Southern California in Flames

I can't believe what is transpiring here in southern California. As I'm sure you already know there are multiple fires burning ranging from LA to Santa Barbara. And today we woke up to a message saying that all of Santa Barbara School's are closed (even Goleta Unified School District is closed) due to the Thomas Fire. Over night the fire spread ranging from 90 square miles to 140 square miles due to high winds and humidity. The fire danger is 296, the highest it's ever been and there is hurricane 1 winds roaming through the mountains with strong winds on the coast too.

The air is so bad and ash is raining down all over us. So many homes have burnt down already. I can't even imagine how it would feel to have your house burn down. And right before Christmas. Obviously there is no good time for something like this but still...

Currently the fire is spreading, only 5 % is contained and it's burning only 20 minutes away from us, in Carpinteria. It seems that Summerland may be next to evacuate. Please pray for everyone here and that the fire don't reach Santa Barbara.

For a map of current fires - updated hourly click here...

Picture from our patio.

Downtown Disney

Wow, what a day it's been! All day packing and preparing all while feeling so crappy. I managed to take tons of vitamins, drink lots of water and rest a lot through it all thank god. When we finally got on the road it was about 2:30 in the afternoon. We got to the hotel about 5:30 and it was full throttle. We checked into the hotel, threw everything in there and got ready to hop on the shuttle for downtown Disney.

WOW!!! I'm so in love!!! It's completely magical and so incredibly amazing. Especially now during Christmas time. Everything is decked out to the max. The Christmas effect is in full force.

The kids are so excited and loving every minute of it. Downtown Disney is like an event in itself.

Tomorrow we head to Disneyland!!!

Sorry not the best picture quality...

Not sure why they try to do this with their mouths in like every pic now 😆

I just love these guys sooooo much 💓

Current Situation

I can't believe that I'm laying here in bed still 😩. Today we have to pack and prepare everything for our Disney trip tomorrow morning. I'm kinda freakin' out right now. Thinking about all I have to do. Eric is telling me to just rest and pack everything at like 9pm tonight. I don't like doing things last minute like that but maybe I have to. I also have to try to go to the store. Ahhhh. Or maybe we can do that on our way out of town tomorrow?

Anyhow. Laying here in bed allows me to catch up on a few blog posts. I have maaaaany more to go. But here are two I just added :).

SWEA Sing Meet in Oxnard.
Diane's 70th Birthday.

Drinking a wellness drink that I had Eric pick up. Fingers crossed!

Disneyland

Our little ones are so excited because in just a couple of days we all head down with the rest of the family to Disneyland. We are all OH SO EXCITED!!! It's been many years since I visited Disneyland. I think I was in my 20's still 🙈. Our kids have never been to Disneyland before so they are definitely in for a surprise. They are so excited they can barely stand it.

Sofia is determined to meet Ariel, Rapunzel and Elena of Avalor. Lilja wants to meet Mickey Mouse and I'm of course dying to meet Donald Duck, my big idol! He has been my favorite from the very beginning. There is no one better. 

The last time I went to Disneyland we couldn't find him. Eric was looking all over the place cause he wanted to make my dream come true. He even went into City Hall to ask for Donald. Apparently he had been in one of his moods that day so they weren't sure if he was coming out at all. We never did end up seeing him. So this time around I really want to make sure I meet him. 

Have you ever been to Disneyland? If so what is your favorite attraction? 

Click here for a Fiesta blog post that I just posted.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was so much fun. We celebrated with good friends in LA. We cooked and cooked and cooked all day for the food to be devoured in just minutes 😄 while the kids played and the guys sat around drinking beers. It's really crazy when you think about it. All that time it takes - all that food but it's literally gone in just minutes. We need to start incorporating more of the mediterranean eating style where you sit at the table for hours, drink wine, conversate. Don't you agree? At least all the cooks out there 😛? And then the hilarious tradition of the men cutting the turkey after everything is said and done. The ones that didn't lift one finger to get the feast ready 😅. 

Anyways we had a great day and I hope you did too!

These two are so cute together 💓

The feast! Not even all of it.

The cutting of the turkey!

