Seven dies in Alabama severe weather

I tried to mentally prepare myself for severe weather and tornados before I moved to Alabama and while I have been living here with all the preparation information I have received, but let me tell you. Nothing can prepare one for this type of weather!!! I was ready to hide away in the bathroom with a big bottle of whiskey on Friday night - and I hate whiskey!

It all stared about 3:30 p.m. on Friday. The first sirens when off. (Sounds like our crises or old war sirens in Sweden). Here in Alabama that means we left tornado watch and now we are in tornado warnings. Meaning people have spotted tornado touch downs. While at the movies the sirens when off a couple of times and I got my phone up just to check the weather news and radar to see where they spotted these tornados. I was kind of surprised when we got out of the theater the amount of activity people still was engage in. I thought everybody rushed home to hide.

We got back to our house for dinner and about 5-10 minutes after we arrived home the sky turned black and heavy rain and wind came over the city. At the same time the sirens starts to go off again and the TV programs are cut off and important tornado message is passed out to the public. "If you are in this neighborhood take cover now take cover now." This Friday evening was filled with messages and sirens for at least three hours before it stared to calm down. At 2 a.m. the Tornado warning was degraded to a watch and a little later all warnings for our area was cancelled. It took me a while to calm down and find my self comfortable enough to go to sleep.

The result of this storm was seven died in Alabama due to the tornados. And I know I will never ever again complain about grey rainy skies in Sweden. Cause I don´t want to ever again be close to a tornado. It might be different next time since I have now have experienced it even though I was not in it. It was too close this time around... And I believe Montgomery where we live, was lucky to not get hit, considering we were in the path of many of these bad weather systems all night long.

Here are some links of Friday nights severe weather which went over Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama. As I´m listening to the news now the North Carolina has been hit badly with deaths involved.

These links are from Mississippi and Alabama.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrkzBpeybkc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfshb9_NeI4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hyQ0_4V6X0

Travel time.. New Orleans

Got to have one of these when entering the Mardi Gras night life.... and tons of beads around your neck is needed too..

New Orleans was fun! Or NOLA as they call it. The place had nice food, nice old neighborhoods like the French district. Together with a visiting college friend we drove from Alabama to Louisiana with destination New Orleans. A five hour drive, which was not too bad at all. At least when we get to stop at great outlets for some shopping ;-) We also had great weather and being in end February you just don´t know what kind of weather to expect. But we were happy with mid 70s (23-26 C).

An evening view of from Sheraton hotel down town New Orleans. From the 36th floor.

Good connection got us staying in a suite at the Sheraton down town New Orleans on the 36th floor. Great view, scary one too, since the windows were all the way down to the floor. Leaning toward the window gave one a kind of strange fee falling feeling...

The Garden district with its wonderful houses and the French architecture. We also visited this grave site where the dead is buried above ground.. I would´t want to walk there at night...

My dear college friend had been in New Orleans before and was a perfect guide and planner of the trip. I just love to be taken care of... ha ha. We walked street up and down in the French district and the Garden district and took pictures, had coffee breaks, lunch and dinner.

We were also very lucky to be able to see the first Mardi Gras parade for this year, as well as take part of the crazy party life during the New Orleans Mardi Gras festivities...

It was more than crowded. This first night of the Mardi Gras festivities.

Considering the rest of the USA being strict on rules and regulations morals and values, visiting NOLA during the Mardi Gras was the letting loose from top to bottom - a moral free zone! Big crowds, drinks and beer in plastic cups in every visitors hand walking up and down the streets. Short skirts and no shirts were applied by some.. Strippers hanging in windows and doors to gentlemen clubs, and women and men flashing to get beads. Quite interesting to watch. But I will not publish any of those pictures on my blog.... sorry!

The French market with its café and its live music and good food (might not be so healthy) but cajun and gumbo is definitely good food and a must have when visiting New Orleans. Live music bands on street corners playing - this little guy just had a handful holding his instrument.

Welcome to Plastic Lane, Non-Recycling State in the US of A.

I just must say, one of the biggest amazement I have encountered has turned out to be a cultural chock. It is regarding the way they recycle in Alabama, or just how much waste one gets by going to the store for groceries. The amount you throw away and the amount of plastic used is just unbelievable even for me, who sometimes complain loudly about the amount of recycling we have to do back in Sweden.

