Lydia came home from school today bearing the news that we fell down on the job as class parents. Apparently the class parents for the other two first-grade classes took goodies to the school for their respective classes this morning, but the poor red group got nothing. Lydia was quite upset at the unjustice of it all, so I said that maybe we could take something in tomorrow. She thought that was a good idea, so I called her teacher and arranged to go in tomorrow at ten o’clock with treats. The other class mother called me shortly after that, and we decided to break up the treat-taking, so I’ll be taking cinnamon rolls and candy canes, and Magda’s mother will have a cake and juice. I just took the cinnamon rolls out of the oven, and they smell heavenly. It’s a good thing they’re already spoken for, or I’d eat way more than I should.

After we leave the school tomorrow, Olof and I will drive an hour north to Piteå to go to the Western Union office and pick up the Christmas money my dad sent last weekend. I have no idea why we don’t have a Western Union outlet in Skellefteå, since nearly every other town in Sweden seems to have one. Anyway, I think it will be kind of fun to get out for a drive and maybe do a bit of shopping in a different town. Olof’s not especially looking forward to it, though, for some reason (mostly weather-related, I think). It’s so weird to me that we’ve lived here for almost two years, and I’ve been to Piteå only once — it’s just an hour’s drive. That’s so European, not to drive long distances without a special reason. Back in the States, an hour’s drive is nothing, and going for a drive actually qualifies as an activity.