Update

OK. Time to contribute. Back from Finland and Sweden. It was about as short a trip across the Atlantic as one would want to make. We left on Wednesday night and arrived on Thursday morning. While Oscar was well-behaved, he was quite a handful. Upon our arrival, we immediately boarded a plane to Helsinki. It was a quick flight on the airline that Franco owns. Our stay with Lena's dad was short. We had lunch and then took a nap. That evening we had dinner with them and Lena's aunt and uncle. Boy the food in Finland is bad. The conversation was a little thin too since noone really speaks English. I just tried to be pleasant. Oscar was up in the middle of the night and so Lena and I took turns taking care of him. This in fact is what we had to do every night as Oscar just never got onto a Scandinavian schedule. In the end, that was a good thing because last night he slept through the night. Anyway, we left for Stockholm early Friday morning and went straight to Jan & Carina's house. After a nap, we went to town and walked around. The weather was awful though it wasn't nearly as cold as it is now in Chicago. That evening we had dinner with Jan & Carina and three of Carina's friends that came to town for the party. Jan had proposed to Carina the day before so everyone was in good spirits especially Carina who is now sporting a huge rock as well as new earrings to match. The next day was the party. It started at 2 pm at the Theatre Grill which is an old restaurant near the theater were Bergman et al all got started. It was quite nice. There were about 100 people there and everyone was in their finest. We started with Glogg. Then champagne and canapes. Lunch was lamb and fine red wine. Dessert was berries and cream served with cognac. Like my wedding, there were toasts throughout though none were in English so I couldn't understand a word. After dinner, we went next door to a private club called Toppen. It is owned by the king's best friend and is where they hold court. It is quite nice. Having started at 2 and it now being 7, everyone was in high spirits. The party ended about nine but most people then went to Bistro Jarl which is my favorite restaurant and where I took everyone for my bachelor party. The owner was with us so we basically took over the whole place. Lena and I only stayed for a bit though long enough for me to have the caviar dish I like so much. We were fast asleep when everyone returned. On Sunday, we woke up late and didn't even get to see the sun. It is quite depressing at this time of year as the sun never gets very high in the sky and it is only daylight for about 6 hours. I don't know how I am going to stand it if we live there. Anyway, we went to Hotel Bern for brunch and then did some Christmas shopping at NK. We had dinner with Helen and Franco and then went back to Jan and Carina's. The next day Oscar and I flew home. Oscar slept most of the flight and as I said through the night as well. Lena is staying another week and spending the weekend in London. She met with her company today in order to try to come to some arrangement about going back to work. Not sure how it went but she says it went well. Dad is still staying with us and picked us up at the airport. Our babysitter is taking care of Oscar today and on Thursday and Dad is taking care of Oscar on Wed and Fri. Lena gets back on Monday and then we are having a Glogg party on Sat at our house. That means we have to get the tree and everything up before then. We are not going anywhere for the holidays but it should still be fun. We of course, welcome any visitors at any time. I am writing this at the end of the day at work and am now headed home. Goodnight.