Snow

While it is not the first snow of the year I was still excited to see it start to snow last night:) I love snow and we don't get so much in England.

The world changes with snow, it seems cosier and there is more light, as it reflects off the snow. I find it magical, but can't quite explain how if feels, but hope you understand what I mean!

It was so nice to watch it fall last night and see it untouched as the world slept. It snowed some more throughout the night, and was still untouched at 7:30 when the boys woke up. (Per & Pernilla had a party last night and stayed at a hotel, so I was all alone with the boys and things went well)

Melker woke up at about 4am, but I took him back to bed and all was fine. Then both Viggo and Melker came into my bed at 7:30am. While we lay there for a little while I told them that it was snowing last night and it was so nice to see them get excited about it, even though they usually have it every year. We all came down stairs to get a good look at the snow through the bigger windows in the living room:)

We had a lovely breakfast together at the table - they usually sit in front of the TV eating breakfast, but I guess they were too excited about the snow that they forgot about TV!

They are however watching TV now, as I write this and look out the window at the still untouched snow in the back garden and listen to Christmas music - "I'll be home for Christmas":)

I am planning on going to Liseberg later today with some friends. Liseberg is the theme park just down the road. The rides are closed at this time of year, but they open up again for the Christmas season with lots of lights, Christmas markets, ice skating and lots of Christmassy stuff! I can't wait and now it's perfect with really snow too:) I will take pictures, but I still can't add them yet!!!

The web address to Liseberg is: www.liseberg.se - so you can get an idea of it:)

SoulNite

SoulNite is a tradition the was started in 1989 in Sweden. It is a weekend of fun, good music and good company. I have had a really good time I'm so glad that I went to Stockholm (that is where it is held)

I saw my sister Felicity, who flew in from England for the legendary event, and a lot of friends from Stockholm that I haven't seen for a while so it was really nice to catch up with everyone.

We spent some time at the dance on Friday, but didn't want to get back to late, as we hadn't checked in with our host's yet!

Felicity and I stayed with the family that we both used to nanny for (not at the same time!) It has been 5 years since we saw them! Axel, Harold and Edward have grown up so much - as you can imagine. It is so good to still be in contact with them even if it does make me feel old! ha ha It was also nice to see and chat with Britt:) We stayed up talking with her until 1am catching up on the past 5 years.

We spent the day with them on Saturday, talking some more, shopping and sharing music:) Harold has a musical talent so he and Felicity had fun.

Felcity and I then went to the "main event" - the Saturday night dance, held at "Fryshuset" a night club in Stockholm. They had live performances as well as a DJ that performed at a party for the King of Sweden! There was a lot of dancing, for some people! I danced a bit and had fun, but I spent a lot of the evening talking, which was also fun for me:)

As I used to live in Stockholm my friends there know I can speak Swedish, so I spent a lot more time speaking Swedish this weekend. Most people in Göteborg presume that as I'm from England I can't speak the language so automatically speak English to me. But I found after a while I didn't have to concentrate too much - only when I was really tired! It was fun:)

The testimony meeting on Sunday had 287 people there and there wasn't nearly enough time for everyone to share what they wanted, as usual! It was - despite the distraction of a lot of boys playing games on their mobile phones! a spiritual meeting.

I had a lot of time to reflect on the way home, and I felt overwhelmed by how blessed I am and how happy I am with the way things seem to be going and heading in my life at the moment:)

I am truly grateful to have a knowledge of my Heavenly Father and for His influence in my life and the comfort I get from knowing He loves me and He hears and answers my prayers:)

November

While yesterday was the 5th of November and I did remember Guy Fawkes night, I didn't celebrates it with a Bonfire and Fireworks as many people in England would have.

Instead I spent my evening playing "Innebandy" (indoor hockey) It is quite popular here in Sweden and most people are really good at it, so I wasn't too sure that I wanted to join in and be a hindrance to the team that ended up with me! But in the end I decided to play and did quite well, I was told that I "did much better than most American Elders when they first play" - I have decided to take that as a compliment! lol

Anyway after a fun evening of playing against different teams and getting bruised (6 in total) and thrown around, I was on the winning team:) So I couldn't have been to much of a hindrance!

Although I had fun, I'm quite achey today as I'm not used to it. I should have gone out today, for a walk at least, to get my muscles moving, but instead I stayed in to watch the Rugby!

As most of you know I am a big Rugby fan and I have spent most of the week trying to figure out how I would be able to watch the England v New Zealand game today. Rugby isn't a popular sport here (although I have heard that the country have a team!) so I couldn't find anyone that knew that is was on, or that was watching it. But I managed to sign up to a website and watch it, although the picture was poor and it kept stopping, it was better than not being able to watch it:) I thought, despite the result, that it was a good game and I'm glad that I got to see it:) I also watched the Ireland v South Africa game and enjoyed that too:)