19th Dec. Christmas Tree up!

Neela's gingerbread merry-go-round 2021

So this year Neela wanted to make the Christmas gingerbread house, but wanted to make somthing different. She ended up with a Merry-go-round idea. After checking some online pictures, so setteled on a design and we cut out some paper templates together. Neela did most of the rest, with a little help from Dad and put most of it together after first baking the parts. A great end result!

Something different this year!

2021 Christmas Cake

2nd of December - first snow of the year

Yep, 2nd of December was our first real snow this winter.

Happy Father’s Day

The start of Halloween

The highlight of Nicholas's year, Halloween. Kickoff with pumpkins and Halloween taco dinner featuring graveyard guacamole dip. 

Then dressing-up and off for trick-n-treating with friends.

To the UK for Sam and Laurens wedding

This was my first and last trip abroad in 2021! Neela and I went to England to visit family, attend Sam and Laurens wedding, and take part in the small ceremony to place mum’s ashes in their final resting place. We stayed with Penny and Les and it was really good to see them and the rest of the family after such a long Covid-restrictions induced break. We spent time with Ross too and that was good to get that quality time with him, also for Neela. The wedding was held at Brian’s house in the garden of his house. They had three huge tipi tents which were interlinked to create a fantastic space, all beautifully decorated with lights and flowers. I think there were more than a hundred guests and the whole occasion was so well organised. Neela had a ball and danced into the night with many of the guests. The following Monday we went with Ross and close family to have the small ceremony to place mum’s ashes in their final resting place. It was a lovely location set in the woods near Headlydown. Afterwards we went back to Rosses and had a family meal. Neela and I flew home on the Tuesday, just 5 days, but great fun and very worthwhile.

Here is Ross with the plaque that he had chosen to mark the spot where Mums ashes would be placed in the woods.

Birthday children

 Here's Liam and Neela this weekend celebrating their birthdays with the family. Liams was last week and Neelas is this comming week. Fabulous cakes by Caroline which everyone enjoyed, including JoJo the cat!

Noah’s Christening- 2nd October

After a long delay due to Covid-19 restrictions, Hannah and Marcus were finally able to go ahead with Noah's Christening. Here they are during the ceremony in Sofia's church on Söder with Noah getting involved with the holy water!

After that, family and friends then joined them for a coffee and cake at the nearby church hall.

Wall repairs progressing

After much indecision, I finally started repairing the wall across the garden. It’s been slowly losing stones and concrete patches for some years and I had in mind to completely rebuild it. But that’s a big and costly project so I’m just patching it up for now. Quite satisfying work actually!

The big basketball net gets put up!

This is what happens when you let Liam get involved in the selection process!

New bicycle for Liam, thanks Oma!

Summer Holiday in Sweden in Höga Kusten

This summer we booked late and chose a cottage in the North coast region of Sweden about 500km drive from Rönninge. We stayed in for a week in a cottage which was in the woods about 10km SW of Kramfors.

This is the cottage which was on a small farm. It was a nicely converted barn which was quite secluded and well equipped. It featured a large living room with a high ceiling and exposed beams. There were 3 spacious bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom.

Outside there was a long terrace on the back side with table and chairs and afternoon sun. A short walk down a field in front of the farmhouse was a super lake. There was a jetty, rowing boat, floating raft with benches and a BBQ. We spent most evenings there for a while to swim and one evening for a BBQ on the jetty.

Outings included a drive to Viksjö to see Sweden’s second highest waterfall at 90 merers fall. Also to Nordinggrå and Bönhamn where we had lunch on Nicholas’s birthday. A very pretty village in a small bay by the sea. 

Another day we drove to Skuleberg to climb the costal mountain and see the great view out to sea. Everyone made it to the top.

One our last day we drove to a small beach at Hörsång. The sea was cold but the sandy beach was really nice and we had fun building dams in the sand and the kids took a quick dip in the sea. Back at the cottage, we all took a list dip in the lake, which was warmed by the long sunny day.

Nicholas's Birthday

 Nicholas had his birthday while at the summer holiday cottage.

My 60th Birthday

 Yep, 60 years old! Great day with Breakfast, mini-golf, famly visitors and cake. Thank you all.

Garden Pool

With a plan to be more at home in this Covid year, we agreed to get a small garden pool for the kids. After some work to extend the deck, the pool was up at last. The kids have been in it on all the hot days and even some of the not so hot ones. A big success!

 

Finally we are able to celebrate Noah,s birthday with Hannah and their friends.

First super sunny day

Late daffodils this year

Nicholas with his WWE trophy

His special request due to an interest in wrestling (from YouTube videos) which he is re-enacting on the trampoline in the garden.

Sportlov winter holiday in Branäs

Here we are back in Branäs for a winter break. This time we shared an appartment with friends with their two boys. The weather was not too cold and we had a great 4 days of skiing. Liam swapped to snowboard on the second day and did very well to get it under control fast. Neela and Nicholas both did well too on skis and Caroline stuck to walking the dog.