White Christmas-- we aren't just dreaming

The evening of December 1, it began to snow. It was quite appropriate, especially since December 2nd was the First Advent Sunday-- the official start to the Christmas season in Sweden. The intermittent cold combined with some really cold temperatures has kept us white. On the plus side, the white snow makes things seem a little lighter and brighter. Nice when the sun is setting at 3:30 in the afternoon. The negative is getting around by foot and bike is not as fun with snow on the ground, but we still manage. We put studded snow tires on both kids' bikes this year and on the worst days they walk or take the city bus. Trudging through snow to get everywhere is very different than living in the southern U.S. where they close down the world when they see a snowflake. :-)

Snowy view off our back balcony

 

Our Narnia street posts in the park

Olaf the Cold-hearted-- our Viking snowman.
He's been standing tall for a week now.

 

It's hard to find a sledding hill in flat Skåne but we found
this gully at a park that was fun.

See how low the sun is in the sky? This was taken at 1:30 in
the afternoon. That's about as high as the sun gets right now.

More snow+ strong winds= Some huge snow drifts in our yard

And lots of shoveling to do.

Can't tell the car had already been cleared off
and driven just a few hours earlier.

One of our Christmas stars

 

We added a Christmas goat and a Tomte to our decorations
this year.

 

Kristianstad's Julbock (Christmas goat). Too dark at 4 pm for
a good iphone picture

 

 

 

 

 

I made my first batch of Luciakatten-- saffron seasoned rolls
that are traditionally eaten for Saint Lucia's Day

A popular Christmas food-- pickled herring. It comes
in lots of different flavors of sauce. I've tried a few but
have not been converted.

Autumn in Sweden

 

It is cold and snowing today, so I feel like reminding myself that we had some very nice weather not all that long ago. We didn't do any exciting traveling this fall. Everyone is a bit travel weary. So here are just a few fall pictures from southern Sweden.

 

We did go on a nice, long bike ride with the family one day. We went from our house up and around Råbelövssjön-- a fairly large lake. We'd tried to drive around it once, but were thwarted by the nature preserve on one side (no cars allowed). With bikes, we could make it all the way. It was about a 30 km (19 mile) ride.

Råbelövssjön--this is the swim area. Nice feature of Sweden--
beaches are free. Too bad its so cold all the time. :-)

Cute goat farm

Beautiful picnic spot in the nature preserve

Typical flat farmland

A cute little church

I think the detached bell towers are interesting.

 The rest of these pictures are from the nice stretch of woods that is just a few blocks from our house.I love that I can walk in these woods and forget that I live in town.



A beautiful double rainbow we experienced during
a walk in the rain

 

And our extended yard-- the park across the street from us