Our Christmas has been lovely as we've spent time with family and friends. I usually post the gifts I receive, and this is what I've received this year:

A Sanex deodorant (without parabens or aluminium chlorohydrate), a shower gel with olive oil (and without parabens and perfume) and the Lambretta wristwatch from T., and an olive oil (hand) cream, some shoe cream and the DVD, The Kids Are Alright, (from a Christmas present game), Lise Septimus Krogh's Italiens hjerte from my parents-in-law, the Avène Extremely Gentle Cleanser from my sister and brother-in-law, and, last but definitely not least, the Kenwood Classic Chef KM331, which was given to both T. and myself by his parents, his sister and brother-in-law and his grandmother. Wow, I'm spoiled!

We got engaged to be married today. It was not planned for today, but it turned out to be a lovely day and a wonderful mini vacation that made this day simply perfect for the occasion.

This past weekend has been wonderful. Birthday celebrations, plenty of good food, nice company, an outdoor game or two, amazing weather, and several interesting as well as relaxing outings have made this year's summer solstice truly memorable. My mother-in-law brought the beautiful peonies shown above. A huge thank you to everyone who visited us!

The weekend has definitely not been hurried or stressed out, but life is even slower right now as T. and I are relaxing on the sofas, enjoying the left-overs and watching Time Team.

Yellow and blue are fitting colours on a day such as this one. It's the Swedish national day, marking the anniversary of Gustaf Vasa's coronation as well as the 1809 constitution. Until 1983 it was called "Svenska flaggans dag" (Day of the Swedish flag), and since 2005 it has been a national holiday. Since the holiday as such is so young, it's clear that many Swedes don't know what to do with it and we have no real traditions when celebrating it, but for our family it has been a wonderfully sunny and warm day, which we have spent primarily in the garden and with driving lessons for our oldest son.

I've also taken a bunch of photos today, of which the above is one. Yellow and blue, like the Swedish flag.

Yesterday was wonderful. Our former neighbours came for dinner, which we ate on the still warm terrace as the sun was setting. The children played handball and then invited T. and R. to "kubb," while C. and I had just another glass of white wine (Yellow Tail, which we bought in Copenhagen about a month ago). It worked very well with the barbequed pork. It was such an enjoyable evening and we hope to see them again soon.

Our guests left around midnight and we sat down by the TV just in time to see Emmelie de Forest win the Eurovision Song Contest. Congratulations, Denmark!

T. and I have planted potatoes today and will be planting carrot, black salsify, parsnip, and turnip seeds and some leek plants tomorrow while we're waiting for the rest of the garden to get into gear. The apple trees seem to thrive and we're very much looking forward to the blossoms in a few weeks' time. The weather has been wonderful and it's supposed to stay that way for a while longer. Lovely.

Today is the day when Spring is "greeted" with songs, speeches and bonfires in Sweden and T. and I drove about 10 kilometres to a place where the bonfire is placed right by the sea. We arrived just in time to see the sun set and the giant plume of smoke rise above the pile of rubble. It was an amazing evening and an awe-inspiring view.

Last weekend we spent a few lazy days with the extended family by the sea on the Danish west coast. On two days (out of three) the weather was amazing, which provided plenty of photo opportunities since our house was only 200 metres from the sea. Adults, children and dogs alike enjoyed the sand dunes, the wide beach, and the more or less roaring waves. It's not the first time we've been there and it's most certainly not the last.

T. has already begun to plant the seeds for this year's gardening endeavours. Strawberries and leak has just begun to show the first signs of life in their small pots and the potatoes might have more than "eyes" at this point in time.

T.'s birthday is not until this summer, but I decided to buy him two early birthday presents nonetheless, that are very much in line with the above theme. The Danish version of John Seymour's The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency has been at the back of his mind since it was mentioned by Frank Ladegaard Erichsen, a.k.a. Bonderøven, years ago. Today, T. also realised that The New Self-Sufficient Gardener might be another useful title, and, since he would need these books for his gardening plans this spring, I decided to buy them straight away. Let's hope they'll be as good an inspiration to him as they have been to Bonderøven.

It's not always easy to be a mother and sometimes the conflicts are more draining than I would want. Our oldest is going through a phase in which he seems to be trying to find his way into adulthood. He expresses his wish to be viewed as an adult while at the same time having feelings of abandonment, which might be what occasionally causes him to act out. Frankly, at times he is outright rude towards us, doesn't want to help out with anything at home, and sees it as self-evident that we should do his bidding, be it on matters of food or on driving him to various things. If we don't do things "correctly" we'll be certain to hear about it. In many ways he is probably a typical teenager.

