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In Swedish in America, USA

Our Thanksgiving 2018

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

Good Morning and Happy (day after) Thanksgiving! Hope you are doing awesome!
Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day here in America. We slept in a little, cause why not:) I woke up with a cold sore on my nose (fifth one since August, what is going on?) and I was quite upset about it at first, but when Jim came home from the grocery store with coffee from donut delight he bought on the way home, I decided to forget about it and be happy instead, even if I could feel the pain. 
We watched the Thanksgiving Parade on tv with our coffees. Marching band after marching band, they all sound the same and I don’t see the point, but that’s very American I guess. After that, we put our workout clothes on and went down to the gym.

We started cooking around noon. Jim bought a small turkey breast this time, it took about 2.5 hours in the oven. Lauren came over at some point to drop off a few things and then took Thor for a walk. Jim watched football. When it was getting closer for the bird to be done, I started cooking the other food. We had mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots and peas, gravy, stuffing, cranberry and biscuits. Very simple but it was perfect for us.
Jim didn’t get to play football last year on Thanksgiving and I think that was the first year ever he missed it, so I told him to play with Thor, so after dinner we went down to the lobby. A British family that we know here was down there. Their daughter just learned to walk kinda so she was walking after Thor barking back at him. Eventually lots of people showed up, so we had to bring Thor home. 
We had pumpkin pie that we bought at a bakery nearby, played some rounds of HIVE (a two player strategy game) and then watched football for the rest of the night.
Very relaxing day actually. And I love this kind of cooking, cause you can clean up while you’re waiting on something to be done and it’s easy cleanup after the meal, so our kitchen was basically clean the whole time which I like. I hate when there’s a mess:) 

Jim is working from home today. Nice to have him home even if we are only sitting by our computers. I made coffee, had some leftover food for breakfast, watched a youtube video and now I have things to do on my laptop. L might come over this morning again to borrow Thor for a walk. T makes everyone happy and people are always asking us if they can take care of him or take him for walks, maybe we should take advantage of that more, hahah. 
I hope you’ll have a wonderful weekend. Be thankful for what you have and let your loved ones know that you care about them. 
Hugs / F

God morgon och Happy (dag efter) Thanksgiving! Hoppas du har det awesome!
Igar var det Thanksgiving Day har i Amerika. Vi tog en liten sovmorgon, varfor inte lixom:) Jag vaknade med “munsar” pa nasan (femte sedan augusti, vad pagar egentligen?) och jag var ganska upprord over det forst, men nar Jim kom hem fran mataffaren med kaffe fran donut delight han kopt pa vag hem, bestamde jag mig for att glomma det och va glad istallet, aven om jag kunde kanna smartan.
Vi tittade pa Thanksgiving Parade pa tv med vara kaffen. Marching band efter marsching band, de later alla detsamma och jag ser inte poangen, men det ar valdigt Amerikanskt antar jag. Darefter satte vi pa oss traningsklader och gick ner till gymmet.
Vi borjade laga mat runt lunchtid. Jim kopte ett litet kalkonbrost den har gangen, det tog ca 2,5 timmar i ugnen. Lauren kom aver en stund och lamnade nagra saker och tog sedan Thor pa promenad. Jim tittade pa football. Nar det narmade sig for fageln att bli klar, borjade jag laga den andra maten. Vi hade potatismos, grona bonor, morotter och artor, sas, stuffing, tranbar och biscuits. Mycket simpelt men det var perfekt for oss.
Jim fick inte spela football forra aret pa Thanksgiving och jag tror att det var forsta aret nagonsin han missade det, sa jag sa till honom att spela med Thor, sa efter middagen gick vi ner till lobbyn. En brittisk familj som vi kanner har var dar nere. Deras dotter larde sig nyligen att ga, sa hon gick efter att Thor och skallde tillbaka pa honom. Sa smaningom dok mer folk upp, sa vi var tog med oss Thor hem.
Vi at pumpkin paj som vi kopt pa ett bageri i narheten, spelade nagra rundor av HIVE (ett strategispel for tva spelare) och tittade sedan pa football resten av kvallen.
Mycket avkopplande dag faktiskt. Och jag alskar den har typen av matlagning, for du kan stada upp medans du vantar pa att nagot tilllagas och det ar latt att stada upp efter maltiden, sa varat kok var i princip rent hela tiden vilket jag gillar. Jag hatar nar det ar rorigt:)

