Snow that sticks and other updates

One week til Christmas and we got snow! And its sticking! It is Tuesday, and its basically been snowing on & off since Saturday afternoon, so we have a few inches. Swedes know how to deal with snow, not like wuss Washingtonians. I had class at the Nationalmuseum today, and the buses were running on time, the museum opened on time, everyone went to work or school, and people were dressed appropriately.  Ok, I admit that living in the DC area, where they cancel school or the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT for a few flakes, made me think that one should always have vacation snow days when there is white stuff on the ground. But I am spoiled by my grad school lifestyle and can curl up in the house with cocoa whenever I want, so excuses to stay home are less attractive that when working 9-5.

I should have brought my camera when I went out today since there is much more on the ground than this picture above, but it was so windy, I probably wouldn't have gotten any decent shots.

 

I did make cookies (because what goes better with hot chocolate than more chocolate?!) and they were....a success! Finally, if you know how frustrated I have been! Thank you to Dark Fury and Blonde Justice for the baking soda, and to Nuk for the giant bag of Nestle chocolate chips. They don't have chocolate in chip form in Sweden, and I think the shape was crucial to success. When I tried to explain chocolate chips to our French friend P-BB, I said they are shaped like mini Hershey kisses, which went right over his head of course. He was also the one who was practically drinking our peanut butter out of the jar...I guess they don't do peanut butter in France the same way, either.

And, to add to the hot Xmas gifts of 2009, Lambi makes limited edition Christmas toilet paper. I thought this important to point out for no real good reason, but that Lambi as a brand makes me laugh. (I just realized I took a shot of the Christmas paper towels...rest assured, the TP does exist. It apparently isn't as photogenic.)

The exchange rate has gotten better over the last several weeks, which makes me indescribably happy. Still not as good as when we first got here in August, and no where near as awesome as the 9.2:-/$1 from March, but enough to make me feel better about most purchases.

AND, we made lots of travel plans for the next month or two or six.  I think I mentioned we planned a trip to London for my birthday in January, and a trip to Berlin for Stu's bday in February. We also just booked a week in northern Italy the first week of January, so we will be spending a few days in Venice and then in Milan. Not much warmer than Stockholm, but they get 9 hours of sunlight each day, with is double what we are getting here.  Seriously.

Annnnnnnd, we bought tickets to come back to the US!  We hadn't planned to fly back at all during this 2 year stint since it is so expensive (and we have no income!), but there are several big things happening at the end of June that make the trip worth it. I'll tell you about those later. We are missing our first Swedish midsummer, but maybe we'll throw a big midsummer party in DC?