On Thursday evening, after a day when T. had driven to pick him up, dropped him off as well as gone shopping for him, T. asked him to fill up the water bottle he had just half emptied and then put it back in the fridge. Our son then flipped and screamed that someone else should do that "if it was so important," not him. T. pointed out that he was being selfish and that all of us should aim to make things easier for each other, not the opposite. I made clear to him that I agreed with T. on this.

Since then he has stayed in his room, barely coming out to eat (apart from leaving for school on Friday). He hasn't talked to us or his brother at all since then and has even removed the door handle on the outside of his door, thus underlining his current wish for privacy.

He is 18 years old. It's not as if he needs us for survival anymore, but what is happening right now is quite draining. I just wish he finds a way to interact without being rude, that he learns something valuable and that he doesn't do anything really stupid in the process, that he finds his way to the other side of this rough patch, and that he ultimately understands that we love him (but does not necessarily like his behaviour in the above cases).

The necklace in the image above is called Mother and was made by Edblad & Co.

Christmas is here, we're busy making Christmas candy and we have bought the last presents today. They say there will be a storm tomorrow bringing snow and we're not planning to spend that much time outside then. More candy and wrapping presents will most likely be on the agenda — and listening to Christmas music. My playlist is as follows:

"Carol of the Bells/Sing We Now of Christmas" (Barlow Girl)
"Christmas In New Orleans" (Louis Armstrong)
"Meet Me At the Mistletoe" (Dave Barnes)
"It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" (Ella Fitzgerald)
"Gnags' Julesang" (Gnags)
"Noel Nouvelet" (Gregorian Christmas Chants)
"Grown-Up Christmas List" (Michael Bublé)
"Marie-Noël" (Ima)
"Riu Riu Chiu" (Sixpence None the Richer)
"It Really Is (A Wonderful Life)" (Indigo Girls)
"The First Noel" (Josh Groban & Faith Hill)
"O Helga Natt" (Jussi Björling)
"Song for a Winter's Night" (Sarah McLachlan)
"Jingle Bell Jamboree" (Keb' Mo')
"Please Come Home For Christmas" (Willie Nelson)
"Maybe This Christmas" (Leigh Nash)
"Zat You Santa Claus" (Louis Armstrong)
"Maybe Next Year" (Meiko)
"Merry Christmas Baby" (Melissa Etheridge)
"Cold December Night" (Michael Bublé)
"Christmas Time" (Phil Wickham)
"O Come O Come Emmanuel" (Rosie Thomas)
"Anorak Christmas" (Sally Shapiro)
"River" (Sarah McLachlan)
"Den Himmelblå" (Shu-bi-dua)
"Julen Är Här" (Sissel Kyrkjebø & Tommy Körberg)
"Christmas for Two" (Sixpence None The Richer)
"Baby It's Cold Outside" (Willie Nelson feat. Norah Jones)
"Peace" (Norah Jones)
"Koppangen" (Orphei Drängar, Cecilia Rydinger Alin, Uppsala Chamber Orchestra, Linne Quintet & Ida Falk Windland).

A merry Christmas to you all!

This weekend has been full of preparations for Christmas. Yesterday, the whole family went into the town centre to buy Christmas presents and today, after a wonderful breakfast with hot cocoa and newly baked bread, we began leafing through the Christmas inspiration books for candy recipes and other vital things while watching the snow flakes whirling outside.

T. suggested we'd put up the rest of the Christmas decorations soon as well, and the dining room table is filled with Christmas presents (some of them have wrapped and some not — yet). On the kitchen table there is another project for this year, which seems to have turned out really well, but I won't say much more about it now, since there might be a few people reading this, who should not know about it yet.

In general, there are a lot of secrets and questions not being answered... This is probably why I truly love this time of year.

Both T. and I really like wordgames and both of us often play games such as Wordfeud, Enigma, and Muddled on our iPod/iPhone/iPad. The latest addition is Rumble, which we added approximately two months ago and this is perhaps the most fun app of them all. It certainly requires some quick thinking and perhaps even quicker fingers. It is currently available in ten languages.

Having had a, by now, four-year experience of living with teenager(s), I have to admit that I don't find it that bad. There are occasional flare-ups of course, but in general things have been working out quite amicably.