Jim jobbar hemifran idag. Trevligt att fa ha honom hemma aven om vi bara sitter vid vara datorer. Jag gjorde kaffe, at lite rester till frukost, tittade pa en youtube video och nu har jag saker att gora pa min laptop. L kanske kommer over denna morgon igen for att lana Thor for en promenad. T gor alla glada och folk fragar oss alltid om de kan fa ta hand om honom eller ga pa promenader, kanske borde vi dra nytta av det mer, hahah.
Jag hoppas att du far en underbar helg. Var tacksam for vad du har och lat dina nara och kara veta att du bryr dig om dem.
Kramar / F

In Connecticut, Stamford, USA

Shopping, creativity & a Thanksgiving Parade

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

Hello friends! How was your weekend? We had a pretty relaxed one which was very nice after two weekends away. I don’t remember what we did on Friday, haha. We went out for food and then I think we finished watching A Series of Unfortunate Events (such a weird tv-show, can’t tell if it’s for kids or grownups or a mix of both..but the baby is funny).

Hahaha, Thor, too cute!
“It’s freaking cold outside”

On Saturday morning, we drove to Norwalk to Home Depot and Walmart. I had a few things I wanted to find for Christmas decoration, but man, these stores here in NY and CT, they have very boring stuff and way overpriced. But we did find a wreath for the door that I loved (it was cheap too), some garlands for the stairs and a new sweater for Thor:) We need new candles which was the main reason for our shopping, but all the stores either has the fake ones or the smelly ones in glass jars, and I want just regular normal unscented candles. We bought a bunch at ikea when we moved here and they have lasted for a long time, but I don’t feel like going all the way there for candles (it’s a 1-1.5 hour drive). We went to Bed Bath & Beyond and Michaels too here in Stamford on Sunday to find it, but nope. 

Anyway. I don’t actually remember what we did on Saturday either (exciting days, eyh). We worked out, ate sausage, watched the movie The Dictator (such a stupid movie) and I think that’s it.

On Sunday we went grocery shopping + looked for candles. Picked up coffee and had to drive forever to be able to get home. They had blocked off every road due to the parade, even on roads that wasn’t even a part of it. Talk about bad for the environment by having all these cars lined up driving all around the city for no reason trying to get home. So stupid.
In the afternoon, after our coffees, we did actually walk down to the parade. It was the end of it. We didn’t enjoy it very much last year (J didn’t even remember that we went to it), so we didn’t expect much this year. But we thought, why not, we have nothing else to do. But oh boy, people suck. I had to hold Thor in my arms a lot. There were plenty of small children and small dogs, but people didn’t care, they just walked all over them not looking where they were going and strollers kept running over their feet and paws. The parade was same crap as last year.

Back home, I created what’s probably the worlds ugliest teepee ever made for Thor, hahaha. I had stuff laying around in the storage room that I wanted to get rid of but I thought it was more fun to try to be creative. Well, fail! Hhaha, but whatever, I tried:)

And then it was football Sunday. In between some games that J wanted to see, I started Sims3 on play station and created a house that I picture us buying/building in the future. It was easier that way than sketching it out on paper:) Jim watched the bears game all night and I hung out in the bedroom watching youtube with a sleeping Thor by my side, cause I don’t care about football. 

Today, I overslept. I usually get up when J leaves for work, but today I wasn’t up until 9! Took T out, he puked, I had breakfast and now I have a long list of stuff to do. So bye. 

