New Years 2008/09

So this is the second part of our Christmas/New Years holiday this year (last year...). Like I said in the last post, Jim and I were invited to celebrate New Years eve with Sara and Franks friends, Erik and Jenny. Eriks mother and her sisters bought a big house a few years ago up in Ljusdal, about four hours drive north of Stockholm. They mostly use it as a family home (the white house) but also run it as a B&B, and next door there is a hostel (the red house).

We arrived the night before New Years eve in the freezing cold, and woke up to this. The picture below is taken from our bedroom window (from the hostel).







Eriks family lent us warm cloths and skies so we could have a go at cross country skiing before dinner. We drove about 10 minutes from their home so we could ski in proper tracks.




Sara had a soar throat and decided to sit inside the coffee house while we were out skiing. To be honest I would have prefered going on this snow scoter rather than cross country skiing. I ended up last and kept falling everytime I went downhill because I couldn´t control the skis. Jim was much better at it than I was.



From the left there is Frank, Calle (Franks friend who also came with us), Erik, Jenny and Jim.






We only did 3km but we felt pretty tired and sweaty when we came back. After a hot dog and a rest we felt better and went out again for some more play in the snow.






Since we were altogether about sixty people at the dinner and the party, we got divided in to teams and were responsible for organising different parts of the dinner. Jim and his team prepared the main course, wich was pork, potatoes, roast vegetables and a red wine sause. My team was in charge of the desert, panacotta. This organisation turned out to be a huge success because no one had to take care of preparing a dinner on his or her own, we all participated and helped with cooking, setting the tables and doing the dishes. By doing this we also got to know everyone a bit better.





Sara, Erik and Jenny, all dressed up for dinner.


And I got to wear my new dress!




Sara and Frank organised the entertainment for the evening. Here they are proposing a toast and singing for us. Apart from that there were also charades, singstar competition and a part where we got given five words and had to make up our own song, using music from already known songs. They did a great job and everyone had a good time!


Twelve o´clock, happy New Year! We stood outside for a while, until we had no feeling in our legs and hands, haha, watching the fireworks. After that we ran inside to continue the dancing we had already started after the dinner. On the pictures below you can see that I have some rare evidence of Jim both singing and dancing!















New Years day was a quiet day. We slept late, cooked home made pizzas for everyone and watched some movies. (One of them was Mamma Mia - the movie, I really recommend it if you haven´t already seen it.)
The day after that we went back to Stockholm.
Here is Jim, Åsa (Eriks mother), Frank, Sara, Calle and Erik.


Here is something you never do in Australia. Lucky you.




The Ljusnan river was almoast frozen.



(Me in my new glasses).



That´s it for this time. Now it´s back to work and school and everyday things.