The days before Christmas...

Time flies by... Christmas is already over! We had a nice and pretty calm week, and I will tell you about it and of course show some pictures...but first I'll write a little about before Christmas day.

Like always before Christmas its a lot of things to fix, but we were not gonna have any people over to our house so it wasnt overwhelming. Ive worked quite a lot as well so I'm glad most gifts and essential Christmas must-fixes were already done (or at least unwrapped/in the house...) We didn't place any gifts under the tree in advance, maybe next year when Jamie's a little older. We got the Tree the weekend before so now we have enjoyed it for a while. It must be a real Tree...so you can smell it!

On the Friday,Natalie ended her semester so we went there for a Winter concert in the evening before and a Holiday party in the morning. Natalie and her classmates were cute little mice...Check out their performance here. (Natalie has her line after 6 min).Jared was off this day so we could both go and also do the last minute shopping together before Natalie was done  The parents in her class has been volunteering for planning each festive occasion and this time ( just as Thanksgiving) it was very well done. ( We are involved in the Valentines later on.. )

The coming days we mostly stayed at home and relaxed, baked, made meatballs and did some crafts...Jared went duck hunting with Natalie one afternoon and we did go and see some Christmas lights.

On Christmas Eve we went to Grandma Rhonda's and Grandpa Bob's and had Christmas. It was a nice afternoon with a lot of food and a joyful time! The real Christmas we celebrated at home the 25:th.

It has felt a little strange to not be close to our family in Sweden at all this year and I missed the Swedish food a lot even if I've made some here... At least we were able to Skype a little. Next year we will hopefully all be together somewhere!

In the evening the 24:th Natalie made sure to put out a cookie and milk for Santa. In school they had prepared a bag of magic oats from the Northpole that was intended for Santa's Reindeer so she put that outside as well. She was a very tired and excited girl when she went to bed!

In the late evening Jared assembled the new play kitchen we got from Kidkraft. While I wrapped all the gifts. It went pretty smooth and I am so satisfied with the kitchen, love it! We prepared the stockings and put all gifts under the tree and I can say I fell asleep with a smile on my face! "Code to my old blog: 8679505931"

Thanksgiving...

Natalie had a short week in school so we had 3 days extra this weekend. Thanksgiving is a big family holiday over here so almost all stores, construction business, manufacturers etc. Give their workers an extra day off.

On Tuesday Natalie's class had a nice thanksgiving breakfast together with all kids in Kindergarten.  They made their own indian/pilgrim costumes and learned some song associated with this holiday.  On the afternoon they also performed on the stage when the younger kids at school had their Thanksgiving concert. So cute and talented children!

The Thursday we started with a nice breakfast at Cracker Barrel. They have good homemade food, maybe not the healthiest but anyway... Later this afternoon, we went to Grandpa Emmet for a traditional dinner. We had turkey, green beans, stuffing, mashed potatoes,  corn, gravy and homemade bread, pumpkin cake and mini apple pies for desserts. Emmet had cooked a good dinner! I can say we were stuffed afterwards...

This weekend we are also going to have a dinner at Grandma Rhonda's. I'll write more about that later. All in all Thanksgiving is a nice tradition with a whole lot of food...just like Christmas!

Speaking about Christmas. ..finally it's time to get ready for this holiday season!  Its like a secret rule of not decorate or do anything Christmasy until after Thanksgiving. If you have been loaded with Christmas music and decor from all the stores that started loooong time ago it almost feels like a relief...

Time again...

I'm sorry I haven't been writing for a while.  My computer broke..so I got really sad to loose a lot of pictures, I had some saved on the extern USB but not all of them..Anyway, today I decided to start blog from my phone ..so you have to stick with pics from my phone until I have my computer all set up again..

Days and the weeks just run away! Fall is here now and I can say Missouri is a great place to spend this time of the year. I wish it could be like this the entire summer...days are sunny and average about 25 degrees C..  The colors of the fall are slowly coming in and it is definitely cooler nights and mornings...