Selfie-time

One person is always bound to look a little 'different' than the others in a pic with a lot of people, especially if the pic involves kids. Not sure what happened to little Sofia here 😅

Prep for Thanksgiving

Tomorrow we celebrate Thanksgiving here in the US. It's one of my favorite holidays. I especially enjoy the very heavy, sleep induced foods that you eat on that day. And of course giving thanks to all our blessings in our lives 😊.

I can never exactly remember the story of the first Thanksgiving, but my daughter who is five gave me a rundown of why we celebrate Thanksgiving the other day. Thank god for the little ones 😜. 

This year we are celebrating Thanksgiving together with good friends in LA. I'm so looking forward to it. So today I'm gonna run to the store and get all the ingredients for the dishes that I'm responsible for. Of course I got a cold going on right now, that came like a letter in the mail (as we say in Sweden 😄). Isn't it always like that? As soon as you relax for a little bit (Lilja doesn't have school this week so we haven't had to run out the door every morning) the sickness get a chance to come out. So annoying! But what can you do. Just power thorough. 

How are you going to celebrate Thanksgiving this year?

Aside from last year's celebration with the family we made our own Thanksgiving feast. I had never made a turkey in my life before but it came out pretty good. But gosh there is a lot of dishes to make for the Thanksgiving table. Here is a pic from last year.

Hope you all will enjoy the holiday tomorrow  😘

Diane's 70th Birhtday

Eric's mom, my mother-in-law turned 70 years old on November 19th. It's hard to believe that I have now known Diane from the time she was in her early 50s. Time goes by fast huh?!

It turned out to be such a nice, relaxing, fun birthday with friends and family. Laurie (my sis-in-law) and I took care of all the food, cleaning etc. So Diane could just relax and enjoy her birthday visiting with friends and family.

Here are some pics and videos from this lovely day 💛.

James and Mary

Lawrence - Eric's dad

Cousins 💜

Monkeys🙊🙉

SWEA Sing

As I'm sure most of you know I'm on the SWEA Board (Swedish Women Educational Association) and I'm responsible for all the members. It's so fun to be a part of the group and it keeps getting better and better the more people you meet and get to know. The age difference in SWEA SB varies from I would say late 20's to early 90's. I have to say that mingling amongst Swedish women of all ages have been such a great experience. The older ladies in the group are amazing, so fun and it's interesting to hear what they have to say about living in the US, when they first came here, their experiences in life etc. It can be very inspiring and I've learnt a lot visiting with these ladies.

Our latest event was a "sing meeting" in Oxnard at one of our members' houses, Madeleine. She was kind enough to open up her house to us. We all brought a lunch dish to share, we mingled, talked, ate and sang. Karin, a Swedish pianist was invited to play for all of us. She was amazing. Of course the songs we sang were old Swedish folk songs.

It really made you feel at home eating all the Swedish foods, and singing all the Swedish songs.

So Swedish right?! 💙

This bread was AHHHHHHMAAAAZIIING. Must get this recipe.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. Last year Lilja ended up getting sick on actual Halloween and the costume we had planned for last year was for her to be a cat.  She's been talking about her cat costume for over a year now haha so she was really happy when the time finally came for her to wear it. Since she was sick last year we already had her costume, as well as Sofia's. I had some cat ears and a tail that I threw on and all I had to do was find something for Eric. The plan was to be cats and dogs.

The dog costume selection around Santa Barbara and even online was pretty scarce. The only think I could find was a big dog onesie costume. It looks so comfortable though, and I will most likely end up wearing it like pretty much every single day around the house. Maybe even outside of the house 😝.

Here are some pics from our Halloween fun...

Of course we carved pumpkins like we do every year. It's getting to be more fun for every year that goes by as the kids are getting more involved.

Lilja had a Halloween parade during the day of Halloween that Eric was able to come to which was fun.  All the kids were so cute.

My little cat 🐱💖

Someone else got to partake in the Halloween parade festivities and of course the candy 😆

Look at all these cuties 💞

It was a busy day with Halloween trick or treating that night. But oh so fun! We're so lucky to live in the same town as Eric's sister with kids, and we normally trick or treat together. Our kids and their kids are like siblings and they love to hang out. We're blessed that they can spend this time together and share these amazing memories.

I just can't with these two 💕

I mean....

How cute is little V as Dorothy 💓

Hope you had a great Halloween!