I was so happy to receive so many wonderful presents last night: A white iPod touch (which actually was an early Christmas present in November) and the MacFamilyTree software from T., a kimono style robe and products from Avène from T.'s sister and her husband, the works of Swedish Nobel laureate Tomas Tranströmer, a book full of Christmas inspiration from Ernst Kirchsteiger and two sets of bed linen from my mother and father-in-law, as well as Avène Skin Recovery Cream and Monika Ahlberg's very extensive Christmas cookbook from T.'s grandmother.

Yesterday's Christmas dinner with turkey, red cabbage, white and brown potatoes, a wonderfully rich sauce, Amarone wine, and a rice and whipped cream dessert with cherries was lovely and I don't think anyone were even close to go to bed on an empty stomach.

While the rest have been preparing today's Christmas lunch (for twelve people) T. and I decided to take T.'s sisters German shepard out for a long walk which made her very tired and she is now snoring lightly at my feet. It's a lazy day and I love it.

2011 has been an extremely eventful and somewhat draining year for us, and now we're busy finishing many things in time for the holidays. Christmas presents have been bought and we have even opened our first ones, since the children will spend Christmas elsewhere this year. Last night we had a very tasty "Christmas chicken" dinner and afterwards the boys were eager to open their presents and watch us open the presents they had made or bought for us.

T. is currently very busy exploring one of his gifts, the game LA Noire. I received a cookbook with Christmas recipes, Julens godsaker by Mia Öhrn, and together T. and I received a small stool made in school by our youngest, which will be perfect in the kitchen (it will help me reach the top shelves). He made it so well, and I exceedingly proud. From us, our youngest received a pair of slippers and our oldest the most recent Harry Potter DVD as well as some money for the things for which they save up. In addition they gave each other a computer game (for the youngest) and a huge popcorn bowl and lots of microwave popcorn (for the oldest). It's always sad to see them go, but yesterday was wonderful and I hope they will have a wonderful "second" Christmas as well.

T. and I are also looking forward to "Christmas no. 2" and it might get a bit quiet on the blog for the next few days. It only remains for me to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

There has been quite a few twists and turns in our correspondence with the insurance company since the accident, but today we have finally ordered our brand new, candy white 2012 Skoda Superb Elegance TDi 170 with cream leather. Our previous car was black with cream leather, but this time we decided to go for white. According to the information we received at the car dealer's we're supposed to get the car at some point in April. A long wait, but hopefully it will be well worth it.

It has been foggy for weeks until suddenly, last Friday, the sun broke through the clouds as we travelled across Denmark. It was our sons' first longer car journey after the accident and it all felt great, and I couldn't stop myself from taking photo after photo as we drove over the Storebælt bridge.

I have been quiet on this blog for a while. The reason for this can be seen above. About two months ago my family and myself were in a car accident involving a rather large moose. Our car was completely demolished, and, even worse, so was the face of my oldest son (I was hurt as well, but not as badly). In spite of this we were immensely lucky to have driven an almost new car. The police said this almost certainly saved our lives, but unfortunately it will, because of the accident, never be driven again.

Not surprisingly, in the last two months our main focus has been my oldest son's recovery. At this point in time he and his doctors are contemplating his return to school and we're so happy that this is the case. Slowly things are getting back to normal and we're very much looking forward to the upcoming December festivities.

Today can be described as a day of leisure with only a bit of work sprinkled into it. This morning was wonderful and sunny but the clouds have gathered again and they are promising rain towards the evening. It doesn't really matter, however, since T. is busy playing Saboteur on his PS3 and I have spent some time putting up the new roll-down curtain we bought at IKEA this morning. The next step will be to do something about the new bedside lamps, which we actually bought three of — an additional one to put in the dark corner above the sofa in the living room.

Our favourite mule, who doubles as an excellent pillow, is no doubt sleeping his beauty sleep, and because of the cloudy weather he's not doing it outside on the grass as he was a few days ago.

It has been a warm, lazy day. Since it's the national day here in Sweden, the children have had today off from school and most work places are closed as well. It does feel rather lucky since we're not really in the mood for anything wild at the moment. We have done the laundry, though, so I guess we've been at least a wee bit productive.

Late last night we returned from our visit to Berlin and it has been great. The children really have enjoyed exploring a big city and we have walked and walked and walked. The first day we took the tube to the Potsdamer Platz and then walked in turn to the Holocaust Memorial to the Brandenburg gate to the Reichstag to the Unter den Linden to the Gendarmenmarkt (where we shopped for chocolate at the amazing Fassbender & Rausch) to the Museum island (where we took a tour on the Spree) to the Alexanderplatz (from where we went up the TV tower) and then back home to our rented Moabit apartment. The next few days were equally filled with events — and walking — and I have to admit that my feet do have some blisters, but it has all been worth it. The weather and the company has been wonderful, and it has definitely been the perfect way to celebrate the fact that I've now successfully finished and defended my PhD.

