Friday, December 26

The Lambshank Redemptions - Swedish/Australian Christmas


It is not every year one gets to celebrate a semi-genuine Swedish Christmas one day and a semi-genuine Australian Christmas the day after. This year, as you might guess, we did.

Our great friends Matt and Naomi are here. They have finally and definitely left Ireland and are on their way home. The stop-over here in Edinburgh is the first leg on their journey home. All in all the trip home is planned to take 3 months and next on the list is the Czech Republic then Turkey, India and finally home to Brisbane, Australia where their respective moms and dads are ready with home cooked meals and lots of TLC.

Anyway, on Christmas Eve we went to a nearby supermarket to stock up for the days to come, and no expenses were spared for the occasion. Once we had lugged home the loot I started whipping up my Swedish Christmas dinner. On the menu: Glögg- or mulled wine- and Pepparkakor, cooked ham with mustard on the side, smoked salmon with a parsley sauce, sausages, home made meatballs, potato salad, a normal green salad and Swedish hard bread – Knäckebröd. In my opinion, and not to toot my own horn of course, it turned out great!


The next day, Christmas Day, Matt took the helm and cooked an absolutely fantabulous Australian Christmas dinner that made my Swedish equivalent look like something out of a soup kitchen.

The feast consisted of white bread, olive oil and Dukkah for starter, a main course made up by a huge leg of lamb-roast, a potato bake with cheese and garlic, and a leek salad along with a tasty, tasty sauce. For desert we had a flambé chocolate cake. Divine!



Obviously there are now lots of leftovers circulating the Harrison-Helin mansion, which inevitably leads to constant snacking, but I guess that is what Christmas is all about. We'll just let the Wii Fit pick up the slack later.

Our guests are out meeting up with friends tonight and me and Shaena are just taking it easy, quietly celebrating our first anniversary as a married couple. Love you honey! The last big thing this year will be a New Years party at our house. I don’t think this year could end any better!

Oh, and more great news! Tonight I got a text from an old friend from Sweden that I had completely lost contact with years ago. They say Christmas is the season of wonder and magic. On that note, I will leave you this time by quoting Billy Mack:

I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes,
Christmas is all around me, and so the feeling grows
It's written in the wind, It's everywhere I go,
So if you really love Christmas,
C'mon and let it snow.

Tuesday, December 23

Mer Jul - Classic Swedish Christmas song



H-MEN – The next generation


The good news just keeps coming! It is official, we are pregnant! For those of you who didn’t already know: Yay! We are so happy and proud we could shout from the rooftops!

Today we had our first scan, or ultrasound, and we are proud to say that Baby-H is 69mm tall and has a good heart beat. I am also proud to say that our little boy or girl will be the 20th generation, that we know of, in the Helin family tree. My dad has done extensive research and tracked us back all the way to 1425. Imagine that! I have added a few pictures of the little one and a picture of the family tree as well. Click on it to enlarge it.

We will definitely keep everyone posted on everything that will be going on with the baby and more.




Monday, December 22

2 pieces of good news


So, today was the last day at work before the Christmas holidays, and last day at work for the rest of the year. Sweet! Today I was a bit of a rebel again, yes I know, I am bad ass. I wore jeans to work on a Monday. Yikes, but don’t tell anyone!

Anyway, here are the 2 pieces of good news:


Number one: I got a pay raise out of the blue. Cash is always appreciated and welcome. Please take note and remember this on my birthday, or any other celebration or joyous event for that matter.

Number two: I also found out who the guest speaker at kick-off in Athens in January is. It is George-friggin-Bush senior!! THAT is going to be cool. Not that I am a fan of any of the Bush-administrations, but hey! After all, he was the most powerful man in the world, so I am looking forward to it. A couple of years back they had Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, and that would of course have been even cooler and definitely more inspiring, but I take what I can get. As Shaena is going to the kick-off as well, or at least to the same hotel, I am going to have her on stalking-duty outside Mr. President’s room. That video camera we got will come in handy for sure!

Here is a link to the hotel we are staying at: http://www.astir-palace.com/en/

Sunday, December 21

I GOT A WII FIT!!


So Peter was right...you definitely can't out run it. However I couldn't find it when I had to do the scavenger hunt around the flat. But man was I excited when I got to open it!!!! WOOOOOO!!!! Now he is running around the flat playing the Wii Jog. Its pretty cute! Oh and to watch Peter hula hoop is a sight. So adorable! This is definitely a great purchase for those of us that are not necessarily gym gurus.

Anyway, 2 more days and we'll have news to announce to more people!

x


Saturday, December 20

So exciting! She is going to love it!



I have hidden it in a good but casual place, so she will just stumble across it and go nuts! Shaena is going to absolutely love her Christmas present... let's just say; it's the Christmas present no one can out run... you'll hear from her when she found it!

Wanna bet?

Monday, December 15

How to celebrate Swedish Christmas:


Things You’ll Need:
Christmas Gifts
Advent Calendar
Televisions
Christmas Trees
Candles
Hams


Step 1: Remember Lucia on December 13. She was an Italian saint who was killed for her religious beliefs.