In Connecticut, Stamford

first snow

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

Blizzard all afternoon and evening yesterday. We got so much snow! But luckily it rained all night and the sun is out this morning, so hopefully it will be gone soon. 

I’m excited for this weekend. We don’t really have any plans, but I’m excited to be home. We have been gone for two weekends and even if I love to travel it will be nice to be at home just the two of us and Thor. If the two weekends had been somewhere warmer I would probably not think this way though ;P 

I have almost finished editing a Chicago movie for you guys, but it will come up on Wednesday, so stay tuned. If you haven’t checked out my Minnesota video yet, head over to >YouTube< now, leave a comment and like the video, cause it supports my channel. And if you aren’t subscribing yet, then go ahead and hit that subscribe button too while you’re at it;) 

In Chicago, Travel

early holiday weekend in Chicago

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

Blizzard outside here now:( NYC have had lots of snow all day apparently. It arrived here in CT about half an hour ago. Jim surprised me when coming home at 3pm. If I wasn’t considered an adult, I would burst out in massive crying (now I had to force the baby cry away). I’m not ready for this. Every winter I say “this will be the last cold winter” and then next year arrives and I say the same thing again. Still hoping. 

Anyway. Below is our Chicago trip. I did see some snow flakes there as well, but we were mostly just outside when going in and out of cars to drive to different places. 

We had to be on the road before 5 am. I woke up at 3 am and couldn’t fall back to sleep, but I was fine getting up an hour later anyway. Took a quick shower, got dressed, grabbed my backpack and everything went very smoothly after that. We arrived in Chicago a little bit early. Got drive-in coffees on our way to J’s moms house. We didn’t do much, just played with the dog, oh man, there’s no stop to that one year old puppy’s playtime, haha. In the afternoon, we went to a steak place for early dinner. I ordered the salmon. J’s mom and stepdad drove home and we met Bob and Sarah at a bar. We haven’t seen them since their wedding in May. They told us all about their honeymoon in Paris, aww, I want to go too! We then ended up at 350 Brewery a small place inspired by like wrestling. 

The next day, we had a mini Christmas with presents. I got some cozy slippers, a gift card and few other small things. Thor got a toy too of course:) J’s dad came to pick us up around noon and we all went to J’s grandparents house. Football Sunday, pizza, more football, taking napping turns and just spending time with each other. So nice to see everyone. When we got to J’s dads house, we just listened to music and talked for a few hours until we all decided it was time to sleep. 

I was the first one up on Monday morning. I did a 15 minute stretch in the living space and then Anna served me coffee. The two of us chit-chatted for awhile until the boys woke up. After getting ready, we drove to one place for lunch but it was too full so we went to a seafood restaurant. The shrimp appetizers were awesome. I got a cobb salad with grilled shrimp after that, yum.
We got dropped off at J’s moms house and spent the afternoon there. I was exhausted. The whole weekend I was extremely tired. I could barely stand up. Those 4 hours of sleep from Friday to Saturday screwed everything up for this weekend. Anyway. Later that night, we borrowed a car and drove to Mike and Brookes house. They moved to Chicago earlier this year and we haven’t seen their new house that they bought a year ago. They are expecting a baby girl in December so it was nice to see them before they turn into a real family:) We had deep dish pizza (which I thought I’ve had before but according to J this was my first time) and pumpkin cheesecake which was actually really good, I normally don’t like cheesecake. 

Tuesday was very relaxed. We didn’t do much at all. Just packed our stuff, hung out with J’s mom and stepdad before it was time to leave. 
Our flight was delayed for like an hour so we had some time to kill at the airport, but that was ok, because of that we missed the worst traffic in NYC so it worked out perfectly. 

A super relaxed weekend at many different places. Really nice to get some time with everyone. Since basically the very first time I met everyone on Jim’s side, I’ve felt very welcome and I really do feel like I’m part of the family.