Our beach at the hotel

http://www.pinkshell.com/web_cam/index.cfm

Wednesday

Today Haylie woke up at 4:30 AM. Grandma was up with her for a while and then Stefan got up around 6, with me soon after. We were out on the beach at dawn, and Haylie collected shells. At 8, we went back for Grandma and Grandpa. Then we went down to the pier and Haylie got an ice cream cone and fed birds with the cone. From the room, which overlooks the beach, we later could see a flock of dolphins hunting together right out front. At least 6 were rounding up fish. They were in pretty shallow water so you could see the contours, and their dorsal fins coming up now and then. That was neat. Then we swam in the pool, which was a bit chilly because there has been some cloud cover. We had lunch at the poolside bar. We went mini-golfing this afternoon and are now exhausted at 4 PM. My jet-lag and Haylie's are kicking in.

We're here

After a decent plane ride, where Haylie was really good the whole time, we are here in Ft.
Myers Beach. The hotel suite is really nice, with a big tub that Haylie already took a bath in.
The air was cool tonight, but during the days it is warmer.
And the pool felt nice and warm.

Merry Christmas

Haylie and I stopped by work today, after buying tile for the laundry room, to pick up my Christmas present and glögg. We ate lunch at the café in Donnerska huset afterward.

She was having an Ingmar Bergman kind of moment, watching the snow fall slowly outside the window.

We met up with Stefan at the house after lunch, and worked on cleaning one last time before we leave on vacation. That way, the guys who put in the tile can get going if they are available.

The main bath, with the shower wall in place. There will be a glass wall to the left and a glass shower door to the right of it. The wall seen here will be covered with brown glass mosaic tile.

On the shower side, we will have a niche with shelves for shampoo, etc.

The door to Haylie's room. She was having a moment.

All the wood flooring is in now, just waiting on the stone and tile to get installed. This is our Ash flooring, a white matte finish called Skagen from Kährs.

The wood-burning stove is in place, just waiting for it to be inspected before we can use it.

Stefan has almost all the spotlights in place now, and has been working on the wiring besides that this week.

I vacuumed while Stefan kept Haylie company while she was sledding on our big dirt piles in the backyard. She had her snow racer that she got last year.

Vacation!

Smell you later, work.

This is the main building, where I used to work. Now I am in the building behind it. It was a cold day, the kind you only get when it is really clear. I was especially glad thinking that all those other suckers out on the streets would still be in that cold in a few days, while I am in Florida.

Bathtub Crayons

Thanks, Grandma!

More snow

Snow and slippery roads again today, with wind on top of it. Snowflakes swirled outside my window at work today. We have Christmas decorations up at work now, which makes the little tiny room without a view that I share with 3 colleagues a little more pleasant. I do miss the light of day though. The window faces out on the building next door across a very narrow alleyway and not much light comes in.

Decisions, decisions

Our interior doors were installed yesterday, and Stefan put in some spotlights. He also picked up most of our bathroom tile today, but some is being delivered after X-mas. Now we are working on picking out our bathroom cabinetry and sliding closet doors. Now I have reached the point where everything doesn't have to be perfect and compare prices and all that. I am at the point of "Good enough". There are so many odds and ends now that need snap decisions if we are to get everything done in time. Kitchen fan above the stove, washer/dryer, fridge/freezer, drawer pulls, door handles, locks, you name it. Now it is the stuff that we haven't really thought about before.

First real snowfall of the year

Today we had our first real snowfall this year. And our first real cold day. It was a little below freezing (Yeah, I know - nothing for a Minnesotan. If you don't need long johns, it's not winter).

I took this picture as I was waiting for Zenita to come out of the main building at work to go out for lunch. They have recently redone the square outside the building to add seating and a little landscaping plus more bike parking. I think it will be nice in the summer.

On the way home in the car today, Haylie was singing a Christmas song:

"Nu är det Jul igen, och nu är det Jul igen och Julen varar än till pastan."

