The most wonderful time of the year

We had our best Christmas ever this year celebrating for the first time with Calvin.  He absolutely loved pulling apart the wrapping paper and playing with all of the tissue paper on the inside. We went traveling up north to see the rest of the family, so we had our own little Christmas the night before we left.  Calvin managed to find his present fairly quickly, unwrap it and then bang it on the ground!  Perhaps a ceramic globe piggy bank wasn't the most bang-on-the-floor friendly, but we learned.  Since it didn't fit in his mouth easily, he lost interest and moved onto the tissue paper.

Our trip up to Cumberland/Cape Cod/Albany/Boston went very smoothly.  Calvin and I were upgraded to first class on both legs so we had a great time schmoozing with the other travelers and proving that not all babies cry on planes.  Calvin is a seasoned traveler but it's always a little nerve wracking.  You never know if your flight will be delayed, canceled, re-routed, etc.

We had a chance to visit with everyone and spend some good relaxing quality time.  We really wanted to "do nothing" as we won't have much time to relax in Atlanta before the big relocation.  It was so great to have days where we didn't change out of our pajamas.

Christmas is my favorite holiday season and I can't wait until we can start our own family traditions. We just need to define them first! My parents instituted a rule for Christmas morning that we could not look at the tree until after 7:30am.  This was after we tried to get the morning started at 5am one year.  We had to wait until 7:30, then go downstairs and get them first. THEN, and only then, could Christmas begin.

I remember waking up on Christmas morning and crawling into bed with my brother.  We would just sit and giggle with anticipation wondering what Santa brought and we would watch the minutes tick by on my Minnie Mouse clock.  I can't wait until Calvin has that same anticipation and excitement in the morning.

Calvin was absolutely adorable and was generously showered with gifts from everyone.  We'll be packing up soon so he'll get to experience them all over again in a few months when the big toys come out of storage. What a lucky guy!

Weather...

It is December 16th and 70 degrees F in Atlanta today.  Absolutely GORGEOUS!

I checked my weather app and its 36 degrees and snowy-ish in Stockholm.  While much more seasonably appropriate, I am going to miss the freakishly warm weather Atlanta has offered me the last 6 years!

Glögg

Yesterday we hit up a Swedish Christmas market in Atlanta, GA.  I know what you're thinking -- where on earth did you find a Swedish Christmas market?  Well, we didn't find it - it found us.  Like all things related to this Swedish move/adventure, these things are just falling into place.

We entered to the sound of a men's choir singing Christmas carols -- loved it -- and walked around checking out the local Atlanta-Swedish entrepreneurs.  We spoke to a handbag maker and she reiterated how much we would love Stockholm.  She then went onto complain about how she hates going back because she ends up spending too much time with her parents and "needs more space." This little vignette reminded me that people everywhere look to escape to "somewhere else" and are confronted with the same family issues regardless of what country you are from.

We were hunnngary so we stood in an enormously long line for some items on a menu we have never heard of before. Glögg? What on earth is that?  A quick iPhone google search informed us that we were in for a delicious treat (see recipe below).  We wound our way to the front of the line, bought some Swedish hot dogs (snappy!) and some deliciously warm Glögg.  The kids were running around outside in a fenced in area and everyone was enjoying the tasty beverage with slivered almonds and raisins.  We concluded our Swedish research complete and decided that if the Swedes are anything like the people we met at the Swedish Christmas market, we were going to have an awesome time!

Glögg Recipe

Glögg is hot, spiced wine, perfect for cold winter evenings. Just follow this easy Glogg recipe to make your own great-tasting spiced wine. Variations are optional and add great personalized taste to your own "Glögg"!

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 bottle of red wine
• 0.5 Liter inexpensive brandy or vodka
• 10 cardamom pods
• 1 cinnamon stick (broken down)
• 1/2 orange peel (dried or fresh)
• 1/2 lbs sugar (regular or lumps)
• Optional additions: 5 cloves, 1/2 cup raisins, 1/2 cup almonds, 5 dried figs

Preparation:

Heat the wine and brandy spices, fruit, and nuts in a pot (and any optional additions you might like.)

Be careful not to boil the mixture; just let it simmer for about 45 minutes.

Then, strain through a cloth to remove all additions.

Serve your Glogg hot over lumped sugar (or with regular granulated sugar).

Optional: You can also serve the Glogg with raisons or almonds. If you'd like the drink to be stronger, use more brandy.

This Glogg recipe makes approx 1.5 Liter (close to 1/2 gallon).

Calvin's many facial expressions

Photo bomb!

Calvin's Weekly Photo Project

Here are pictures of Calvin's first year by week!