What brought this up is the plans our 17-year-old has made for the first week of his summer holiday. He started his planning early and been careful to discuss things with everyone involved (including us, although we're not directly involved in his plans), to order all the things needed, buy tickets and everything. He and a friend of his are supposed to go visit a third friend and stay in their tent (as planned by that young man) for a few nights while they make a movie. The problem is as follows: one set of parents seem to be happy to let their son deal with it while setting a few boundaries, while the other set of parents basically has taken over the planning from their son, completely disregarding and disrespecting his previous decisions, efforts and the money that has been spent (and not for the first time). As a result, his plans as well as the plans of the two other boys have been turned upside down.

Our stance has been that we feel safe with what our son has planned and that we in general regard him as thoughtful, thorough, and pretty grown-up. I personally don't believe that these traits develop unless teenagers are allowed to take responsibility. Our son might make smaller mistakes once in a while, but making these will hopefully teach him to do things right the next time, and if something is unclear he knows that we're only a phone call away. In our view, he's almost an adult and he needs some training in how to behave like one.

We don't know what will happen now, but it would be really sad if what they have planned for won't take place. Communication is really an issue here, as is the level of faith placed in your teenager. It's clear that everyone does not agree on the same levels of control and the results of a lack of communication also becomes evident. Simultaneously, there is some pressure on myself to conform and apply stricter rules, but that is not what I fundamentally want. In the end I think that would be detrimental to the respectful relationship we have with our son. We do urge him to be careful and not to do stupid things, and he is as aware of any potential risk as he can be, but I really don't think you should lock a teenager in or decide things for him or her. Our son has to get the opportunity to use his own head — with us as a back-up and support.

The image was borrowed from North Shore Times.

At this wonderfully beautiful time of year when everything is in bloom we have received some very good news. For the last week and a half our oldest son has been evaluated by the children's rehab unit at one of the largest hospitals in Sweden to discern whether he has any brain damage as a result of the car accident in September last year.

Today we received their evaluation and the sum of it all was that he does not have any brain damages at all, which is amazing considering the massive injuries he suffered back then. They have checked his ability concentrate, to speak, to form sentences, to do maths, and to perform household tasks. They have tested his vocabulary, his fine and gross motor skills, his social abilities, his physique, his mood for instance when winning or losing, and a number of other things. In summary, they have assessed his strengths and his weaknesses, and it has all turned out to be good.

Spending time at the unit has been interesting from other viewpoints as well, since the stories of the other children there have been both moving and educational. The everyday lives of children with acquired brain injuries are very diverse and they are all heroes in my eyes.

It has been busy. At first we spent a few days with the family in a rented summer house near the beach on an island (where this photo was taken) and after that we've been very busy moving. Our days on the island were wonderful. Nice weather, good food, and good company. Unfortunately it also involved catching the flu for the majority of us, and that hampered us quite a bit when we, a few days later (by mid-March), received the keys to our new house and began to move things.

We're done now, however, and we're so thankful for the help from T.'s sister and brother-in-law. There are still a lot of boxes to unpack, but the old house has been cleaned from top to bottom (with the immensely appreciated assistance of my mother-in-law) and we will be handing in the keys on Monday morning. I really do like our new house. To me, it feels far more like a home, and I'm hoping we'll be able to stay here for a long time.

On Valentine's Day three years ago, I was at the decorated ferry terminal in Gothenburg and about to sail across Kattegat to T. The weather was beautiful and the sea was calm. A great memory.

Otherwise, T. and I are not that keen on celebrating "All Heart's Day" (as it is called in an English translation from Swedish). Although I absolutely love flowers and chocolate, the whole Valentine shabang seems to be entirely about consuming stuff, even more so than on any of the other holidays throughout the year. Instead, for us it's sort of "business as usual." We do say "I love you" to each other a number of times, but, to be honest, we do so every day and not only on February 14.

I'm tracing my family's lineages and history at the moment, as is T., and we have both managed to find out quite a lot. My own family tree now has more than 560 people in it, primarily spread out geographically in the counties of Dalarna and Värmland, but I'm not done yet so I know it will grow even further.

One of the difficulties in my own pursuits has been that the church records burned in 1797 in my own home parish (where the majority of my ancestors also lived), which makes it almost impossible to trace ancestors further than the early 18th century, but I also have ancestors elsewhere and in some cases these can be traced back to the 13th century.

On my mother's as well as my father's side there are links to the Svinhufvud and Stierna families and I have learned that one of my ancestors, Engelbertus Olai Helsingus, was in fact Gustaf Vasa's priest. (Vasa reigned in Sweden between 1523 and 1560.) At this point in time there are quite a few other lose ends and I'm really looking forward to further explorations.