That means "It's Christmas now again, and its Christmas now again and Christmas lasts until the pasta". It is supposed to be Christmas lasts until Lent, but she insisted it was pasta. She got really hopping mad when I tried to tell her otherwise. So I guess no spaghetti until after X-mas.

Today's house pictures

We went to Visby today while Haylie was at her Aunt Camilla's house and baked ginger cookies (pepparkakor) and hung out with the big girls. We picked out our bathroom tile. Brown floor, brown shiny glass mosaic as an accent for the shower, and white walls for the main bath. Beige floor, white walls, and white tile with a floral pattern that is shiny as an accent. Strange for me, no loud colors. But tile isn't so easy to replace, so I will have to save my colors for textiles and wallpaper. And the doors. Stefan called me at work to tell me that they were installed on friday. I asked him how they looked, and he said "They are...........green." A colleague at work, Åke, also said "It's.........green." And my work friend Ullis said "They are green. And by that I mean green." So I guess it is a consensus. I am thrilled by the color though. When the wood around them is stained teak brown this summer, the contrast won't be so sharp and it will look great.

The flooring for the common areas is on the left. They will put it in during the week.

The laundry room door. Guest room on the left and guest bath on the right.

Laundry room

The wood-burning stove is in place, but the chimney isn't completely installed yet. We had gotten a grey one by mistake so they had to wait for the right one to come. They will install the rest this week, then we can start to use it soon after.

The guest room. The bedroom floors in Oak are now in place, with a shiny finish as the picture shows. The Ash floor in the other rooms has a really matte finish.

Our bedroom.

Friday

Friday night was my annual work Christmas party. It was at the Visby convention center, Wisby Strand, with a 3-course dinner. Same as last year. There was mingle with champagne beforehand at the newly renovated medieval building down the street from my office. I sat pretty close to the stage this year, almost in the middle of the room. I took the vegetarian option, since I am not much for pickled herring and rare steak, which it was again this year. So I got some really interesting combination of artichokes, red onions, cauliflower puree, chives, a caper, and flatbread with dill cream cheese for the appetizer. For the main course, I had some type of root vegetable mashed and formed into a cube, Quorn shaped into a form resembling chicken breasts, and carrot puree for decoration. Dessert was small dishes of flan with raspberries on the side. The flan was really good but they had what I think was muscovado sugar on top which made the top really crunchy. The mix of consistencies didn't really work for me, but apart from that it was a success. They served vodka or aquavit with the appetizer, wine with the main course, Madeira with the dessert, and avec (whisky, calvados or bailey's) with coffee. Everybody got two drink tickets besides, but I didn't use them because the dinner drinks were plenty (and I had to pick out bathroom tile today). Dinner wasn't over until 12, and I danced for a little while after that (always a live band) and left for home before 1 AM. I rode home with 2 colleagues that live down the street. Dinner always takes a long time because there is entertainment and speeches between courses, and it takes a long time to serve over 200 people. Not everybody comes, which is lucky because I am not sure there are any venues large enough to house all 400 of us.

Susanne and Hillevi, two of my former co-workers before we reorganized last winter.

Maggan, who is in my current team, and Eva, one of the company lawyers.

Benny and Zenita, two of my former co-workers from before last winter. Zenita is one of my closest work friends. She lived in Virginia for a few years.

On Friday afternoon, Haylie had her Lucia performance at daycare. She and the kids on either side of her were the ones that you could hear most. Not so much messing around as we have seen in past years at her old daycare from the other kids, but there were a lot of people watching so that may have kept the monkey business to a minimum. They all sang very nicely.

Haylie with her favorite new friend Felicia to the left.

