Kindergarten spread the Christmas Spirit

Today I woke up happy and alert, that's always good! I was gonna have breakfast with my lovely friend Ramona. As U know, her host parents are not home this weekend so she is forcing us to come over ;) Kiddin, it's not that bad ;) So after I finally had picked up my package from Sweden, with my Christmas present ;), I bought some bagels at Noah's Bagel (of course) and went to Redmond. The weather today has been awful. Cloudy and RAIN..I want snow! Anyway, it was just me and Ramona this time and we had a nice breakfast with conversations about everything. I don't think we have talked this much since we met. Nice! After an hour I went back home cause I had signed up to help Sofia's class walk to a home for elderly people where they were gonna sing Christmas carols. I was really excited cause Sofia has been walking around at home and practice the songs and I was happy that I could hear her perform. The class was really good when they walked to the place. They were the first Kindergarten class (6 years old) that had ever done that. Walking from school. And they did great. My part was to make sure that everyone stayed in the line and didn't run out to the street or something. I did a good job ;) The house for the elderly people was so nice. It was really luxurious and you couldn't even compare with the homes back in Sweden. It looked more like an hotel. One of the guys in Sofia's class said: "This is so beautiful. Have U ever seen anything beautiful like this?" He was so sweet. The kids sang four songs: I'm a little snowflake, Rudolf, Jingle bells and Up on the rooftop. They were so cute and really good. Knew every word and movement. The elderly really liked it and I think it was a nice way of giving them some Christmas spirit. We walked back to school and also now, everyone did good. So I hurried back home to get me some lunch (a bagel that was left over from breakfast and an orange) And then I went to pick up the kids and return the Disney movies that I never got to see ;) Me and the kids did some Christmas crafts. We did snowflakes to put up in our window and kind of a banderole where we hung up some of the smaller snow flakes we made. It was fun and the kids were cooperating, most of the time ;) I made dinner and then I went to the gym and did some ZUMBA again. Really funny and the new instructor is great. I just fell like I have to practice some at home cause I feel really terrible at shaking my boody ;) It's a good thing that I'm home alone during the days ;) In the package from back home I also got some music on a stick that my friend Anna put together for me. So now I can listen to my own music instead of the German crap ;) Today's gift in the advent calender was hugging! Miss U all! Love Sandra

Lucia and a magical Sunday!

Happy Lucia everyone! Now the countdown for Christmas begins with the girl who comes with candles in her hair to bring light to our darkness ;)
I took my friends, Kadda, Ramona, Emilie and Anna to the Swedish Cultural Center to show them how we celebrate Lucia in Sweden. It was students from the Scandinavia department at the University of Washington that performed the traditional Lucia "train" and they did a god job. Well, the most of them were Americans and didn't really get the right pronunciation but it was beautiful anyway. There was one thing that they did different. They had a Gingerbread man that danced around and when they singed the Gingerbread song, one was beat boxing and they all raped the song. That was not traditionally but cool ;)
Before them there was an orchestra that played Swedish folkmusic and also a men and women choirs that sang some Christmas carols. They were very old and the songs didn't sound that good but they were really cute. I was thinking of joining them and lower the middle age a lot ;)
After the performances there was Coffee and the traditional Lucia bun: Lussekatt. It's flavoured with saffron and is really good. My friends liked them although they were a bit dry ;)
We were all in a singing mood when we left the place and headed for the Space Center where they had a winterfest with nice decorations, ice skating and carousels. The first thing we had to do was to help a little boy to find his mum and dad. He sat just inside the entrance and was crying. And as the Super au pairs we are we couldn't just leave him. We found a guard and took him to a office where his dad was waiting. The dad didn't look very concerned, maybe the boy use to do this. But we felt good anyway ;)
We went to the ice skating place and there were just an performance from the Seattle Ice Theater. Really good girls that danced on the ice to the music from the Nutcracker (I think ;)) They were awesome and after that we didn't feel like going on the ice and embarrassed ourselves ;) And it was a small ice and a lot of people. Instead we went on the carousel that was located just outside. It was one of the old ones that just goes round and U sit on a horse or in a wagon. We all took horses and it was so silly but so much fun! We were really goofy and I had a really good time. We also ate there and I finally had some Kebab! i love that and it was really good but nothing can beat the Kebab from "Gatukoket" back in my hometown ;) Jummie ;)
When had had enough of the winterfest and everyone was freezing, we went back to Redmond and rented a movie and went home to Ramona's place. Her host parents are still in India so she is home alone for a whole week more.
We saw the movie "Religulous" Was like a documentary about a guy who wanted to understand religion. He went to all different countries and interviewed people who were just crazy and tried to understand religion. Not really my kind of movie but it was a good discussion afterwards. Sometimes U really have to discuss these kind of questions cause maybe some day someone ask u a question about religion.

