Sweet Virginia: Staying busy

It's Sunday afternoon and my family is resting, so I'm reflecting on the past few days. Sometimes I have to remind myself how unique our situation is, with friends from countries all over the world. I'm putting in parentheses where people are from.

Steve has been on a 10-day business trip to the States. During that time he got to stay the weekend with my parents and see some friends in Virginia, but most of the trip was spent on planes and in meetings. We did get to Facetime with him a little, too.

Meanwhile, back in Sweden I was just trying to stay busy, so here are some highlights. The American moms did a Thanksgiving presentation at the international school (10 different times for different class groups). The PTA does this to help the students understand holidays and traditions from other cultures, so for example in October the Indian moms did a presentation on Diwali. We talked about the Mayflower conditions and how the pilgrims were thankful to be alive and also what we eat at a modern Thanksgiving meal. Then the kids wrote down things they're thankful for and had popcorn.

Karen (Massachusetts)

Lorah (Pennsylvania) and her family had us over to play with their kids and eat a wonderful dinner.

The walking group (Germany, US, UK, France, The Netherlands) did a 6km walk at Sisjön Lake, followed by a birthday fika at the home of Kerry (UK). Some of the same moms do a group tennis lesson on Fridays, and I'm thankful for friends who make exercise fun.

Fika with Bowen's classmate's mum (Sweden).

Pepparkaka (gingerbread) cheesecake! and a latte

Joyce (Pennsylvania) came over (a 30-minute trip from her place) after school on three different days, armed with fun things like Play-doh and goodies to eat.

Our babysitter, Astrid (Sweden), stopped by to play with the kids -- just for fun! -- after school, too.

Just before dinner on Tuesday there was an incident involving a toy hitting a face (ahem, not naming names), so I texted a picture of the cut on Bowen's lip to my college buddy who is an ER doc in the States, and he immediately confirmed that I needed to take Bowen to the doctor. Sigh. So I called Jackie (Pennsylvania) to come and stay with Olivia while I took Bowen to the urgent care clinic. The doctor didn't think he needed stitches and taped him up with Steri-strips, but getting those things to stay on a 3-year-old's lip proved to be difficult. It's healing up fine, though, and Bowen was a real trooper. Plus we got to see the Christmas lights in Haga on the way to the clinic.

Olivia's grade went to the indoor pool/waterpark. She's still wary of putting her face in the water, but we borrowed a swim ring and she had a blast. She almost fell asleep on the way home.