Family time

 I've finally finished my exams, and I'm off to see my sister and her family next weekend

 specifically, my niece Dina and my nephew Andreas

 Here pictured at Easter (ahem ahem)

"Does anyone want to go to the hairdresser?"

The most glorious cherry cheeks that ever existed

Christmas 2015 at my sister's house

 My niece and nephew had a lot of christmassy energy going on

 Even though my sister had limited their number of presents this year

 Andreas, two and a half years old, will be a famous portrait photographer

 Or a famous paparazzi?

 Andreas, me and Dina waiting for the opening of presents. 

Andreas was wearing a shirt, but it disappeared.

 Some indoors skiing, trying on his sister's new ski boots and skis

 Sister helping out, documenting her brother's skills with an ipad

 "I'll film you first, then you can film me afterwards"

 Trading of skis and ipads

Andreas with his paternal grandfather (i.e. not my dad), enjoying his new books

Christmas with my sister, brother in law, and niece and nephew (respectively five and two years old) was a rollercoaster of an experience, as it is when you throw expectations, sweets, sugar, presents and late bed hours into the mix. It was so good seeing them again, and realising how much they've grown in the past two months. Also being with children at Christmas is beautiful - the past two Christmases I've spent in Colombia and Spain with all grown-ups. Being with children I get to show more of my childish side and go back to my own childhood Christmases, which is nostalgia heaven. 

Summer throwback

 To my family holiday in Tossa de Mar, Spain, in September. (Not my family on the photo).

 Where my cousin Mats was happy to be photographed at any given moment.

 My aunt Mette tried to find a hat that didn't make her children laugh.

 The mannequins were brilliant.

 I found Atlantis!

 And there were other tourists about.

 You could buy all the bathing equipment you could imagine.

And my cousin Elisa was also happy to have her photographer cousin around.

Stay tuned for more! As I'm writing, it's dark outside my window in Tromsø, the snow is whirling about, and I'm preparing to go visit my sister for Christmas. So why not look back at summer and sunshine? *Pretends it's not because she left blogging off for four months* *Coughs*.

The last photos from Cartagena

 Everything colonial and romantic

 Within the old city walls everything is too beautiful to be true (and outside it is the opposite)

 But we were living in a fairy tale and drinking tea in luxurious patios in posh hotels

 With all the flora you could imagine, all more verdant than you could capture in a photo

And with all the other tourists from all over the world

Better late than never, eh? And now, almost two months later, I'm on my way on a new holiday. The main reason I do not post here is that I try to keep my work related stuff on the youth delegate blog, and to be honest I don't take that many photos outside of work. Let's see if I manage to get some on this holiday.

The Gold Museum of Cartagena

 Had a lot of gold in it

 Mostly from the Zenú culture 

 The Zenúes were indigenous people, who of course were almost eradicated by the Spanish

 But at least some of their land has now been acknowledged as a Zenú reserve

And we get to know their culture and their art today

Tromsø Botanical Gardens

 Where I went a few weeks ago with my grandmother and dad

 To look at a flower or two

 in the world's northernmost botanic garden

on a beautiful summer's day

And mostly just sitting down, eating cake and drinking tea and coffee. My word, this is the best thing with slow Sundays. Not really doing much but enjoying the sunshine (and the cakes).

More parties because

 there should always be parties, especially family parties

 because there is so much leftover cake that we're still finishing it a week later

 and I get to be with my sister and nephew

 and one grandmother after another

 Andreas gets to sleep on his grandmother's lap

and practice his posing skills with me (we're both slow learners)

As I've mentioned a few times already, I've been spending more and more time with my family this past year or so. Ah, I suppose that's what comes from being older, and from knowing that you're going away for an extended period of time. 

One big party, my grandmother's 75th

 we started off filling the table with as much food as possible

 Including my mum's paella and my aunt's couscous salad (not pictured here)

 Before we moved on to cakes and more cakes

 more cakes, and one grandmother Eva

 then, next day, we had more food

 we picked some of the first apples of the season

 and my dad taught his granddaughter how to use a knife to peel apples

I don't have any photos from the two volleyball games we had, or from going to the beach with my cousins, my uncle and Dina to fish crabs and then throw them into the sea again, or from swimming with my niece and nephew, or playing cards with my aunt and cousin, or anything else, really, because I was too busy doing it. This is a good thing. My camera mostly came out at meal times, while we were waiting for all thirteen people to sit down in one place together at the same time. We also had a lot of rain and almost-rain when we stayed inside, getting almost-bored and reading books. Anyway, a good weekend was had by all.