Giving Thanks

For the Thanksgiving Holiday Dale, Emma, Mom, and I drove over to Grand Junction to stay at a beautiful giant house on the top of Colorado Monument. We stayed with my Aunt Wendy, Uncle Wes, Cousin Crystal and her Husband Dan and their Daughter Danica. It was sooo nice to spend some time together, it had been way too long since we'd done that! On Thanksgiving my Grandma, her husband, my Uncle, Aunt, her mom, my cousin, and his girlfriend all came over and we had quite the feast! I think it's safe to say a good time was had by all!

Snyder Family Thanksgiving 2010

My Grandma and my second cousin, beautiful ladies!

After we drove back to Denver (with only a short stop at the Silverthorne outlets to cure our black Friday shopping urge), Dale and I headed over to his parents house and had faux-thanksgiving with his parents, brother, and Aunt and Uncle. It was great to spend sometime with his family too. This week was a much needed break but now it's back to the grindstone until we are out of here. Hope everyone out there had a great Thanksgiving too!
Love Always,
Matilda

Progress

Things are moving right along for our pending move to Stockholm. Dale's got a job, I'm getting close to having a job, we've applied for our visas, and the paperwork for our housing is being processed. I've begun using Rosetta Stone to learn Swedish. It's completely different from English and one unit down I can already tell learning the language is going to be one of the hardest parts of moving over seas. For example, I don't understand is "Jag förstår inte" see?! No resemblance to English at all. I'm hoping I'll at least know enough Swedish to be able to get around by the time we move. I've heard 90% of Swedes speak English but I'd still like to learn Swedish and I have a life goal to be bi-lingual so this is the perfect chance!

We've also been going through the house donating unneeded items and selling bigger things on craigslist. It's sad to see some of the stuff go, like the tandem Dale and I restored, but mostly it's surprising how much unnecessary stuff we have. While I've been busy with all of this, Dale's been working his tale off trying to complete his research project, revise his thesis, and schedule his defense. So, we're both making good progress and even though we're still over a month away from the move I'm starting to get really excited! And also a bit sad to say goodbye to all my friends and family!

Here's a map of Stockholm I've customized for you all:

View Matilda's Stockholm in a larger map

Love Always,
Matilda