Haylie was having dress up on Thursday as I was trying to figure out what to wear for my work Christmas party on Friday night. Before I left for the party, she told me I was good-looking on my face and that I was cool. She was jealous of my glitter eyeliner. I had done an up-do and had lots of eye make-up on, which she was very impressed with. She said, "Mamma, du är en snygging cooling." That is about the best compliment you can get from a 5 year old.

wallpaper

This is the wallpaper we picked out for our bedroom. The wall behind the bed will be done with this wallpaper from Boråstapeter's Linné collection, and the other walls painted white.

The computer "room" off the kitchen (actually part of the kitchen) will have this wallpaper from In Trade called Pagoda. The main kitchen wall will be painted turquoise.

Packages are fun

Haylie got a package from her great-aunt + family in the mail today. It was an Ariel Barbie and Ariel jewelry. Ariel is her favorite.

Here is sassy attitude princess.

And this is crabby growling princess, a princess we have been well acquainted with this fall. Thankfully, crabby growling princess hasn't been around much for the past few weeks, replaced by a girl who generally has been nice and doing what she is told on occasion at least. She has even started putting herself to bed after story time of her own accord, and has slept through the night twice in the past couple of weeks - must be a new record. She has even been nice to her dad lately. Maturing, or sucking up for Santa? Whatever works.

5!

Haylie got a new bike from Grandma and Grandpa for her birthday. They got to watch her be surprised over Skype on Sunday. We counted to ten with her eyes covered, and Stefan brought it out of the storage room. All she said was "Nejmen!" She can go really fast on it, compared to the little old bike where her knees hit the handlebars lately. She got to open her presents from us on Monday morning. She got some clothes, a pencil case with Hello Kitty, and Disney Singstar. We got it in Swedish so she can sing with her cousins/friends, but it seems that she would rather have had it in English, since her mother makes her watch all the movies in English for educational purposes so that is how she has learned the songs. But she will learn them quickly in Swedish too, I'm sure. Stefan and I took the day off on Monday, and we picked out some wallpaper for Haylie's room and ordered wallpaper for the computer room off the kitchen. It was hideously expensive and Stefan was having wallpaper anxiety. Our room and the living room we have picked out, but not ordered yet. We also bought some paint so that Josefin can get started with painting when she wants to. The ceilings are all painted now, and the wood floors are being put in tomorrow. And all three of us have head colds.

Haylie's birthday party #1

Today was Haylie's birthday party with her friends. We rented the kids' pool in Hemse and had a little brunch buffé and cake. I ordered the cake from a co-worker. http://www.tartkalas.blogspot.com/

Stefan's mom and step-dad helped me cut up fruit and veggies yesterday, and we had stuff for open-faced sandwiches and cheese and crackers and juice. Everything but the cake was healthy stuff, since it was a morning party. There were 10 kids and 11 parents.

Unfortunately, I forgot the camera, so had to take these with my cell phone. I think I had some fingerprints on the lens so they ended up a little blurry.

The cake had 2 fillings, lemon curd and vanilla cream. It is covered with sugar paste, and she made the shells and stuff with sugar paste.

Hilda spent most of the time dragging at least two girls behind her at a time. She got quite the workout.

Haylie came back for her second piece of cake.

I think everyone was tired after all that swimming, but this partygoer crashed before the party was over. She kept trying to sit up and steal food off her mom's plate while she was falling asleep, but finally drifted off.

On Sunday, Stefan and I took the ferry to Stockholm for the day and ordered our kitchen and laundry room cabinetry and picked up a couple odds and ends.

I bought these wall stickers for the laundry room. The walls are going to be white, the door green, and the floor and cabinetry will be black. We have a lot of wild poppies here, so they fit in.

This is the laundry room cabinetry, and the front for the linen closet.

In the kitchen we are having white on top, with brown framing on top, bottom and the sides.

On the bottom, it will be this, with white countertops with an aluminum-looking edge. I got the fake aluminum because it felt nicer and less cold. The oven and microwave are also white (glass fronts), and we even bought the range.

We bought this floor lamp for the living room too, and a mirror for the bathroom.