Dairy

Fun, fun, fun at the grocery store!

Silly

We were sitting around the table when Alba out of the blue started doing this slow blink.

Homecoming

I know I shouldn't complain, but it was hard going to work today after being off for nearly three for Christmas. I missed the kids even though I knew they were having a good time with Andrew. It all got better when I came home to this though: 

Green tip #5: Reuse. We're slowly exchanging disposable items in our home. We use cloth diapers and are trying to switch to cloth wipes (although the disposables are a little hard to get rid of) and we use either an overturned plate on top of a bowl or glass containers or jars for leftovers and for freezing instead of cellophane and freezer bags. When we plan ahead, we bring cloth bags to go shopping and if I have to buy a bag, I always choose paper. At our grocery store we really don't need to bag any fruits or veggies separately since we scan them ourselves and put them directly in our shopping bags. We wash our dish rags and sponges until they start falling apart and I began using cloth feminine hygiene products since it's super easy to throw them in the same bin as the diapers. I know of people who even use cloth for their own toilet needs, but I'm not sure we're there yet. Some things are tricky though, like what to use instead of plastic bags for our non-recyclable waste, or what to do about all those food containers that you get if you can't buy food in bulk. Have you stopped using any disposable items? How did you replace them or did you realize you didn't need them at all?

Never Too Late for Christmas

Finally! My computer has arrived and as promised, I have barely gotten it out of the box before posting this. We had the flu for Christmas, so unfortunately we ended up celebrating mostly by ourselves except for my mom who ventured to see us since she didn't want to miss the kids opening their gifts. It still turned out pretty well and Inara and Alba both seemed happy despite Santa's lack of an appearance (which is customary in Sweden).

Some Christmas preparations:

Andrew and Inara made this awesome gingerbread house. Inara has only been allowed to eat a couple of pieces of candy every other day or so, but somehow there are lots of little finger prints in the powdered sugar and a few more jelly bears missing than there should be.

Making sugar cookies with grandma. Inara actually suggested this since she remembered making sugar cookies with grandma K. last Thanksgiving.

Wrapping a gift for a friend. I dare say it was one of the most well-taped presents out there.

We were focusing on skyping with family for the gift opening, so not a lot of pictures of that, but the girls had lots of fun and got a bunch of nice gift from family and friends. Christmas this year was a lot of fun despite illnesses. It's a lot more rewarding and also a little stressful to make Christmas special for a kid who's old enough to remember things (although Inara remembers last Christmas too, I guess).

Museum and Santa

I did not forget my promise to make a Christmas post, but my computer has checked out permanently and Andrew's computer doesn't have a card-reader. So, unfortunately you have to wait until my new computer arrives and make due with this post about our trip to Stockholm a couple of weeks ago.

Inara has been wanting to go see a dinosaur exhibit in a museum for as long as she's known museums exist, so we decided to make a weekend out of it. We arrived in Stockholm on Friday morning and managed to comfortably squeeze a visit to the museum of natural history, the aquarium and Santa into our schedule before taking the ferry home on Sunday night. We also had a chance to visit with two of my cousins and at night I snuck out and saw some old friends while the rest stayed at the hotel.

I knew that the big dino-exhibit was under construction, but did think that the temporary exhibit would still be pretty good, which it wasn't. Inara didn't mind too much though since there was also a very interactive exhibit about the human body going on, as well as an exhibit about Nordic animals.  

At the aquarium:

 

Admiring giant moose in central Stockholm:

Inara waiting in line to see Santa, clutching her wishlist in her hand. It contained three items: Pink, glittery nail polish, Sorry (the board game) and a book about the jungle book.

 

Because of some poor (or excellent?) planning on the department store's part, Santa was located right next to where some adorable boy band was signing autographs. This resulted in huge mass of warm, anxious children wanting to see Santa and distraught, sobbing teenage girls wanting to catch a glimpse of their crushes. 

Admiring the Christmas displays:

And on the way home someone was so beat they fell aslep on the floor of the ferry:

Green tip #4: Don't throw away food. This is one that we struggle with in our family. No matter what we do, we seem to end up with some old leftovers in the fridge that we end up throwing away. I really hate it and would love advice on how to get better about it. I think that part of the problem for us is that we have such varying tastes in food that it frequently doesn't work to just whip something up out of what's left in the cupboards. What do you do to throw away less food?

Snow!

It snowed for the first time this year on Christmas Eve! We've been sick, so our Christmas celebrations were toned down this year. An update will come shortly, but first some pictures of us enjoying the snow (although Alba was on the fence until she got to ride in the sled):

Dreaming of Christmas

Andrew has been at a conference in Spain for four days and I kinda felt like super woman pulling everything together while he was gone until I realized that this is just life for a ton people. So, hats off to all the single moms and dads out there! 

I didn't write a green tip last time, but I think that this one deserves it's own post. 

Green tip #3: Buy less stuff. 

Christmas is rapidly approaching and most people in this part of the world are already trying to decide what Christmas presents to buy this year. We're not only bombarded by adds and commercials telling us what we should buy to show people we truly love them, we also have a hard-to-break habit of spending lots of dough on Christmas gifts. 

It's not easy to step back, take a breath and remember that companies couldn't give a flying jingle bell about our love for each other and deep down we already know that mindless consumption is not the way to show someone you care. Businesses want to make money. And more often than not, they rake in the cash by selling non-essential, poorly manufactured goods produced by the sweat and tears of severely underpaid workers in third world countries. To top it off, they are probably toxic to our health and detrimental to the sustainability of our planet. 

Let's be honest, I'm tempted by cheap garbage just as much as the next gal, but this Christmas, I would like to urge you to do what I'm intending to do. My goal is to only give non-material gifts, unless it's something eatable (or a solid-state hard drive, I guess). For example, Inara is getting tickets to a newly opened play-land that we haven't taken her to yet, my mom is getting a subscription to ancestry.com and several of our friends will get homemade cider or beer. I'm not saying kids can't have toys, but I do think one or two new ones is enough. In our case, I'm convinced they'll get that and more from other people. Another idea (great if you're short on cash) is to give of your time. Offer to watch someone's kids, shovel their drive-way or drop off a home-cooked meal for dinner one evening. All things I would enjoy receiving!

I would love to hear what you guys are getting people this year! Also, I'm up for some sort of support group to stop myself from buying a bunch of needless stuff at the after-Christmas sales...   

Alba had the pukes yesterday morning so we stayed home to see how it would develop. Both girls seemed fine, so we went outside to play:

 

That Mom

You know that mom or dad who is always making a fuss about everything at your kid's school? Well, that mom is me and I love it. All I can ask myself is why I haven't been more difficult in the past.So, if you're not already doing it - go out there and make some people roll their eyes!

The other day, Inara fell asleep on the bike on our way home from a concert. Like a good sister, Alba made sure she was ok.

 

Gently poking her with her foot while continuing to eat her sandwich.