Today's gift in the advent calender was teaching!

Miss U all!
Love Sandra

Snoqualmie!

Finally! Today we went skiing!
We tried to leave early, but u know when u have kids ;) Hahahah
Anyway...we went to Snoqualmie, a ski resort that is located like a an hour from here which means a long time in the car! But the kids did good, Filip had his DS game and Sofia had brought some paper and crayons so there were occupied ;)
It was so cool driving there cause the environments change really fast. Like just from one kilometer to another. One minute there was no snow and the next one there were a lot ;) So nice. I love snow.
The mountain peaks were all covered with snow and they sparkled from the sunbeams. How poetic ;)
The resort is divided in to four mountains!!! It's West, East, Central and Alpental. We went to the Central and it was amazing. The environment was so beautiful and the air was so fresh and the snow was so...white ;) I've been missing the snow so much so I felt really good today.
First we had to get our ski pass. I've decided to get a ski pass for the whole season. I think I'll go there often cause it's only one hour away and I like skiing ;) Kadda and Emilie also went there today and got ski pass and skiis.
Well, we started our perfect ski day with an easy first ride...u think! No...Jonas knew the best slope for all of us...it was a hump piste..a black slope..It was a great start. It took like half an hour to get down and it was a combine of ploughing, slide down on my back, be positive for the kids, trying not to collapse of fear ;) hahahah...I'm really proud of Filip (8!) and Sofia (6!) they made it down without any broken legs ;)
We did some more turns and then lunch!
Jonas had fell down earlier on the day and hurt his shoulder so we went home after lunch. But then it was already 3 and Lotta and Jonas was going to a Christmas party and we were all tired after the rough day ;)
Back home it was nice with a hot shower cause I was really cold since I didn't have any ski pants ;) Or a real hat, or gloves or socks....why didn't I just bring everything from Sweden? I did find a cool pair of pants at the ski resort, a pink ones ;) I didn't try them but I have a ski pass so I'll be back!

Today's gift was charity!

Miss U all!
Love Sandra

Stress and skis

This morning (Friday) was lovely. The kids behaved nice and I felt much better than yesterday. And I had nothing to do so I woke up Ramona ;) Who hadn't hadn't adjusted to Seattle time ;) Her Itouch also thought it was still in New York, so instead for the alarm ringing at 7 it rang at 4 am!!! Hahaha...no poor her!
Well, it was a great morning...this far!
I talked with Lotta at msn and I asked her about skiing on Saturday that she'd talked about and she told me that we were and that I needed to rent skiis today!!! She gave me the address and I had to go immediately from Ramona cause it had already been noon.
The rent place was in Woodinville and it was like 30 minutes from Kirkland. It was a great place and my host family is always going there. I got the whole equipment and I got the best skiis they had ;) The seller asked me about were I was going skiing and he said that I should go to the Alpental cause it was there every expert skied ;) Of course I'm going there ;)
So, I also needed a pair of ski pants but there was so little time. I had to eat lunch, go to the grocery store and put the ribs in the oven before I picked up the kids.
I went to Bellevue for a quick look but I couldn't find any pants. Went back home and made noodle soup and had the leftovers of the chop. At the same time I had to try to find a number on the heater to Carolina (the owner of the house) cause she couldn't get the door lock? Huh?
Then I had to rush to the store to get something for the dinner, marinade the ribs and then I went to pick up the kids. Pfew, what a hectic afternoon it turned out to be.
After dinner I went out again on a ski pants hunt and drove from Bellevue to Redmond without a success and in a hurry cause I had plans for the evening. I was going to Arena Sport in Redmond to play indoor soccer. Katrine, my Danish friend, plays there every Friday and u just sign up and they put u in a team. It's mixed teams and it's both men and women. It was really cool and it was me, Katrine, Emilie and another French girl named Julia who came there together and played in the same team. We had 5 guys as well but we weren't that good. We lost every game but it was still a lot of fun. It was very exhausting though but fun. But it's kind of a bad time, Friday night 9-11 and if I decide to continue I have to buy real shoes. My pink puma sneakers ;) But they saw what kind of magic I could do with the ball in those. They will faint when I have my real soccer shoes ;) Hahahah But actually I did some goals and was a good passed to the two boys that was awesome, and cute ;)

Today's gift in the advent calender was helping!

