The Castle Home: January 2015

...or how to get rid of your Christmas tree in Sweden.

1) Wait for an empty parking spot below your window (the higher up your apartment is the more important this is, don't want to hit a car)
2) Send the kids outside to make sure no one walks by and gets hit by the tree
3) Open the window and toss the Christmas tree out (stump first works best)... Why? If we took the tree out the conventional way (stairs/door) we would have a mess of needles to clean up in the hall/stairway... besides it's more fun to throw it out the window!
4) Drag the tree to the nearest pile of trees waiting to be mulched or whatever it is they do with them

Audra and Sofia on the street making sure no one walks by, our window is the third up from ground level

look out below!

as far as we know little gnomes drag the tree off... it's always gone in the morning

one of the many piles of Christmas trees around the city waiting for clean up

Travel

a deck of cards is invaluable when you have a four hour layover that turns into a six hour layover

after almost 24 hours awake the energizer bunny finally falls asleep... nice to be small enough to sleep stretched out on the seats (it stinks to travel without the man with the club-room membership!)

Family down time

nothing better than a day spent in your pajamas!

your baby is never to big to snuggle

Shopping - Treasure Mart, Main Street shops, Target

love the scenes painted on shop windows in Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor has so many unique boutiques and shops

Sadie

Sadie is 13 years old and needs a little help going up and down slippery wooden stairs

Gingerbread houses

love that Sofia calls them pepparkaka houses now

Santa's village

Cooking....

Sofia using the mandoline to slice potatoes

Unc and Sofia in charge of potatoes au gratin - this led to an interesting/lively discussion about whip cream vs. whipping cream

Audra in charge of applesauce

mustard crusted pork loin

Sam making sauce, Gordon and Marshall carving pork loin in the background... love men who cook!

Christmas dinner

The 'P's' of Christmas dinner - pork, potatoes, pears and pomegranate (in the salad)

brothers-in-law who cook together...

Gordon's fried rice

Sam's stir fry beef and asparagus

and cocktails

Eating out

Korean food in Ann Arbor - taste testing Swedish vs. Michigan bibimbap

girls' lunch at Casey's

Bagels


we don't really have bagels in Sweden so they are a special treat (almost every morning) when we're in the U.S., everything bagel, toasted with cream cheese. Marshall's unique peanut butter and bacon bagel.

Christmas cookies

Sam and Suzie out did themselves with a smorgasbord of cookies - Gabby's favorite was Rainbow cookies, mine is always Russian Teacakes. Buckeyes, sugar cookies, three different kinds of chocolate bark, biscotti, coconut/lime shortbread, etc.

Tree decorating

Sofia getting an assist from Uncle Sam

Hanukkah

celebrating Marshall's heritage

Fires

jet lagged girls

University of Michigan basketball game

so much fun to go to a college game... it's been so long! Sofia spent most of the time trying to find the man dressed as a maize and blue spider man (we kept seeing him on the jumbotron)... Sam finally found him near the man dressed as a big, yellow banana of course