It is ridicules to go to the grocery store because even if I shop a little I come out from the store with tuns of plastic bags. Sometimes I wonder if I have more plastic bags with me home than I have purchased items. Were is the stores responsibility of a greener world they so highly market to their consumers with their sales of alternative fabric bags?

The world of recycling or using paper bags have not really arrived to Alabama. I am amazed that nothing is recycled here by the people. In Sweden, I have counted, I have up to 10 recycling bins just in the apartment complex we live in. In Alabama I throw everything in one big green garbage bin (which should be black instead of green, since green for me means recycling).

Someone has told me they recycle at the garbage station. Just picture this: I throw everything into my leak-proof garbage bag, than into the garbage bin which is emptied twice a week (due to the weather here in the summer time reaches 90s 104F /35-40C), after that it goes to a station where people work - sorting, picking and recycling mine and everybody else's trash. How disgusting is that!!! I hope they get paid more then well! Just the common knowledge and the general attitude among the Alabama residents and the stores about recycling makes me highly questioning it.

When I do my shopping I try to avoid products with the enormous amounts of plastic wrapping around every single item, but it is difficult. I have bought fabric bags that I bring to the grocery store when I shop. But, usually I end up with plastic bags anyway because everything will not fit according to the person packing it. If I could packed it myself, I am quite sure I would fit everything in my 5 green colored fabric bags. (Observe, in the grocery store you do not pack your own bag. Its packed for you and even unloaded for you into your car).

Well, yesterday I forgot my fabric bags at home. The result can be found in the pictures below.... It took 15 plastic bags to bring home the items seen below. Ha ha ha.. I even told the man packing my groceries to make sure to fill the plastic bags with so many items as possible... They just don´t listen or just don´t understand what I am trying to say..

In this picture you can see what I bought. And by the way, guess what these items cost me!? The correct guess is one hundred dollars (679 SEK). There is no meat, egg or milk, but other basic products and lots of vegetables, which is very expensive.

I just wanted to show you the size of the plastic bags they pack all the groceries. I have an issue with them. They are not very strong or large for that matter, but trust me they hold much more than just one item.

I have on my kitchen floor lined up all the bags I got for all the items I purchased yesterday (see first picture). It took 15 plastic bags. And several of them had only one item in them. Talk about waste...

In Alabama I have 10 bags with me home from the grocery store, but only one garbage bin to throw it away in. In Sweden I have one plastic bag with groceries with me home, but I will have ten bags filled with garbage with me down to the recycling station.

Coupon country 15 years ago - still coupon country

Think about carry this one with you to the grocery store every time you shop! Picture borrowed from addictedtosaving.com... where you can learn more about how you organize yourself and your coupons...

In my collage years you are on a tight budget and getting things for a less price would be a better deal. So while at collage, I got the Sunday paper out to see if there were anything at a discount price or a coupon for it. The Sunday paper was heavy and twice the size of our Swedish daily Sunday paper DN. And cutting out the coupons took its time. But a poor student would do anything to save some dollars.

This was 15 years ago, and the Sunday paper is still filled with ads and coupon "deals"... In Sweden I haven´t seen a coupon in ages. I believe it moved on to other ways of market their products than via cut out coupons.

Every time I go to the store, I see the ladies walk with the shopping cart and a huge book with coupons sorted both left and right.

I can to some extend understand the savings you can do, and if a family/person is on a tight budget, but the time it takes to put all this together must be worth some money too?! I spend about an hour in a grocery store when I do my weekly shopping - way to much time I think. I cannot imagine how much time it would take if I had to walk up and down every aisle to find all the coupon deals in my coupon binder too. And how much does that time cost me? And I am also wondering how much saving you actually do? If you really need the product and it has a coupon well then it might be a saving. But sometimes I feel that having all these coupons tells you to look for a good deals for something you really don´t need at that particular time... But it has a coupon - its less expensive - why not!!?? hmmm?

Insanity work out from home??

From the beginning of this trip I promised myself to get in shape. Work out and make sure my health got a high priority. I did however have a slow start and got sick and before I started to get into the routine of it half of the time here in the States had passed. But a couple of month ago I stared to get into a good routine. Now am working out 5 times a day about 1-2 hours each time. It is hard work and sometimes I wish I would see the result much faster. I guess, I just have to blame my diet. I do believe I can eat anything since I work hard every day at the gym. But as my PT said to me it is 80 percent what you eat and 20 percent physical work. So I guess, I just have 20 percent figured out *smiling*.

