While living in Geneva, Switzerland for a couple of years after college, I was introduced to American Thanksgiving dinners – and to the term “leftovers.” Thanksgiving was celebrated at a friend’s house. Typically, we had a couple of turkeys, a mop bucket (new) of mashed potatoes, cornbread, stuffing, a large number of pumpkin pies and some local food, like baguettes, to feed the 40 something guests. The house was packed but who cared as long as all the hungry grad students got fed and we all had a good time. The next day, a couple of us would go back around lunch time, help cleaning up and sit down for a relaxed lunch of leftovers. Same food, but a very different atmosphere.

That’s about how I feel about the continuation of our first blogaversery that I promised a couple of weeks ago, but I will keep my promise, so here are some short comments on some of last year’s blog posts.
Halloween and stocking-stuffer seasons are by far our busiest. That’s the time of year when there is a lot of darkness and people are concerned about being seen in traffic at night. However, without the darkness, many Scandinavian pre-Christmas traditions would not exist. The blog post “Lovely Darkness” cherish the Swedish Lucia tradition, but also lists when it gets dark in different North American cities that night (December 13th). Check it out and compare to your schedule. How many nights a week are you on your way home from work or have other activities going on after sunset?
Holiday guides are popular and abundant in November and early December. There will be new ones available in just a couple of months with all the hottest trends, so let’s leave that for now.
Early March, I was sooo ready for real spring! (Who in Chicago isn’t?)  While I was typing along on a blog post about it, I was blessed with a headline popping up on my facebook wall: “Uninstalling Winter“. Little did I expect that it was such a common search term, even in July. I hope whoever found this blog that way got a fun break from their difficulties to uninstall winter software!
During summer, we wrote how important it is to have reflectors (and lights) on bikes and a helmet on your head. I hope the person who asked google “do i need to leave reflectors on a new bike” figured out that it’s indeed a very good idea to leave them on!
In June, Swedish American Mamma asked why pedestrian safety reflectors are so Scandinavian/Swedish and when digging a bit, it turned out to be a lot more to it than “It is darker over there in the winter”. You can read about it here.
Now, we are back to when new back-to-school backpacks need to be personalized to go home with the right kid (and the nights come noticeably earlier every week) so I’m off to pack and ship to some of our old and new wholesale customers!
So long,
Elisabeth