It hasn't been raining for weeks, it is rather windy, and the dry grass from last year would probably need water far more than fire, but that's how it is. Bonfires will be lit all over Sweden this evening (at least in the areas where it is allowed by the local fire departments), some people will enjoy barbequed sausages or something similar, some will drink far more alcohol than necessary, and choirs will sing the traditional "Valborg" songs — all of it (well, perhaps not the part about alcohol) in the honour of spring.

Our family will spend this evening at some friends' house, probably taking a short walk to the nearest bonfire (which we're not sure whether or not it will be lit) and have some sausages with the rest of the people present. Children will be running around and there will probably be some fireworks as dusk slowly emerges. Happy "Valborg" everyone!

We're enjoying a wonderfully warm and sunny day, 24°C/75,2°F, and spending some time with the family feels great. Tomorrow we're heading back home to slightly cooler temperatures, but I'm sure that will seem tolerable at least for a while longer. Summer is indeed on its way.

Easter decorations from Indiska, Village, Jotex, and Sagaform at DesignOnline.

The big project I've been working on for almost five years has been completed and I'm so happy! Now I believe it's time for a nice meal and some cake. I'm really happy to be able to share this moment with my family.

Last weekend was the first time this year I could really feel the warmth of the sun and it finally brings a glimpse of spring. The vivid colours of the landscape made us all stop momentarily and just gasp. Wine testing, tapas dinner, dips in the pool, and wonderful outings in the vicinity in amazing company... We had some wonderful days in our rented cottage by the sea.

I thought I'd give you a glimpse of what the boys in my family are doing at the moment. My youngest is busy building, creating and socializing on Roblox, my oldest occupies himself with playing games such as Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty and my partner T. is playing his current favourite, Red Dead Redemption. Although not really being a gamer myself, I kind of enjoy watching them all being immersed in these activities, to study how they play, and to see how they learn and evolve as gamers. It is thus a pretty normal quiet Saturday afternoon at our place.

Images from ign.com, Kotaku, and Instructables.

My oldest son's birthday is, to his own great joy, at the beginning of the year and this year he decided that he wanted "princess cake" rather than the usual chocolate one I make. His wish was fulfilled in this regard, as it was when it comes to the PS3 games on his wish list as well. I'm not sure if he's aware of it, but he does get rather spoiled at times like these, my little (but by now rather big) boy.

Image from Allt om Mat.

The members of my family are wonderful! We had some marvellous days together over Christmas and New Year, simply spending time together and exchanging gifts. Above you can see the presents I received: Hannu Sarenström's Vinterkalas from my children, a pair of Viking boots and christmas tree candleholders from my parents-in-law, Susanne Swegen's White Christmas and Avene's Rich Skin Recovery Cream from my sister and brother-in-law, four Eva Trio Legio soup plates from T.'s grandmother, a wonderful Christmas Day dinner from my brother who invited both T. and myself to it, a black cap knitted by my mother and some money (which for instance was used to buy the Season candleholder mentioned in the previous blog post) from my parents, and a beautiful Axcent Hope watch from darling T.

We're hoping you'll all have a wonderful holiday season!

Image found at Profil Hotels.

...is what we had this morning. Some hot chocolate, warm bread, some really good jam and cheese, and it's snowing outside.

After breakfast, we went to the supermarket to look for a Santa suit for my oldest son, and to buy some groceries.

Otherwise the plans for today include making some Christmas candy. We have bought cream, sirup, marzipan, nougat, saffron, hazel nuts and a lot of other things, and are all set to get creative. Happy weekend, everyone!

I've sold my car today, a car I've had for almost five years. It simply became too small for us — all the long-legged men in my family — and on Saturday I put it out for sale. Since then quite a few people have called or e-mailed. Some of them have seemed genuinely interested, some have seemed less so, but yesterday evening a woman called, who was on the lookout for a new car for her mother, and she seemed slightly more interested than the rest. I agreed to meet her mother before lunch today and she arrived together with her husband and her son-in-law. They checked out my car, were happy with what they saw and decided to buy it. The payment they offered was fair and I agreed... and so it happened that I had to take the train back home today.

I'm a bit nostalgic at the moment, but I hope the new owners will be happy with it.

T. and I mainly found "tourist amber" as we were searching on the beach last week, i.e. only small pieces of amber, but it's really fun to look for it. Sometimes there are heaps of them in the midst of the debree that has been washed ashore, and then it's simply difficult to stop looking. At other times there might not be any amber at all. It depends on the winds and the currents. Nevertheless, we managed to gather somewhere between 400 and 500 small pieces of amber between the two of us.

My oldest son was in the kitchen and the vacuum cleaner got in his way. Slightly annoyed he asked:"Why is the vacuum cleaner in the middle of the floor?" Making a point that he might very well help out a bit more, I responded: "It's there to make it convenient for you to vacuum the kitchen." His quick response: "Oh yeah... I'll do it when tigers fly over Canada." I laughed and said "yeah, yeah..."

Then I decided to play a trick on him. I looked up a photo of the Toronto skyline, searched for a leaping tiger, and put it all together in Photoshop, while my youngest son was giggling beside me. When I was done, I said to my oldest son that he'd better do the vacuuming now since tigers indeed are flying over Toronto.

His face as he looked at the photo made it all worth it. But he hasn't been vacuuming... yet.