Week 31

Week 30

Week 28

Week 27

Week 25

Week 24

Week 23

Week 22

Week 21

Week 20

Week 19

Week 18

Week 17

Week 16

Week 15

Week 14

Week 13

Week 12

Week 10

Week 9

Week 8

Week 7

Week 6

Week 5

Week 4

Week 3

Week 2

Week 1

4 Days Old

We are moving to Sveeeden!

So, it's officially official. We are headed to Stockholm, Sweden for the foreseeable future!  Jon has accepted a position (internal transfer) with Ericsson and I have put in my notice at CSTE.  We are a mix of emotions with the dominant emotion being excitement and the recessive emotion being trepidation.  We are a little anxious because we still have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in.

So what are we in for? We know we are in for dark days/nights and cold weather.  It's Sweden.  It's winter.  We also know that we are leaving behind friends and family.  It's Sweden.  We don't know anyone.  We know that we are going to have a period of adjustment.  But, it's Sweden.  Of all of the places to go, it's not  the worst of the worst.  In fact, it's probably the best we could've hoped for.  They are super family friendly -- dog friendly and woman friendly.  Their maternity leave policies make America's look incredibly inferior and their work/life balance is something that just doesn't happen here in the States.  Aside from those benefits, we know that we are in for a lot of exciting travel to Europe (just a weekend away) and learning a new language (Sveeedish).

I have a few good job prospects already, so that is promising and Jon's job is giving me a work visa (SCORE!)  We are very excited and have every intention of taking full advantage of our new location.

There is much to be done. No doubt about that.  But... it's Sweden.  Everything will work out.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Lyrics | Johnny Mathis - It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas lyrics

Calvin loses all sin

We made the trek up north so that Jon's uncle, who is a Catholic priest, could baptize Calvin in front of our family.  The ceremony took place after the general mass so we had the entire church to ourselves.  I think that Uncle Rev. Tom gave us the "friends and family" extended version of a baptism because I don't think I remember seeing other babies' baptisms lasting as long as Calvin's.  Pretty much every part of his body was blessed and he has a super clean slate.

Considering Calvin was reaching for his godfather's beer bottle during the reception, I think Calvin was feeling a little rebellious already!

We had a great day and enjoyed spending it with our family!

Calvin pictures -- an online picture warehouse!

So, our good friends at Shutterfly have this great tool that allows you to build a website and house all of your pictures there.  My mother in law, Joann, did this when Calvin was first born and it has been a great place for her to upload all of her pictures.  I will admit, I am horrible at keeping all of my Calvin pictures in one place.  I generally just upload them to FaceBook and call it a day.

In case you can't get enough of Calvin and want to see even MORE pictures of his cutie-pai face, here is the link:


http://welcomecalvinjames.shutterfly.com/pictures

Didn't know I was raising a baby tiger cub

The title of this post is in no way referencing the Tiger Mom though I think that raising your kids with an iron fist of discipline and high expectations is awesome, I can't bring myself to put a violin in Calvin's hands quite yet.  No...what I'm referring to is the numerous incidents my 6 month old baby has marred my skin with his tiny baby claws.

I know what you're thinking -- "well if you were a good mom, you would trim his nails! there! done! problem solved!" -- First off, I do trim his nails - when he lets me.  Which is never as often as it NEEDS to be done.  Sometimes I can only get 1 or 2 nails before he pushes me away and tries to crawl/womp on his face away from me. So, what he's left with is a hand full of stub nails and super sharp nails.  Secondly, even when you do get all of his nails, now you have fresh-never-touched-anything nails.  Those are sharp too!  Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Last week, I traveled with Calvin up to Rhode Island for a work conference.  It was great because my mother in law was able to watch him while I went to the ballroom down the hall of the hotel and listened to outbreaks all day.  It was a win-win for everyone!

Apparently, during the night in the hotel, Calvin managed to scratch my face- - next to MY EYE!  Aside from almost blinding me, he left a nice scratch right next to my EYE.  Am I crying or bleeding?? I don't know!?!  I had to go back to the conference on Friday with what must've looked similar to those tear tattoos that prisoners get for shanking people.  The length of the scratch was around 1-1.5 tears so people probably thought I was pretty badass.

On the plane ride back to Atlanta, I was classified as "infant in arms" because he is still under 2 years and I'm going to milk those cheap plane tickets for all they are worth.  Well, they should've put on my ticket, "dangerous baby cub in arms" because in an effort to keep him from crying and annoying everyone in my near vicinity on the plane, I let him sit in my lap facing me and play with the front of my sweater.  He was getting a little excited and scratched straight down my neck/chest.  I swear, it looked like someone cut me with a knife!  I could instantly feel what I thought was blood -- or just that clear goop that comes out of scratched skin to heal it quickly.  He ended up leaving a 5 inch red angry scratch on my chest.

He may not look dangerous in this picture but neither does the baby tiger below.  Calvin knows how to leave his mark on you!