Miss U all!
Love Sandra

Definately no heater

Today (Thursday) I felt really sick in the morning. My throat was sore, I had a headache and was just generally tired. I slept for two hours after I left the kids and actually I felt better after that.
The handy man for the heater was here today as well. I was the only one at home so I had to open for him and show him was the fault was. But he came at the same time I had to go and pick up the kids so I have to leave him to do the work him self. Like I had been to any help ;)
When I came back he had some sad news. There was a crack in the heat exchanger and that's apparently dangerous ;) So he shut the whole thing down. Even cut a label so it wouldn't go on accidentally ;) So we have to either get a new heat exchanger or a whole new heater. Oops! And this takes time too so we are now living with three temporary radiators that we are moving from the upper floor (when we are sleeping) and the down floor (for the rest of the day) ;) But it's not that bad actually. The radiators are really good. they heat up very well!
For dinner today we had chop and potatoes and sauce. Mmm! The meat was a bit thick but otherwise it tasted like home ;)
Ramona came back from new York today and just one hour after she was home she called and wanted to do something. I had nothing to do so I went to her place and on my way I rent two Disney movies: Aladdin and The little Mermaid ;) we were supposed to have a cozy movie night but Ramona had not been talking so much on her visit at her boyfriend..hahahah ;) I had a good time and I also wanted to talk cause I've been missing her!

Today's gift in my advent calendar was charity!

Miss U all!
Love Sandra

COLD!!

Today when I woke up I noticed it was really cold in the house. I had a cold and a headache and uppon that I was freezing. A great morning huh? ;)
When Lotta came down she saw that the heater was broken. So I had to spend the day stuffed in three layers of sweaters, double pants, slippers and gloves and a hat ;) Then I stayed in bed under my quilt and had it all cozy ;)
During the day, the owner of the house came and tried to fix the heat but she couldn't.
I called home and talked with mum and dad. They seemed to have it good and yesterday they had gone to Gothenburg to pick up the Christmas presents from me. I got a mail where mum said that it was lovely presents. And I was like "Hey, did U already open them?" It wouldn't surprise me but they hadn't ;) But they had started with the candy I send ;) That's my family ;) I know them so that's why I send two bags with candy ;)
I only picked up Sofia at the school today cause Filip went with Alexander to his mum's photo studio. She needed some models to try her new lights. It's all fine for me. Me and Sofia had a really good, quite time. It so much easier to have them one at the time. We coloured the pavement with special crowns, we played cards and of course coloured.
Filip and Alexander came here and they played a while before it was time for Filip's basket practice. They came up with a name today for the team: Super Sonics!
They are trying to fix the heat now and I hope they fix it before I'll freeze to death ;)
They was here once before and fix it, but then it didn't work again. This time they discovered the real problem and that was nothing they could fix. We need a real handy man for that. That means that we have to live in the cold until they come here!!! OMG! But Jonas will buy some heat radiators that we'll use until the real thing works again. Right now I'm in the sofa, wearing my layers of clothes and my gloves ;) I'm impressed of the people living long ago, without all this technology that we use and the heat and everything. I think man have become more weaker with all comfort that today's community can offer.
Today was also the first time I exchanged my toothbrush. The old one was OK but I thought maybe it's time, after more then three months ;)

Today's gift in the advent calender was togetherness.

Miss U all!
Love Sandra

Tired

OMG today (Tuesday) I have been so tired. I had to drive Lotta to her job cause she was with Sofia at the doctor and I just wanted to go back to sleep but it took so long so I couldn't.
The doctor found a popcorn in Sofia's ear ;) She's a bit weird and we don't know how long it has been in there and the doctor was really surprised when he pulled it out ;) But I guess U have to try if it fits ;)
I think I'm getting sick cause my throat is starting to hurt, so is my nose. I don't wanna be sick but everybody around me is so I guess it's my turn as well.
Tonight was Starbucks night as well and I left home a bit early cause I needed to buy some Christmas gifts for my friends and I didn't want them to see. I'm almost done with everyone, just have a few left.
It was nice at Starbucks and I enjoy hanging out with my friends. doing nothing just chat. I like it.

Today's gift in the Advent calender was prayer.

Miss U all!
Love Sandra