Almost as good

We wanted to give Boyfriend's mom a real kitty, but she swears she doesn't want one. So for Christmas I got her an easy maintenance one :).

Birthday potatoes

Boyfriend likes to tease me about my collections but he also certainly feeds them. For my birthday I got the Wizard of Oz potato heads :). I am going to need more shelves!

Childhood books

I loved the Boxcar children when I was a kid. I read a lot of books but these were among the favorites. Boyfriend got me a box collection with the first 12 books. Am so looking forward to reading them again!!!

It will be mine!

It is pink. Enough said.

Nativity addition

My Alessi nativity is growing. Boyfriend got me the star for the top and I used my birthday money to get the shepherd and camel as well. It is kind of fun adding to it every year. A bit of a tradition to look forward to :).

Legos sorted!

It was impossible to find all the bits so I sorted them by color into buckets. This also helps because any curious kitties can't play with the pieces now. Otherwise all the pieces would end up under the couch with all the other cat toys. Boyfriend says it's cheating to sort them. I blame my OCD :).

Naughty elf

At Christmas dinner Boyfriend took a very naughty picture.  He got the perfect angle with the dog and my elf sweater.  Boyfriend was very proud of his photography skills of course :).

Northern Lights

I saw the Northern Lights!  It was so cool!  It doesn't happen so often that far south so we were really lucky.  I thought I would have to be really far up to ever get to see them.  They showed up on Christmas Eve when we were driving home from Boyfriend's brother after Christmas dinner.  They were much stronger than when we got home and could take pictures.  But still so cool to have seen it!

Marco is helping

Marco is helping find the right pieces :).

Nu ska det byggas!

I got the best present ever! Huge Lego set! I have wanted this one for so long and Boyfriend got it for me this year!!! Isn't he wonderful?!? I started building right away but it might take awhile :).

Tiny Ikea bag

Boyfriend's mom got this tiny Ikea bag at the Ikea in Sundsvall. I tried finding one in Malmö but no luck :(. I asked as well, but they had no idea what I meant. Here you see how small it is, one is Boyfriend holding it and one has rainbow monkey next to it.

Helping out

Here he is helping Boyfriend and Boyfriend's mom do a puzzle that she got for Christmas. I got one too so he can help me later too.

Christmas mood

Here he enjoying the Christmas mood up here in the far parts of Sweden.

Is cold outside!

It has been awhile since rainbow monkey has photo bombed a blog photo so here he is! This is the temperature outside today. This is a bit warmer than earlier in the day when it was -22. Brrrrrr!

Sceptical in-laws :)

I made lasagne for dinner here at Boyfriend's parents' house. We thought it would be nice for his mom to get a break from cooking, especially since she would be doing all the Christmas food. But they are a bit set in what they eat and don't eat so I was a bit worried about how it would go down. But Boyfriend's dad really liked it! I think his mom did too. Yay :).

Advent Legos

For the second year in a row I got Magnus a Lego set and divided them up into 25 little boxes as an Advent calendar. So he gets one box a day till Christmas. This was the result this year :). Since he has a four wheeler it seemed appropriate.

Spark time

I got to try this type of Swedish sled called a "spark" which means kick so it makes sense. It was harder than I thought and I was too chicken to go fast. I still had fun though!

Cat toy Bermuda Triangle

Found all the cat toys under the sofa. There were just as many under the other sofa.

Did you need this?

Polo is helping clean. Sort of.

Presents!

Lots and lots of Christmas presents :)

White Christmas

We are having a white Christmas up here in the middle of Sweden. It is very very cold, -20, but very very pretty.

Let's be friends!

Gizmo has been following Bastet around for the last three weeks wanting to be friends. She gets close sometimes and even got a lick or two. This is good sign!

Progress

Mamma cat and Bastet can get quite close now. Here they were both happy if both were being petted :).

Gizmo says hi

Gizmo says hi to Grandma on Skype. Was so tired though, she kept resting her head on the corner of my tablet.

Never too old for a snack

The kitties are not too old for the occasional snack, especially after an hour of playing with their new catnip toy. Can anyone say munchies?

Grizzly on the toilet!

Polo is very curious about what happens in the bathroom sink. But she wasn't quite up to jumping up to see. The grizzly bear pose was the next best choice :).

Cards!

I got some lovely cards too! These are a couple that people made for my birthday, very nice :).

Presents!

I got ceramic knives on my birthday too! I have never tried one before so this will be fun :). I did have to hand over one crown though, it is a superstition when you receive a knife you give a symbolic bit of money. I can't remember the story behind it at the moment though. Something to do with luck and murder.

Presents!

I got many lovely presents at my wonderful birthday party. Fun bath stuff, earrings, kitty stuff, and a piggy bank elephant. I am such a lucky birthday girl to get so many great presents from even greater friends!!!!

Presents!

I got this super cool picture from Boyfriend. It is a map of London, but instead of places it is characters from literature! Like Scrooge, Oliver Twist, Dorian Grey, Harry Potter. So they are placed out where they are in the books. So awesome :).

Sekhmet is hiding...

Sort of. The important part is that she thinks she is hiding behind the tree. The fact that we can totally see her is irrelevant :).

Ugly Christmas Sweater

For my birthday this year I had an Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest. This was my contribution :).

Box!

Birthday presents mean boxes and boxes mean kitty fun!

Marco is just my cover

I am actually Superman. Shh. Don't tell.

Bedtime :)

Kitty pile!!!!

Presents for me=toys for kitties

The kitties loved present time because it meant new toys! And places to hide :). Polo says, "No one can see me!".

Like mother, like daughter

I have no idea where Marco gets it from, really, no idea at all....

First birthday presents!

I got two wonderful birthday presents yesterday :). And before you ask, it was from someone who can't come on Saturday so that is why I got to open them :). They got me bright, colorful timer robot for the kitchen and Hello Kitty flipflops all the way from China! All my favorites in one great present!

Surrounded by muppet!

We call it the muppet chair cause it really looks like a muppet skin. And when Gandalf was sleeping she knocked it down so she was surrounded by muppet skin. And she seemed to like it, very comfy :).

Box!

Kitties like it when we get deliveries :).

The Basics

Warning for rant coming up! I really really miss the Basics. I love living here in Sweden for the most part, but this is one thing that I really wish we had. I call it the Basics. It is the foodstuffs that we use all the time in the US that I just have not been able to find here. And we use these things ALL the time, never do not have them in house type of stuff. One is the saltine cracker. And no, Swedes, there is no equivalent here, I have looked, tasted, tried but no, it does not exist here. I just bought three boxes from an American store in England. But we have saltines with everything from soup to cheese to peanut butter to summer sausage to chili. I miss them! So now I will bulk buy from England. Some of the other Basics are: mushroom soup ( and no, it does not taste at all the same, the Swedish one), chicken broth in a can, Velveeta, self raising flour, Miracle Whip, vanilla extract (and again no Swedes, vaniljarom is not vanilla extract, I sorry). Especially the mushroom soup, it is in everything we make! But I like my taxes and social wonderfulness enough to just buy crackers from England I guess :).  

Now that's a trashcan

Don't litter or I eat your whole head. Deal?

Christmas decorations

Since we got the tree it made sense to put out all the other decorations as well.  The Mr. Potato Heads got new outfits for Christmas. And of course, my collection of Alessi nativity figures, all started by friends at a birthday long ago (thanks friends!). And last but not least, the Charlie Brown Tree, from the best Christmas cartoon ever (thanks Dad!). So now the apartment is all festive :). And I made Boyfriend watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation while we decorated. Icing on the cake :).