I have however, progressed good and the pair of jeans I bought a year ago I can pull off myself buttoned. I know I have lost at least one clothing size and a little bit more. So am even more exited about this progress, but the most exited about this is that I have really starting to enjoy cardio work outs - scary!

The problem I am facing in the near future is the return to Sweden and a normal life with full time work and children at school, their activities are awaiting me and maintaining 5 day work out might be hard to maintain. I think my body will require it since I feel already now the need of a cardio work out. One thing for sure, I cannot go back to the old life of - I just have worked too hard to get to this point.

Anyway, the other night I was watching some television and one channel showed some infomercials - they are quite funny to watch and cheesy. But one, the INSANITY work out, got my attention and I am now thinking of testing this since it got so many good reviews. I am just hoping am able to pull it off from home, how cheesy it now sounds, but that is my only options being by myself without any husband during the week days so I can get that daily cardio work out.

It seam to be a killer work out and if I were to give myself a challenge it might as well be a physical one from home. What do you think? Watch the link above and see beyond the result bla bla bla talk and focus on the actual work out... However, the greatest would be to find such a class at the gym.. that would be FUN!!!

January just an in-between period...

Christmas is over and January has hit us, the weather is colder and at several times we have even had colder weather then back home in Stockholm. I guess January is one of those months that is not good anywhere you are (Australia might be the exception). I think the worst part is that I feel so unprepared for this cold weather we got. Back home I know it would come, but in Alabama, where the summer so hot and the fall so much summer for me, and the fact that were are on the same latitude as northern Africa, I am not on equal terms it can be cold here. Part of this denial takes is tolls on my feet, I am still walking around barefoot in my summer loafers.

The cold weather really started when we headed back from Florida Keys (which was lovely and I will blog about later) between Christmas and New Years. When we arrived at our in-between stop in Orlando we all were only wearing sweaters and we had no jackets with us. It was nearly 32 degrees (0C). In an eight hour drive the temp dropped almost 20 degrees. The weather reports were warning for icy roads and ice storms. I have now started to adjust to the weather and actually got myself a pair of warmer shoes.

Hopefully the spring and summer weather is not far away. I just want to have as much sun and warm weather as possible before we head home, since nice weather in Sweden is not a guarantee. Alabama people tells me it will warm up in March/April, but that is an Alabama person who is used to having it HOT and that is equal to normal and they would not get into the pool before the outdoor temperature hits 30C (85F). So I am therefor hopeful it will be warm weather already in March.

This in between period I am really focusing on my fitness. I work out 5 times per week between 1-2 hours per day. I have a personal trainer once a week and she is really good. I kind of feel I need a goal since I am not working and using much of my brain capacity I have put the focus on my fitness and health and that is quite fun and I enjoy it very much. I just worry when I return home to work and our daily life how much exercise I will be able to fit into a full time working schedule? Hopefully the need of exercise is so high that I will prioritize it. I feel however, it is more difficult to get fit here than back home, but the life is also different in Sweden compared to in Alabama. Our daily life in Sweden contains so much more walking and less driving. We move around without a car from point A to B. Whereas here, we park as close to the entrance as possible and we make sure we get help in loading the car with whatever we have purchased and when we return back home we drive the car into the garage which is two steps way from the door to the house. We take the car to the park, and we take the car to the gym even if it is within walking distance. But because of the lack of sidewalks it makes it hazardous to walk and cross busy two line streets with no pedestrian street crossing.

Merry Christmas!

This years Christmas tree - an all plastic Walmart tree. The kids decorated it with ornaments in all kinds of colors and the more it shimmered and shined the better it was.

We are heading south and I really wanted to show you our Christmas card jingle we made - Rocking all the way to the beach, but the link will not work on here for some reason, so all you, who are Facebook friends with me can view the link on there instead.

