Family reunion, the reason why we are here

It feels like it has been a long hiatus from this blog and the internet, and my computer fingers are itchy. But really it was only a week away from Bonn - a week of family in Sweden.

Like a lot of families, Olof’s brothers and sisters get together for a long weekend each summer for a family reunion. It has not always worked out that we can join the clan meeting, since we have to fly half way around the world to get there. And this year we were still on the fence, even though we are now only a two hour flight away.

By now the house saga is passé, but when we had to book tickets for our trip, we were in the midst of house uncertainty and I could hardly imagine going on “vacation” from it. Fortunately that was sorted out, and we decided to go up to Sweden to frolic with the siblings.

Unfortunately we had waited so long to make this decision that the tickets had gone from very cheap to very expensive. Ah well, the “it is only money” concept kicked in and family overrode that worry. After all, the reason we moved to Germany in the first place was to be in Europe and closer to Olof’s family, right?

Because the kids and I have very little to do here in Bonn we decided to take the opportunity to stay a few extra days and while Olof would return to our not too thrilling temporary apartment and back to work.

I have to say I was rather hesitant at the idea of spending four additional days in Sweden with the kids and a mix of various brother- and sister-in-laws and their kids, without Olof as my buffer.

It turned out to be a fantastic decision all the way around, and everyone had a great time, despite the rainy days. Olof’s family is an amazing group of thoughtful, genuinely kind and extremely generous people, who also love a good party in the rain.

We arrived rather late on Thursday night to Stockholm and were whisked up directly by brother Sven (yes they really do have names like Sven in Sweden), and his youngest son Peter and drove two hours to their summer house in the Swedish countryside. There were several family members already there, oldest brother Anders and his wife Eva, Sven’s wife Kerstin, and a smattering of their children.

Another amazing thing about this family is that food and beds seem to appear from nowhere, and as if by magic a beautiful dinner appeared and warm beds for the kids were prepared. It is Swedish fairy land in this little red house with white trim and summer lights that don’t dim until past midnight.

By Friday more family had arrived, youngest brother Martin and his wife Camilla, and his 2 kids who match ours in ages very well – Anton and Oskar. The cousins sized each other up and quickly discovered they had enough in common to disappear for pretty much the rest of the weekend. Sister Sara came with her youngest daughter Lisa, who is 8 and relieved Louise of the being the only girl in the 7-9 age range.

At some point some of the older neices and nephews(now in their twenties) brought out enough paintball equipment to suit up 6 people and we took turns shooting each other in the forest – so much for the peacenik Swedes. The looks of glee on the kids' faces when Olof let them test the weapons too, was scary and precious at the same time.

All my hard work at the anti-gun campaign up in smoke!

By Saturday everyone had arrived. Oldest sister Maria, her sons, and the parents of the whole group Eric and Margareta and Kerstin’s mother came with baskets fresh baked cinnamon buns for everyone. All in all we were 32 people, and it was turning out to be an amazing day.

By the time we started to get ready for dinner and planned to seat everyone, the sky opened up and the torrential rains came. But that did not stop this experienced crowd – up came the tarps and the feast went on. And on. And on. I was probably the first in bed at around 2:00!

On Sunday Olof had to go back home, but not before a group of us took a quick trip into the forest for my absolute favorite Swedish activity, picking mushrooms. For anyone who has not tried a Cantrell mushroom, I am so sorry for you. They are beautiful yellow gems that grow hidden in the forest among the trolls and fairies. And when you find them it is like a pirate finding treasure. The kids were great at hunting them down and shouting out at every discovery.

Now my ramblings must end, and I have not even mentioned the fantastic days that we spent at Maria’s summer house, the visit to the silver mine, and the days at Sven’s home in Uppsala, the town where Olof and I lived for almost 7 years! But you get the idea, we had a wonderful trip with family and there is a clear affirmation of having moved to Europe to be closer to this wonderful group of relatives.