Reflections on "Santa Day"

Here I am, feet up on the table, stretchy pants on...  Christmas 2010, or Santa Day, as our 2 1/2-year old calls it, it almost over. It was pretty much a picture perfect Christmas, except for the fact that all that lovely snow that we got earlier this month now is gone. Oh, well. We do live in a rain forest after all. Meanwhile Sweden is under a thick blanket of snow and there were some crazy stats coming through on the web: -33 degrees Celsius in Northern Sweden, people literally snowed in in the South. That leads me to believe that I should be happy with what we've got - the ability to look out the window on snow-capped mountains and only a short 35 minute drive to one of the world's most premier ski resorts. Yeah, that will do!

Right now the whole family is kicking back after two days of celebrating: Swedish Christmas with all the fixings (including Tomten, Swedish Santa, coming to our house to hand out the presents, Donald Duck at 3 pm and lots and lots of food!) on the 24th, Canadian Christmas on the 25th. Boxing day has been a day of rest and recovery and now we are looking forward to one more week of school holidays, for Bella at least. I have an other exam coming up and not enough time was spent studying these last few weeks, so I've got some catching up to do....

O me, o my - it seems obvious that blogging wasn't my passion in 2010. Four lousy little posts in nearly a year! Well, the thing is that a) I guess I am not that big of a narcissist that I need to constantly update people on what is going on in my life and b) life sure was busy in 2010!

My last post was right before the Olympics started. What a wild time that was! I am still suffering from post-podium depression and have secretly been eyeing up opportunities at London 2012. Having dual citizenship mean lots of advantages, one of them being the ability to work anywhere within the EU (the other being double chances of winning gold in hockey!). So... technically I could go. Logistically it would be a bit harder, but dreaming is problem free, so here's to London 2012 and my involvement in it!

Being part of the Olympic experience was monumental. Long work days, lots of hurry up and wait, met so many wonderful and inspiring people, lots of laughs and a few tears. The energy in Vancouver and Whistler was tangible, and what made me the proudest was the constant comments on how friendly and caring all the volunteers were. A French athlete told me that this was his most memorable Games ever, due to the welcoming attitude and the happy faces that surrounded him on an every day basis, where ever he went and what ever he did.

The "big" Winter Olympic countries definitely meant more business than the smaller ones. The athletes were focused and driven and had very little time for a friendly smile or a hello. Until their competitions were over, that is. The further into the Games we got, the bigger the smiles, the smaller the nerves. One section of WVL should have been named Serious Street, while others were more along the line of Happy, Go Lucky and Easy Street.

It truly was amazing being part of it all and I can't wait to give it another go some time in the future.

Other than that, the spring of 2010 included my husband going away during the weeks and left me to single-parent while keeping up a busy course load. Since he was away anyway, I took the girls home to Sweden for a month. While in Sweden, we also went to Gotland, the island in the Baltic Sea where I used to go to University - and where I still am attending University through cyberspace. I hadn't been back in so long and it was a great feeling of home-coming to walk the narrow cobble streets once more. At least once a year I have an urge to move back. Thank goodness for Hemnet, where I go to get my Gotland-fix!

The summer and fall went by in a blur. Our oldest daughter started attending the new Elementary program at Squamish Montessori and we are amazed at the things she is learning. The most important thing though is how she is loving learning, and that is in no doubt because of the fabulous teacher she has. I have had many great teachers along the way (and some really crummy ones as well), so I know just how important, and hard to find, a magnificent teacher is. I consider ourselves so lucky for having Nikolai in our daughter's life. The man is amazing and it is absolutely mind-blowing how he manages to inspire his students to go above and beyond.

Well, the snow is falling outside, there are bear tracks in our back yard and our deck, Christmas (or Santa Day, as the youngest one calls it!) is only four days away. Here's hoping for a white Christmas, a happy and healthy New Year and peace and joy to all!