Christmas 2017, take one

We celebrated Christmas early at our own home with some of the Dollahite/Lambourne traditions that have become important to our little branch of the family.

The decorations in this home were fun!  We have generally eschewed a traditional tree for garlands (all the better to display those ornaments).  We were able to take advantage of the high ceilings and drape the garlands from the full window on the main floor to the balcony at the landing.  We filled up the garlands, too, after collecting so many travel ornaments the past few years!  We do have a silly little dowel tree for the kids to arrange and rearrange all their ornaments as well.

The costumes for the nativity scenes we act out were interesting and fully kid created.

Early-Christmas Eve preparations.  Father Christmas came with some treats for the stockings and a few things under the tree.  Mostly under the tree were gifts from my grandparents, whose estate was dispersed.  My grandmother had been a great collector of toys (and lots besides).  It was great to see some vintage treasures that my cousins and I played with bring a few hours of joy to these kids too.  A Fisher Price zoo, post office, Playmobil made in West Germany, metal wind up toys, Cabbage Patch Kids plus a million outfits, an old coin collection.  It was an awesome blast from the past.  The only things I spent money on were food treats and parachute guys to launch over the banister from the landing.  Thanks, Grandmother and Grandpa Kimball!  (And Aunt Janeil for the wrapping paper!)

Early-Christmas was great!  We did our usual meals and the special things that our kids (mostly me) associate with the Dollahite-Lambourne holiday. 

Then it was waiting for real Christmas at Grandparents and regular life for a few days.  We had fun at Primary with the nativity reenactment, Rudolph noses at toddler music class, Eliza and Mommy Nutcracker outing, all the good stuff.

Scandinavia Video

Finland (One, Yksi)

My mom lived in Finland for a year and half on a church mission.  Her stories of her mission, along with the exotic language of Finnish, made me curious to see a little of the country.  We were just a flight away, so we hopped over for a day and a half to eat pulla and attend church in Helsinki.  It wasn't at all snowy, like most of the stories I remember my mom telling, and I was not complaining.  It was perfectly comfortable and pleasant.

Saturday we found a few treasures at a flea market (including a vintage Marimeko shirt for me!), ate ourselves sick with several different varieties of gussied-up pulla (braided cardamom bread), went to a fantastic free children's museum.

Sunday we found the LDS church right next door to our airbnb--likely the most convenient location we've ever had while traveling.  The testimonies were half in Finnish, half in English.  We sang in Finnish.  I love singing hymns all over the world.  Except for Greek (so far!) we've been able to follow along one syllable at a time.  Then we played hide and seek in the beech grove to let off some steam.

Temppeliaukio (the rock church) in Helsinki has amazing architecture.  I loved it in there, all the rugged rock and the shiny bronze ceiling.

Last stop before back to the airplane and home was the Mormon temple.  We enjoyed one last grocery store loaf of pulla as a picnic.  The flowers on the temple grounds were blooming and the windows reflected the beech trees.  It was a beautiful, peaceful place to complete the whirl-wind week in Scandinavia and Finland.

Sweden Stockholm (Two, Tva)

A city day in Stockholm was bookended with pastries.  We soon found our favorites, then went back for seconds.  My most favorite was a kardammabullar with vanilla custard in the middle of those flaky wraps.  It was a divine pastry.

I so wanted a Dala horse as a special souvenir but they were far out of our price range.  We selected a small ornament and we were very happy with that memento by which to remember Sweden.  Then on our way down a quiet side street we came across a second hand store and I popped in, as I am wont to do given the chance.  There were loads of treasures in there (furniture I could not possible bring back!) and a Dala horse on a shelf just waiting for us.  I was delighted to spend a fraction of the cost and have it "broken in" for us.  No worries about any nicks or bumps so it could be an actual play thing in a children's house.  It was certainly fought over on our trip, though since then it has sat mostly on a shelf still waiting for a person to play.  I smile every time I see it, though.

Ketchup and mustard houses.  Ha!  So warm and friendly.  Every bit well designed and decorated.  No corner left lonely and unloved.

The candy aisle was a fan favorite, obviously.  It was a little risky, not knowing what some of the sweets were but we mostly got winners.

Our last day in Sweden I had planned to drive into the country a ways to visit the home of artist Carl Larsson.  It would have us on a tight schedule to be back in time for our flight to Finland but I was sure we could make it happen . . . until we hit a road block ten minutes in.  Traffic slowed down and then came to a complete stop for no apparent reason.  After five minutes or so people in cars in front of us got out of their vehicles and started to poke their heads around.  A few more minutes later still nothing, no movement.  So Collin and the kids went and danced in the freeway.  Finally we heard a siren behind us and we got back in the car.  Slowly everyone moved aside for the emergency vehicle and minutes after that traffic began to inch forward.  (The incident was a large truck on fire.)  We'd been at a stand still for more than half an hour and I knew another long drive and stress of not getting to the plane was not worth it.  So we turned around and went back into Stockholm to Skansen park.  It was a good choice for our remaining time.  A great place for the kids to wander and explore.  There's a zoo of native Swedish animals, playgrounds, historical interpreters ready to answer questions and let the visitors have a go at whatever they are doing.  We liked helping recycle wool, carding previously made sweaters and scarves down for another use.  There was also a giant Dala horse to ride.  Ended on a good note and on to the next thing.