Thursday, December 31, 2009

Best wishes for 2010

Five months have now passed, since we came back from our wonderful journey from Sweden to Cambodia. The kids have adapted faster than their parents, but after a few months we have all settled in. The children are enjoying school and kindergarten. Nina quit her old job, and will start working at a private dental clinic in Malmö in March. Ola is trying to find time to put our experiences into writing.
We wish you all a very happy 2010. We hope that many positive adventures are awaiting you in the New Year.
Best wishes from Ola, Nina, Temba, Disa, Tinna and Atlas

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

December 2009

We celebrated Lucia in kindergarten. Tinna and Atlas had practiced a lot and were very cute in their traditional attire.
December was cold and wintry in Sweden. Disa, Tinna and Atlas went ice-skating for the first time ever. They developed their own unique styles, and it was all very entertaining!
It snowed a lot and we all enjoyed the white surroundings.
We celebrated Christmas in Småland with Nina’s family. From the top: Mr. Snowman, Atlas, Tinna, Disa, Temba.
After Christmas we went to the north of Sweden for some skiing in the Arctic mountains. The heavy snowfall all over Sweden meant that Alhambra had a real challenge. 1200 km of driving through snow and ice. It was one of our most extreme drives ever. And we could not really fathom why we drove north for a holiday, instead of south…?!

The Arctic world was a great place to end the year. But at temperatures between -10 and -20, you have to ski very intensely to keep warm!

November 2009

November was full of birthday celebrations. Tinna turned 4 and everything revolved around the princess theme (in pink and purple). Temba turned 9 and threw a party for his friends. Nina celebrated her birthday with friends in Stockholm.

October 2009

In October we celebrated Halloween in Småland with Nina’s sisters and their families.
Tinna and Atlas enjoyed the face paint and Halloween costumes.
One morning the landscape had turned white with frost. We prepared Alhambra for the winter, removing the rooftop tent and other equipment.

September 2009

In September, Nina and Ola went back to their jobs. It felt as awkward as one can imagine. Going back to normal life was a bit of a shock to all of us. Especially as everything was turned upside down when Temba broke his arm in a bad way. But it would have been far worse if the accident had happened somewhere in Nowhere-istan of course!
We enjoyed the beautiful September weather and made nice excursions in and around Malmö.

August 2009

In August we moved back into our apartment in central Malmö. Temba started third grade, with his old class. Disa started prep school. Tinna went back to kindergarten. Atlas joined the same kindergarten as Tinna, but for him it was a big change that the whole family could not be together 24/7.
Ola went to Hamburg and collected our travel companion Alhambra from the shipping container. It felt a bit melancholic to cross the bridge from Copenhagen to Malmö. These were the final kilometers on our wonderful 60,000 km journey across 37 countries.