter's day.

So many people warned me of the dark, that I wasn't prepared for the beautiful LIGHT. The snow helps, of course, but the sun's light is intense, blue-hued, and magical. I love it.

A Swedish Christmas - Dec. 24

For the past 13 years, Mats has celebrated Christmas with my family in California. We always talked about going to Sweden for Christmas, or having his family out to us, but it's a hard time to travel, and it never happened.

This year was the first time his family was all together for Christmas since he moved to the U.S., and the first time they got to celebrate with the kids.


We even hosted, for the first time ever. I always had romantic thoughts of cooking the turkey for the first time, but 1) I'm not much of a cook, and 2) we'd just moved in a few weeks before and I didn't want to hunt down a turkey in snowy Sweden. So instead, we had halibut. I think I'm happy to have that as a new tradition.


God Jul to all. And to all, a good night!

Week One in Sweden Dec 12 - 18

After arriving and getting over jet lag, we enjoyed the snow that fell all week. The amount of snow is unbelievable, even to the Swedes who keep saying this isn't normal for the south of Sweden. The "worst winter in 100 years or more" is what we're hearing. Seeing as my boys have never lived in snow, they might argue it's the best winter in 100 years. Especially since they got to help Mats build this snow fort.


One morning after a snowy night, Henrik announced at the breakfast table that we wouldn't be able to leave the house because our door would be stuck. Mats and I smiled at each other, thinking, Where did he get that idea from? We assured him we'd be able to open the door.

Later, Mats tried to leave to go to the post office. The door wouldn't budge. Henrik was right- we were snowed in. Mats pushed the door enough to squeeze through and shovel us out. Mental note- listen to my boys when they come up with these random-seeming announcements!

Lucas and Henrik have enjoyed trying to make snow balls (the experts here say the snow is a bit too dry for this - who knew snow could be dry?)


We explained that snow angels can also be made with your face up.


And finally, good old-fashioned snow shoveling with hot chocolate afterward.