We have been watching the news back home about the real winter you have. I know it is tough with all delays in traffic, shoveling snow to get the car out, or just bundle up so much to be able to spend a while out in the cold air. Well, in Alabama, that kind of weather would probably kill people, so I do not wish it over here, but I do miss the Christmas spirit the snow gives me. The Christmas feeling is far away from me even if I do have a Walmart Christmas tree, lights hanging in the trees outside and our advent star in the window. I guess, for me the snow does it all! Unfortunately, the Christmas spirit will probably be further way when we in a couple of days are setting our course south and getting into our car for a 14 hour road trip to the Southern most tip of the USA - The Florida Keys. But at least it will be relaxing and hopefully the weather will be warmer. I am not in need of doing dishes or cook for that matter. So, I will have to wait until next years Christmas and I am hoping to see as much snow than as you have this year back home... Many might not agree with me on that, but you don´t know how much you miss snow when you are far away from it and so used to it during some season...

Marry Christmas to all of you!!!

We have done our best in getting into the Christmas spirit, but I cannot say that I have succeeded.

This Christmas it is the Southern most tip of the USA who is waiting for us. It do look nice and I am looking forward to the service and getting relaxed. I am guessing the hotel will have jingle bell playing all over every lobby and pool area, but it is going to feel weird and misplaced for me who are used to winter and dark times during Christmas.

I know the kids will have a blast!!!

Great inspiration got me into a baking frenzy...

The first cinnamon roles we have made since we moved to Alabama - 6 months ago.

I have suddenly got into baking..... Usually it is my husband that stand for any creation in the kitchen. But I found myself more often stand there lately and today I really hit it off - to my husbands big smile... and he made comments... hmmm I should not do this too often... he might get used to it... *smiling*

Anyway, I started of with baking some cinnamon roles (Swedish version) - not as big and not to sweet. At the same time I stared of to do a batch of ebelskivers. Ebelskivers is my new thing - and I love to be able to make both savory foods and desserts. It started when I walked into one of my favorite stores here in the USA. Williams Sonoma - a very high class store with lots of nice things for the kitchen. That is a store I will miss when I go back home. So now we eat even more than we need... ha ha. I guess I just have to work even harder at the gym...

Ebelskivers (danish) here with a mix of salmon, dill, Philadelphia cheese. Served with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Delicious!

These Ebelskivers contain apples and cinnamon. Topped with powdered sugar.. Yummi!

My favorite cookware and my favorite cookbook for the moment.... Can recommend it to all!!

Dinner out has consequences....

The kids favorite restaurant and they do have good burgers but one should not dine here more than once a month....

My husband and I enjoy food. We like to cook at home as much as we also enjoy going out to restaurants. And right now we are in the country where dining out is less expensive than stocking the fridge and cook at home. Of course it is fun to go out when it makes it easy on the household work and finer dining is also very inexpensive compared to home. But it will have consequences.

Montgomery might not have as many of the gourmet restaurants we would like to see, unfortunately. And it is truly lacking of the healthier version of food. It is easier to find burger restaurants where you can choose from twelve different versions of burgers. It has taken us a while and we have probably gone through all the fast food restaurants in the beginning, but we have found restaurants we truly enjoy and it is fun to be able to taste some of the true Southern cooking - even if it is less healthy for you. However, all the dining out have consequences - large portions, lots of fat and sugar, makes us at least, gain lots of weight if we do not watch it.

So, all this dining out has been limited to weekends now and when the kids get their choice we know we are having burgers. I always order kids size on the menu, and they are compared to home the regular size salad/burgers. We have banned fries and there will be no soda, except for special occasion. One day I ordered sushi and was served a Southern version of it - Fried! I don´t even want to know how many calories that contained. Many might say, well you are just away for a year. And that is true, one have to enjoy oneself and taste much of the American food culture. But SORRY! There is too much junk and if I where to eat and try it all, I would probably be about 10 kg heavier before I know it. At least that was what happened when I lived in the States as an exchange student back in 1988. My mom thought I was pregnant when I sent a picture home at Christmas, at the age of 17.

When my mother and sister where visiting us a few weeks back, I was guiding them every where around the neighborhoods, we often dined out for lunch and once for breakfast - just because they would like the experience. The portion we got for breakfast was best suited for a hard physical steel worker or something. I am not kidding if that breakfast contained close to 1000 calories.

I have however, started to work out every day now and I also have a wonderful PT (Shea). No less than an hour of hard work, every day, is what I have to do at the gym, to be able to treat myself a little bit of all the big American portion of junk...

This is a local version of Sushi with salmon and Philadelphia cheese and topped with a spicy sauce. The outside of the rice

was

fried. Fried food is a Southern thing. There is a saying: "if it isn´t fried it is not from Alabama."