Step 2: Attend a procession called "Lussetåg," which is led by someone dressed as Lucia. Known as the Queen of Light, she wears a white dress with a red sash and a crown of candles on her head.

Step 3: Begin your celebrations with the start of Advent, four Sundays before Christmas. Light one candle every week to mark the coming of the holiday.

Step 4: Watch television and listen to the radio to find out the theme of this year's Advent calendar. Have your children use the calendar to count down to Christmas.

Step 5: Cut or buy a Christmas tree. Some families wait until just a few days before Christmas to decorate it.

Step6: Decorate your home with evergreens and with Christmas flowers such as poinsettia, tulips and hyacinth.

Step 7: Plan your big celebration for the day of Christmas Eve.

Step 8: Prepare a smorgasbord for your family that includes "Julskinka" (Christmas ham), sweet-and-sour red cabbage, meatballs, "prinskorv" (small sausages) and "gravad lax" (salmon with dill).

Step 9: Serve "Julgröt," a Christmas porridge with one almond in the recipe. According to tradition, the person who gets the almond in his or her portion receives good luck for the coming year.

Step 10: Make "glögg" - or "gluhwein" - a favorite Christmas treat of mulled wine. Serve it with pepparkakor (gingerbread biscuits, see below for recipe).


Step 11: Watch Disney re-runs on TV at 3pm.

Step 12: Expect Tomten (Father Christmas) to arrive later in the afternoon with gifts for the kids. Each package will have a riddle attached, offering clues about the gift hidden inside.

Step 13: Gather your children on January 6 for the Christmas tree plundering. They will dance around the tree as you take it down and throw it away.


The countdown has begun…


… or as a famous Swedish glam-rock band once sang it: ”It’s the final countdown!”. I am sitting here in the couch in our living room, my girl is sleeping on the other couch, and I am realizing that the year is coming to an end. There is only 16 days left in 2008 and only 7 more days until the well deserved Christmas holidays!

Speaking of numbers, it's only 11 days left until our 1 year anniversary on December the 26th. Imagine that, it has been a whole year since those crazy fun weeks in Orlando!

My wife and I are impatient by nature, so we could not resist giving each other our Anniversary-gifts, and keep in mind that year 1 is the “Paper Anniversary”, so tonight I got this amazing large poster that Shaena had crafted on the internet out of hundreds of small images which together formed one big picture of us all dolled up in our Sunday outfits! It was perfect, and I am very lucky to have such a thoughtful wife!

I, equally creative if I may say so myself, gave Shaena a newspaper front page in the “Ireland’s Independent” that I too had crafted on the internet, showing our wedding photo and an article about our life together so far. Spoiling the fun with premature gift-opening is a pleasure only reserved for us, so I will post a picture of the pictures on or around the actual anniversary.
Humbug! – You might say, I say it is necessary to keep our readers coming back for more.

I have to say, in all seriousness, it is not until recent years I have felt that the end of the year is actually something exciting. When I was younger I think I felt more regret over the things that I didn’t do, than gratefulness over the things that I actually did do. Now, I don’t feel any regret at all. Everything I wanted to do this year, we have done.

Maybe I am getting older and wiser, most likely I am just getting older, but I really do feel that 2009 will be one of, if not THE, best year in my life. Why is that, you might ask. Only time will tell, but I have a gut feeling that something beautiful is going to come out of this…

Oh, and did I mention; the guest list for 2009 is already starting to build up, so if you are planning on a visit to Casa Harrison-Helin, time to get crackin’ n’ packin’! Next on the list, and our last guests of the year are Matt & Naomi, our fun-lovin' Oz-friends from Ireland.

Wednesday, December 3

Another week, another visitor...


We are now well passed 20 guests since we moved to Edinburgh and we still really enjoy the company, and it gets us out and about as well. This time it is our friend Meghan from Kitchener, Canada, who we met while still in Ireland. She is 50% of a very funny sister-duo, and if you have a look at our old blog, there are pictures from our last “Dublin big-meet”.

Meghan is here on a spur of the moment kind of trip, nothing really planned, but I am guessing she will do a whole bunch of the touristy stuff most of our visitors do. An advantage for her is obviously that she has been here before and has already seen some sights, so she can take her time, chill, and just hang out.

Tonight is girls-night at Mrs. Thomson-Cantwell’s place, so I am by myself. I actually quite enjoy it from time to time! Work is kind of end-of-year hectic right now, therefore it is nice to just zone out and watch some random National Geographic’s show. God I am getting old!

I am also reading quite a bit right now. Basically, I am hooked on my new book ‘Slash’ which is the autobiography by Slash from Guns ‘N Roses. Not entirely sure why I am drawn to these rock-biographies, but I think it is all the different things these people have experienced, not to mention all the debauchery; thrashed hotel rooms, drugs, filth, petty crime, money down the drain, and the list goes on.

Always interesting to read about other people’s madness, isn’t it? Most of all I think I enjoy reading about the story behind all my favourite songs though. Feels kind of good to know who the girl in “Sweet Child O’ Mine” really is and where the idea for “November Rain” came from. Probably just me being a goof.

Anyhow… I’m off. Ta!