Swedipinos' First Christmas

Merry Christmas friends and family! We hope everyone is having a warm and peaceful day with their loved ones. We ourselves couldn't have asked for a better day.

For those who don't know, Swedes and Filipinos (therefore, Swedipinos) do the majority of celebrating on Christmas Eve. That's right- we open presents the night before most others do. Here are the boys getting ready on Dec. 24th.

Then we headed over to other Karlsson household for a very traditional Swedish Christmas feast complete with ham, meatballs, sausage, pickled herring, and Janssons Frestelse (yummy baked potato gratin with anchovies). You can never have too much pork... My contribution was a Swedish cheesecake with strawberry compote and whipped cream.



After watching Walt Disney's Holiday Celebration Volume 8- the present opening began. Up in Sweden, every family watches Disney Christmas cartoons at 3PM right before opening presents. Weird, but true...

Godfather Mel gave Linus a book called "The Gas We Pass." I'm sure it will grow to become one of Linus' favorite books, even though he's learned all about said topic from his dad. Other cool presents include a high chair, several cute outfits, a drum, and teether toys.




Official 2008 Karlsson family Christmas picture:


We sat on the floor for a few hours after Linus went to sleep to finish opening presents and to drink spiced wine, called Glogg. It actually tastes better than it sounds.



Then I went into a food coma and fell asleep in a dog bed.



Christmas morning we slept in, then dug into the presents! Here's Linus with his loot.



The weather here in DC was gorgeous- clear blue skies, no wind, and in the high 40s. After video conferencing with family in the Bay Area, it seems like we have the better weather :) We have been on a walk to Theodore Roosevelt Island, have eaten our weight in Christmas leftovers, and are about to conquer some karaoke. It has been our kind of Christmas...

Thanks everyone for the cards, calls, text messages, and emails. Even though we are quite a distance from you all, we are thinking of you always and miss you so much.

Hanging out in Philly

The weekend before Christmas we headed up north to Philadelphia to visit one of our favorite families- the Wohlgemuths. Having thrown the wedding of the year just last October, Allaire and Vijey were heading off to India for what's likely to be awesome wedding #2. Mel was out to celebrate Christmas and get ready for the trip as well, so we thought a little hangin' out was in order.

Gus and Willie reunited and in Christmas fashion. They were not all that excited to be together.

Linus was there on a mission to convince Auntie Allaire that having babies was the right thing to do. We think he succeeded.

Cute Penny on her chair. She was the most behaved dog in the house. Willie was the worst after pooping in the basement several times and blaming it on Gus.



But we couldn't get together without a little sushi time! Here Vijey is mastering the roll.



Then Allaire had some people over for some delicious cookies (that I wish I took home with me) and holiday cheer.

We brought the karaoke mike!


Gus was super embarassed to be wearing the antlers, but couldn't find the phone number to the local humane society to report us for animal cruelty.

We found out that Linus is really into ornaments. Whoa....

Much of the trip was spent drinking coffee and eating the Tartine croissants that Mel brought us all the way from San Francisco. We were in heaven... If anyone in SF wants to send us a few express mail every now and again, we'd be much obliged :)

Linus showing Gus some brotherly love in the City of Brotherly Love.

Being with friends like this always makes us homesick, but we are lucky to have Allaire and Vijey just a few hours away. Mel knows that if he's within 2 1/2 hours from us we will drive up to visit, and the same offer applies to the rest of you. We're a little short on friends and would be happy to feel a piece of home anytime we can get it...

We hope you all have a safe and fun New Year's celebration.

Getting Ready: :Linus' First Christmas

Christmas has a new meaning for me and Mattias now that we have Linus around. Even though he won't remember this one, we think it's important to establish traditions early on. This holiday feels more special than ever with the focus on creating joy for the little one, and little importance on gifts for us adults.

Right after Thanksgiving we were really happy to have a visit from Lola Melva, who was able to participate in the Karlsson family Christmas festivities. Priority #1 was getting a tree which we cut down from a farm every year. This year, we headed over to Loudon County on a beautiful 20 degree morning. Here we are drinking hot cider in the van, too wimpy to leave the car just yet.


The farm itself was beautiful and busy with lots of young families like us. We walked around and debated on which kind of tree, what height, etc. Mattias said that we couldn't get a tree taller than me because of our small apartment :(


I liked this tree, but Gus not so much...




Kerstin found the cutest 3 foot tree.

And after 30 minutes of searching, we picked our tree.







