HOT HOT H.E.A.T

With only 45 minutes left of 2012 I take the opportunity to wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013! I hope you all will have a great evening together with family and friends and that all your wishes for 2013 will come true!

Yesterday on Christmas Day we celebrated our third Christmas together with our children and grandchildren in Gävle. For once all of them were gathered, except Linnea who is in Mexico, which is very rare. We also, at the same time, celebrated coming birthdays. We started driving from Väsby at 10AM and the weather was horrible. Snowing, very windy and at some point, I think Uppsala, even cold rain. Everything went smothly until a couple of miles outside Uppsala when suddenly we caught a queue - yes on the motorway where the speed limit is 120km/h. We drove in 70km/h in one line because it wasn't ploughed and the snow came down hard. So it took us 2 hours to get there which normally takes 1h20min :-) But we were very happy to get there at all. There were a lot of accidents. When we arrived the lunch was ready and Staffan had made a wonderful Chili con carne with sallat. And after that we just sat down talking, playing cards and just enjoyed ourselves. Lena stopped working at...

I wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope you will have a day filled with love and joy (and of course many Christmas gifts). I send my thoughts and love to my family and friends who I can't spend Christmas with physically. I will be with you in mind and spirit. Today we will have all the boys over for celebration which is so nice. We will eat good food, watch Kalle Anka and of course give gifts. Tomorrow we're going to Gävle to celebrate with the older children and all the grand children except for Linnea who is working in Mexico. To Linnea I wish a very Merry Christmas and hopefully we will spend it together next year :-) Take care, enjoy and feel the miracle of Christmas.

THE COOK BOOK OF THE YEAR! This week was my last at work for a couple of weeks. I have, as I mentioned before, not being very well and I can't say I'm much better but I am up and I have been working this week.  Lots to do the last days of the year :-) I did miss the yearly Christmas party which consist of us all going away cooking our 3-course dinner and then voting on the best dish. We had that yesterday. I worked all day and then we had a gathering with champagne (not for me though since I drove home) and snacks. We also each year have a lottery on things I get as a bonus when I buy our office materials. So this year we had 14 different things from a digital camera to bags, different games, lamps and more. I won two prices - two weekendbags and a "örtvagga" a wooden thing where you shop your herbs. All of us who made the recipes, my wonderful co-workers Furthermore I won this year's cooking competition - for the 3 time in a row :-) I'm so happy ...

Yes, H.E.A.T is to headline two shows in Spain. One in Madrid and the other in Barcelona! That is after they've toured United Kingdom. I don't know if I'm able to go to Barcelona to see them but it would be so nice :-) I'll have to work on that. More that has happened since I last wrote - last weekend Hasse and I spent on our favorite hotel. Saturday evening we ate julbord (Christmas table) which is like a smorgasbord but more into Christmas dishes. Wonderful and so good. It's just a pity I can't do it justice because I can't eat that much. We did have a wonderful time, as always, and we relaxed and had a good time. Although very much winter here in Stockholm there were quite a lot of boat traffic on the sea. Many go on julbord-cruises which is nice. On Sunday we went home again but I went back to town after changing clothes to go on a Christmas concert with Peter and Matilda (who performed at our jubilee in August), The concert was enormously good...

We have the last days had so cold weather, freezing, -17 down to -20C but last night snow struck! This morning I went, as usual, with my little blue car to work. It was a lot of snow but here in Väsby they have ploughed so it was OK. They had warned all day yesterday of the big blizzard that was coming and they had issued a Class 2 warning which is high since we only have a scale of 1-3. Our carport, notice the street outside, nothing ploughed Anyway I came safely to work and it was a bit more snow than at home but still managable. But then just an hour later it started! And how it started - in one hour I could hardly see my car. The plough did their job at 7.30AM but at 8.30 you couldn't see they had been there. Snow up the window Chaos is the word to describe Stockholm today. No planes could land or take-off so Arlanda is practically closed. SJ (the railway) tell people not to go by train. The subway is working but with very big delays. Buses in Stockholm stand still....

Today is 1st Advent and though my back is still hurting I could get through our traditional celebrations. That is we invite the H.E.A.T family including the guys, girlfriends, parents, siblings and other friends ;-) This year they could actually be here almost all of them. Last year, if you remember, they were recording their record and couldn't attend. Some of the guys from H.E.AT with girlfriends Then only one and his family that couldn't come today was Erik G and his family but that is because he turns 25 tomorrow and they were having a family celebration for him. HAPPY BIRTHDAY in advance Erik Me, Hasse, Dave, Annie, Bernt and Brita  The first guests arrived at 1PM and the last ones left at 4.15PM but it was never crowded because people came and left at different times. At one time all 30 were in place and it was crowded but oh so nice. Lot of chatting, drinking glögg which were everything from 0% alcohol til much more..... Also I had coffee, "snittar...