Sweden holidays 2012 - Part 4: The annual Crayfish Party

Starting from August, it is a strong tradition in Sweden to eat Crayfish and to throw Crayfish parties. My family is no different and this year, we brought Danny and Caroline with us to mom's and Kalle's place to what could have been a potentially shocking experience for them: To meet my entire family all in one go! ....but besides Danny's headache later in the evening and my lumbago, everything went very smoothly and we had a great time =))

People starting to gather around

Chris got a present from my uncle Tomas.....

.....a Swedish childrens book (Plupp och älgen), so he can practice his Swedish ;))

Madde, me and Danny

For the first time, I am clearly winning the "who has the biggest belly competition" ;)) Hahahaaaa!

The kids were enjoying time in the pool

Tobbe and his cute daughter Thea

Me trying to convince my niece Cindy that she should try the pool....but she's not stupid...as you can see, she is checking the water temperature ;))

My brother and Cindy

Hot tub time!! (trust me, needed after the pool ;))

Chris and me

Chris trying on this rescue suit.....

......in the water! It worked btw! He floated ;))

Food time!! Fresh shrimps =p

...and the most essential part of the Crayfish dinner - The Crayfish!

Caroline and Danny

My uncle is always up to no good ;)) Here he's giving Chris and Danny some horrendously looking shot!

Let the eating begin!!

Boys talk

....another tradition in my family is the games that go along with our parties! Always arranged by my mom =))

Caroline and Danny against each other in the "soap shooting" game

Here my dad and my auntie are competing! The aim is to bounce the pencil on the rubber and make it land inside the cup! Not as easy as it may seem ;))

.....and Madde was the well deserved winner!!

Caroline vs. Paula in "Banana golf" ;))

xox

Dear diary...

I just realised that the weekend starts tomorrow.....and I had no idea! WOW! This is what happens when you have been on sick-leave for a week (can also be the med's?!) - you really loose track of time!

Anyway, this is good news! Especially for all the people who have a week behind them of hard work.

Allthough that doesn't apply to me right now, I'm also happy that the weekend is just around the corner!

Why? Well I am thankfully not the only Swede in Schaffhausen....there are more of us!

These Swedes happen to be a GREAT and funny bunch of people, who I really really like, and this Saturday we will have a traditional Swedish "Crayfish party" (kräftskiva in Swedish) and I am soooo excited about this! (I am SOOOO hoping we will have funny hats!)

Things like this make it a little easier to be far away from home...

Now I would lie if I said I wasn't a little worried about how I'm gonna be able to pull this off in my condition, but one of the girls said that they'd come get me on a stretcher if I can't get there on my own. Probably that was not meant litteraly - but it was still a very sweet offer. Don't you agree? ;)

Anyway.... I am hopeful and I have to eat something on Saturday anyway! I can just skip the traditional snaps and focus on the food and on taking pictures.

I have been put in charge of baking the special cheese-pie called "Västerbottenostpaj", (for which I have a very specific helper in mind who's name I won't mention ;)) and arranging some games! Can not mention which games here in case any of the guests are reading my blog, but will tell you all about it later.... The good thing about being the arranger of the game this time is that I can't participate myself which suits my back just peachy!

Today has been a very warm and sunny day here in Schaffhausen and even though I can't be

outside much to enjoy it to the max - it still makes me very happy to see the sun shining!

...and by the way, the view from my window isn't half bad as you can see in this picture.

As I am a quite sentimental person, I spend a lot of time reflecting on the past and analysing things that have happened to me or my near and dear ones. This morning especially....but like a sign (or probably just being darn lucky!) I again stumbled on another quote that made me realise that I spend way too much time on dwelling on things that just can't be changed! These wise words are from Deepak Chopra:

"I release the past to open myself to the future. When I let go of the known (my past) I accelerate the process of evolution"

Time for me to dwell on that instead and think about all the opportunities I have to make a great future! I do strongly believe that we are all in charge of our own destinies...

With that said... I wish you all a very good night! Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope to see you here again soon.

xox

Linda - Lost in Switzerland AND in her own mind

Ps. To read about the swedish crayfish tradition - check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crayfish_party