Thank you 2023 - bring on 2024!

On this last day of 2023 I wish you all love, light and happiness for the new year!

Let's make 2024 a GOOD year! There are a lot of exciting things on the horizon for us, and - as I have always liked symmetry and even numbers, 2024 certainly looks good!! Happy New Year to all our friends, near and far!

End of year lunch

I only worked very few days in December, between having visitors, travelling, having the family here and Christmas celebrations. I was lucky though to be at work for the Team Lunch organised to celebrate the end of the year.

Nice to hang out and break bread, especially in the beautiful weather we are having at the moment. Lunch under the dome of Louvre Abu Dhabi, one of my favourite things!

Taking on Cube challenges

On Boxing Day I had booked us in to something I had read really good reviews about, a family outing in the city. We didn't tell the kids where we would be going, just told them to wear comfortable clothes and sneakers.

We went to spend a couple of hours at Cube at Reem Mall. A really cool gaming experience, a mix between Escape Rooms and Fort Boyard!

It consist of 32 different rooms with timed challenges that you take on as a team. They were a good mix between physical challenges, mental challenges, skills challenges and horror themed. It was very high tech, and really well done.

Team Yippee:

We had SO much fun! It was really a fun morning!
We crawled through laser beams, climbed tyres, slung ourselves in ropes; challenged our maths, our geographical knowledge, our memory and our logic thinking. We were throwing basket balls, kicking footballs and aiming sling shots. There was something for everybody, but my favourite challenges were the ones where we had to work together!

Strongly recommend!

Christmas Day 2023

Christmas Day was a really quiet day for us. We spent all day at home, starting of course with coffee and our gifts in the morning. Again, there was a mountain of presents under the tree, and I'm not quite sure how that happened..!

The kids had really done well with their gifting this year (again), Linnea had bought Lucas both some Spiced Chai (his new favourite drink) and a Christmas mug in London. She had also got him a Santa for his Christmas tree.

Mormor & Morfar had sent down the cookbook of all cookbooks, 'Rutiga Kokboken', and a couple of cooking Santas for his collection. We also all received (yes, even Linnea now) our own copy of the family wall calendar.

Lucas and Nathan also had "got each other" the same Icebreaker sweaters:

And of course there was the usual underwear and socks presents being opened as well.
The food theme continued for Nathan as I had got him a new pepper mill in Sweden, and Linnea had bought him some Festive Coffee and truffle powder in London. Funnily enough, Nathan had bought me new salt- and pepper mills too! Great minds think alike!

He also got a cookie jar full of snaps (!) from Mormor & Morfar, and a Pop Funk figure, from Linnea:

Mormor & Morfar had also got Linnea a Santa, and silver earrings:

Linnea continued to score big though, as many of the things she had found herself in London ended up being Christmas gifts, make-up, jewellery, clothes and a hand bag. So not many surprises there, although she hadn't noticed I had bought her some London-themed Christmas tree decorations and Harrods tea:

Nor did she know about the Dyson Airwrap..! Thinking she will be moving to Uni next year, she cannot keep using (stealing) mine.

I was spoiled too. I got a book about Monet, some perfume, santas for my collection, a cool art themed deck of cards and a fun puzzle from Mormor & Morfar, with a Skara motif on it!

I also received the biggest gift of them all, a new computer!

Lucas and his girlfriend Tove had also done really well with their gifts. Lucas gifted Linnea some much wished for make-up, and Tove had got her a sweatshirt that already has been put to use. I received a Chinese soap and a lipstick (in my best colour!), and above all, we all got very sweet and personal Christmas cards from Tove, as she was supposed to be here but ended up changing plans and now is not coming until after New Year.

Tove and Lucas' gift to Nathan had been the source of all the curiousity up to Christmas, as it was HUGE! Apparently they hadn't been aware of its size when they bought it, ha ha, so poor Lucas had to transport it here as special luggage! It was a to-go bar, a portable cool box which doubles as a table! Perfect!

For some reason I didn't get a single photo of our Swedish julbord, but we had all the goodies! I had schlepped two suitcases back the week before returning from Sweden!
Instead, you get the yearly Christmas family photo:

Merry Christmas to all!