Back at home we cozied up, listened to the Chipmunks Christmas album (I insist every year) and started to decorate. I think this is our best tree yet!


Then last weekend we decided it was time was Linus' first haircut. His original infant hairs were starting to look too much like a bad combover.




We are just about done shopping (thank goodness for online shopping!) have made gingerbread, and are ready for Linus' first Christmas.

Laggin'

People have been giving me a hard time for not blogging in a while- so here is my catch up from late November.

We were very lucky to have a visit from Nicky right before Thanksgiving, who flew out here from Ventura, Ca. Luckily I told her to bring her warmest clothes because it was 20 degrees and windy the weekend she came. Here we are in front of the White house- her scarf blew right in front of my face the second we took the picture! Too funny.



Then a few days later we celebrated our first Thanksgiving in Arlington. I decided to plan the master feast since we'll be celebrating Christmas at Kerstin and Magnus' place. Here we are workin' away.



Gus did his job.



Linus wasn't all too excited about the holiday since he didn't get any turkey and he had to where a dress shirt.



Mmmmmm, turkey.



We spent the rest of the night playing Wii and watching the Thanksgiving parade on DVR (my first time watching it and I have to say it was quite lame.)



Sorry for not posting in a while. Since Melissa gave me a hard time for "sugar coating" my blog, I've decided to add the not-so-pretty details of our family life:

• Mattias has suffered from some kind of knee injury. On my vet exam I feel like it is most likely a luxated patella, but our doctor (who is a real cougar) thinks it may be a torn meniscus. The MRI was last night so we should know pretty soon, but we think he may need some surgery.

• Linus bites my nipples and thinks its funny.

• I've finally accepted that my stretch marks aren't goin' nowhere. And sometimes I want to cry about it but instead I eat some ice cream.
  

• The other day I was shopping at Old Navy with Linus in his carrier when he decided to take a massive dump that overflowed all the way up his back. Luckily I had an extra set of clothes but they had been in the diaper bag for a month and a size too small. What used to be pants turned into shorts, which Linus wore on a 20 degree day :(
  

• We have also been seriously stressing about money, and funny enough, it has nothing to do with the current economy. The costs of moving, renting out our condo, going on maternity leave, and property taxes have all amassed into one big heap of debt. We've thought of some creative ways to make money:

1. Rent Gus out as a chick magnet.
2. Mattias can be a male escort to our cougar doctor and all her friends.
3. Linus can be a model for Baby Gap.
4. Ellie can open up a sushi bar in the apartment, serving 2-4 people a night.
5. We can collect all the cans and bottles that people don't recycle (Virginians suck at recycling!)
   

• And just the other day we had a constipation issue- Linus went 48 hours without taking a dump. One morning he was making a lot of noise; a mixture of groans, growls, and farts that didn't produce much. Mattias was all gung-ho about taking him to the doctor in the morning, but when the pediatrician suggested a rectal suppository, Mattias said "Let's give him until tonight to poop." Gee, could it be because I was at work and Mattias couldn't bare to torture our little boy? What a whimp! He assumes that just because I'm a vet I should deal with all the yucky stuff! We're happy to report 2 major dumps since then :)

That's all for now. Many people have been asking what Linus wants for Christmas. As of now his wants are pretty simple: boobs. But since you guys can't really give that, a simple card with a picture will do. We like to think Linus is the luckiest kid in the world and that he has everything he needs.

Next post will be of pictures of our annual Christmas tree excursion. Miss you guys!

Back to work!

It's official: I'm a working mom! I started two weeks ago and it has been good so far. Mattias and I are up at 5:30AM to get ourselves and Linus ready for the day- quite the grind.

But we are the luckiest family in the world- Farmor Kerstin and Farfar Magnus arrived and unpacked just before I started to work. We enjoyed a day together at a local park.

Now a lot of you may be wondering what KarlssonKare (our high-quality, no cost child care plan) is like? Well, a lot of days are spent walking the woods behind Kerstin and Magnus' apartment.

It's also been really fun exploring our surroundings. We spent a day walking around the Dupont Circle and Logan Circle neighborhoods.





Then yesterday we took a day trip to Loudon County (Virginia's wine country) and stopped in downtonw Leesburg.



We had a picnic at the park the other day.



And our son just keeps getting cuter, just like his pappa.

Overall, I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things, like enjoying my old hobbies. A little late to post, but here I am sewing this year's Halloween costumes. We even went on our first date in a while last Friday, to a concert in DC.

We are busy and tired, but happier than ever.