Our everyday life here starts to form a little. Jared has been working with a construction company for a while and Natalie enjoys her days at the Thomas Jefferson Independent day school. We are so happy that she got to start there...So far I've meet a lot of nice people that I seem to have a lot in common with. Many of the families have moved in to the region from abroad or other states because of work. A big majority works in medical related fields at the two major hospitals... or are somewhat involved in the science fields like biology or engineering.  I drop of Natalie each morning so usually there's a few minutes left to chat.. I'll write more about the school later.

There are so many things I'll have to write about..so I will try to tell you a little bit everyday.  I'm going to try to give a fair picture of our experiences here!

Just to make it more fun I'll put up some pics from Saturday when we ended up at a bluegrass festival in Carl Junction outside Joplin... Me and the girls had a nice afternoon! It still surprises me that overhere I'll find so stereotype events almost on weekly basis..And I must say that I really enjoy the diversity of the cultural activities we happen to run into!

In Monett...

We went to see G-grandma Rena and Morris in the small and friendly town of Monett. It is always nice to get to see them, and I think Jamie somehow remembered Rena from last year. She wanted to be held and hugged as soon as we stepped into the house. We had a nice late afternoon, went to Brahm's for dinner, enjoyed their icecream and played in the park for quite a while. Brahm's is a typical hamburger restaurant, but I think they are best among all in the area and they also have good icecream. The playpark in Monett is good for kids of all ages, and there's plenty of room to run around. This evening we were almost alone there, but I've heard it's very crowded during the weekends. So here are some pics from this day...

Wonderful weekend...

A few weekends ago we went on a little roadtrip with Grandpa Christer and 5-year old uncle Hugo. We left early morning heading east to Öland, an island right outside the city Kalmar. We arrived short after lunch and started with a visit to the royal park Solliden. All three kids had a lot of fun running around inside the park, and we also had a nice "fika" at the cafe. The only problem we had was to keep Jamie out of the grass, though the signs clearly announced DO NOT WALK ON THE GRASS...not so easy for a 1.5 year old....I can say she didn't really care about the royal laws...

Anyway we had a nice and sunny afternoon before we head north to the big campsite Böda Sand, where Dad had booked two cottages for us. On site we grilled some skewers and watched the kids play on the playground. This campsite is huge, but tonight it felt like we were almost alone. The morning after we were actually all alone on the long and pretty beach. I don't think that happens so very often at Böda beach....The water was cold but Natalie, Hugo and Dad took a bath...of course...  After breakfast and the quick swim we drove up to Vimmerby and  Astrid Lindgrens värld. This is a themepark in honor of the beloved and world famous author Astrid Lindgren. We had a absolutely wonderful afternoon in the park, and I was really impressed with it and also with the live shows all over the park. To see Natalie's facial expression when she met Pippi Longstockings for real was a priceless moment. She loves Pippi and now she actually got to talk with her and give her a hug... ( and she is still sure it was real Pippi..which I can understand because they did an extremely good casting job for the role...) We'd already planned to buy 2-day tickets and I must say that is something I recommend for kids in this age ( 1.5, 4 and 5) so they have plenty if time to explore without being too tired. The night we spend at Fredensborgs Herrgård, which was a nice and calm oasis after a day in the children's park. This was a great place for children, with a good kid's buffet for dinner and a playground outside the dining area in the yard. For the adults they had a little more advanced a la carte, with a good selection of beverages. We did go to bed quite early so we could get ready for the next days adventure. I slept like a little baby... Next day we were up before 6 a.m so we had to take a morning walk before breakfast. But it was well worth wating for...a delicious breakfast with high quality, homemade or locally produced food. This buffet had everything you'd ask for, but could go by the slogan Less is more...
After breakfast we drove the 10 min to Astrid Lindgrens värld, and got ready for another day full of impressions, smiles, playtime and unforgettable memories together...   Thank you so much Pappa/ Morfar Christer for spending this weekend with us!