Sometimes I wish and wish for things knowing of course that I have no chance to influence the outcome. I do this often with the weather. Even though I know better, I constantly wish for snow (usually for skiing), for iced-over lakes (skating), for rain (for the garden), for a dry weekend (camping)... This year, as much as I wanted a snowy Christmas, i.e. WINTER, I was more focused on Kerry and the kids coming. I wasn’t preoccupied with wishing for winter. The good news, however, is that I got both…Kerry and kids safely arrived and ever since their arrival we have had a wintery time of it! Postcard winter…snow up to our knees, cold down to ~27 C (-17 F)…winter. 
We spent Christmas with Familjen Eiserman in Ljusdal and I can say that Ljusdal has never been more beautiful as it was buried in snow. With very little wind, the snow hung on every branch and every fence and every thing! We found good ski trails for classic skiing, the local ski hill was ready for downhill action and we even found some idyllic backwoods exploring (snowshoes would have been handy here!).
Maggan, as usual was generous and welcoming and served up feast after feast (the short version: a lot of moose and fish). We had time with Jacob, Alex, Eve, Ulrik, Robin, Viktoria and Tobias—we felt quite welcome and hope to have the chance to host any or all of these fine folks in Duluth some day. We owe Alex big-time for both his hospitality and his bedroom.
After a week in Ljusdal, arrived in Stockholm after a rough day of travel…trains down, hours of waiting for a bus, slow roads…a three hour trip turned into a 6 hour marathon…but we hit the ground running and managed to catch the Dali exhibit at the Modern Museum. The highlights of Stockholm for me were sharing the city hall “Stadshuset” with family—a building that interprets the entire city…
And the fireworks…Kerry and I did something unique, we stayed awake until long after midnight on New Year’s Eve! We sat on a hill in the middle of Stockholm with Peter and Amelia (and 9000 others) and watched the city explode with fireworks.
It was magical, yes, magical…the moon was peeking through the clouds, a light snow was falling, the temps were cold so everyone was bundled and the snow sparkled...we were in a big park with a band playing--the night was so alive...Fireworks and drunk Swedes everywhere! A memorable event…arrived back at our room after 1 AM tired, cold and very happy.
I’m finding it hard to be in a tight family after so much time alone. It is wonderful to have my Donars family with me, but an adjustment. From “Mr. Alone” to "Mr. Social"--a week of people, tight spaces and constant movement. I only got real grumpy once (I hope it has only been once?)—I walked right past the hotel in Stockholm during our “long day”…it took a korv (hot dog), mashed potatoes and salad and senap (mustard) all wrapped in tunnbröd (thin roll bread) to get me back on track (a favorite Swedish street food). I have not touched, nor even looked at my schoolwork for a week, probably the longest time since June, given written exam prep all summer and my intense efforts since Aug. I have reached a low point with the Doc process. I’ll leave it at that. Don’t know how to pull out, but I’ll give it a go soon. I have to as it seems to be all about time right now, if I don’t get my first couple of chapters approved soon, I will lose much of my Swedish opportunity…
Made it back to Göteborg late on New Year's day. A light skim of snow is all that is left from the hearty pre-Christmas snowfall. I have been warned that this is not a winter town…back to wishing for weather that I have no control over? No, I’m trying to be more realistic about that…I wouldn’t, however, mind enough cold to freeze the big lakes for some long distance skating. Anyhow, it may be some time before I see scenes like this again:
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