Julafton 2023

This year we topsy-turved our Christmas celebrations a bit as we were celebrating with the Turners, and Will was going to fly on Christmas Day.
So instead of having Swedish julbord on the 24th and turkey-dinner on the 25th as per usual, we did it the other way around!

Obligatory group photo, good to have the Turners with us, even Hannah who had come out from Bath. We were missing Ben of course, who had decided to stay in NZ for Christmas this year.

This year we had ordered a turkey box from Springbok Butchery, after the disappointment with Festive Hamper from the Westin two years ago, which barely managed to feed us all one serving.
Let's just say, we got enough food this time..! Oh. My. Lord. We had certainly over ordered, but isn't that was Christmas is about, ha ha, turkey left-overs forever after?

It was all really, really tasty! A great meal had by all! Turkey, ham and all the trimmings, om nom nom!

Tash had prepared a fantastic dessert platter which we enjoyed while watching 'Die Hard'. What better activity after a huge Christmas meal!

God Jul!

Toasting exciting news!

The week before Christmas something really exciting happened - exciting for us, personally, but also for Abu Dhabi. The FIRST brewery in the United Arab Emirates opened, Craft by Side Hustle.
(And as you can hear by the name, we play a very small part in its materialisation, as we are some of the founding investors of Side Hustle.)

We were invited for a private event prior to the soft opening, and it was so special to now see it all being up and running, as we have followed this project closely from the very beginning. We are so incredibly proud and impressed by all the hard work Chad (and Kristen, holding down the fort at home) has put into this. He has assembled a great team, and the result is fabulous!

To have this UAE-first here in Abu Dhabi is super exciting!
The news of this first commercial beer brewery in the UAE was picked up even across the pond, by several American news outlets. It really is HUGE!
The brewery was made possible by a rule change in 2021, when Abu Dhabi allowed license holders to ferment alcoholic beverages for consumption onsite. The plan is to brew about 75 different beers next year, and at any chosen time have 5-10 different kinds on tap.

The head chef Troy comes from Australia, but the food is mostly southern Louisiana inspired. We had tasters of different starters and mains, and I can tell you - it ALL was so, so good!

The restaurant has a view of the brewing equipment, and a well-stocked bar which also includes the Side Hustle spirits. I had some yummy cocktails, as I'm not really a huge beer-fan.

We had a great night! Looking forward to many more!

2023 Xmas Tree decorations

As every year, I got to add some new decorations from our travels to my Christmas Tree. First up, I bought a Thor's Hammer while in Kolding this summer.

Then I received as a gift this cool bauble from our friends Lars & Dorte when they came to visit. It is of their most famous attraction back home, Koldinghus.

I bought this beautiful, hand painted porcelain one in Florence:

And from the trip to London, I picked up a bauble in Harrods, and a red telephone box!

Finally I received two more presents, from my friend Kathleen. Not travel related as such, but who doesn't like popcorn!?

Meanwhile back home

Lucas beat me back to Abu Dhabi with a few days, he arrived on Friday for his long Christmas break. While I spent my last day in Sweden on the train traveling from Skara to Malmö, they had some pretty special visitors that were passing through for the afternoon:

Misuzu, Luca and Ashley had come to Dubai for a few days holiday, and as they were flying back home to Singapore from Abu Dhabi, they stopped in at ours.
Sorry to have missed them with just one day, as it's been such a long time since last time, but that's how it goes sometimes. At least some of the family got to see them!

Hopefully we'll see them back here in Abu Dhabi again within not too long..!

Christmas in Skara

I spent a few days in Skara with my parents. It is always nice to get a bit of proper Christmas feeling there. Even though the snow melted away day by day, inside it was warm and cosy.
Mormor put up her tree, with all her red baubles:

And her Santa Village of course. This year with a few new additions, like this town clock I had found for her in Florence, and some houses that Lucas had bought for her in Amsterdam. She had put them together with the ones Linnea and I found in Brussels, to create a bit of a European corner!

She also had a new orchestra in the town market:

We also went to the Lucia celebrations in the Skara Cathedral on the 13th. A beautiful concert, that really moves me so much each time. Especially when it's a super traditional concert, like this years.

So glad I got to see it this year as well.