Breakfast served at a local restaurant. French Toast with scramble eggs and bacon. Topped with syrup and butter.

I however don´t think we are very much better in Sweden. We do have most junk food restaurants, burgers, pizza and lattes. But I know for a fact that the portions are smaller and home cooking a lot more common. And we do not use the car as often as I do in the US. Here, it is no other way to get around which also means less walking and less physical work.

Fried Green tomatos is a Southern dish. And they taste really good if it made correctly. This, served at one of our favorite restaurants, LaJolla.

A nice lunch is served at LaJolla. What we paid for the lunch (2 dishes with water to drink to) is very inexpensive (10 dollars), and what I like about it is that they do serve smaller portions - but if it is healthier - don´t know.

Crazy weather.... everywhere...

Compared to back home in Sweden where they are dealing with lots of snow, icy and cold weather we are in Alabama dealing with severe weather too, but the most severe once are Tornados and Hurricanes.

Now when the summer has passed us and from what we have experienced it is quite difficult to explain, but I do like the Swedish summers much better compared to the Alabama humid heat. Parts of this summer was awful. We could not be outside at all. When I try to illustrate it for folks back home I said: Turn on the hairdryer, turn it on low speed with heat on. Blow it directly to your face so it almost burns. In your other hand you have a bottle of water which you squirt onto your face so your face stay constantly moist. That is how summer is here from top to toe.

We haven´t seen much rain this summer at all, but when it does rain... it does not drizzle. It is pouring down. No umbrella would like to have to deal with it either. But, what is the most worrying about the weather systems here is the tornado season which runs from April-November. We have been very fortuned to not have had any encounters of Tornados or Hurricanes yet. But the closest call we had this season was the very last day of November and the last day of the tornado season.

This morning there was a lot of moist in the air and it was 22C (73F) outside already at 8 a.m. It started blowing after dropping of our kids at school. It seemed like every body (local people went about their business) and so did I. When I got home I saw my Iphone blinking and I checked it to find issued warnings in our area for tornados. I turned on the TV and followed the news about the warnings. But it seemed cool and I did like everybody else, went about my business and made it to the gym right before the rain came down. Or should I say heaven opened itself and through a bucket of water down on us... The noise of the rain coming down was high and water came flooding through the cracks of the doors and windows...

Apparently there are different stages of tornado warnings but I cannot separate them. However, this particular weather system was just crossing our neck of the hoods, but luckily not in my neighborhood. But in the aftermaths of it, it left traces of so called "touch downs" just a half hour drive from us... And that is close enough for me. Because the devastation these weather storms leave is unbelievable. When the system had passed the temperature had also dropped nearly 12 degrees C and that is just over a couple hours time frame - so this moves fast...

Luckily this touch down was not too bad and severe. So, I guess we were lucky this time and no lives were taken.

We have since we moved here learned how to act when the warnings are issued. If we were at home, we should take shelter inside the house in a room without windows and a room located in the center of the house. If we are outside and encounter a tornado, the recommendation is the leave the car and go lay down in a ditch. If kids are at school we cannot go and pick them up until the tornado has passed. The warning it self of a tornado in your neighborhood is through a laud signal like our military alarm - these signals are tested every third month like they are back in Sweden, but for different causes.

The Weather Channel and all the local channels was reporting about the Tornado warning this day. Here you can see how the warnings are issued from New Orleans in the South to Huntsville in Northern Alabama.

The channel also very carefully tells you how to act when a Tornado is spotted. This is of another tornado in our neighboring state Louisiana.

The storm had just passed Montgomery in this picture and moving North.

The news seemed very intense when this weather system appears and it is difficult for someone who has not been in a weather like this to even illustrate how what it can do or what force it has.

There is even a Pink hunting season i Alabama...

I am overwhelmed of all the typs of advertisements that surrounds me every day, but it is fun to read, watch and listen to them, just because they are different from home. And they are tons of them over here, on radio, TV and the big pack of paper ads that arrives every Wednesday in or mailbox.

This time of the year is must be the hunting season in Alabama, at least if I read the ads. Because in them you can buy anything for that season and what amazes me the most is the selection of different guns and fire arms one can get - even in pink if you like it!

What also makes me laugh is the many pink versions there are on things. If there is a sport activity that women participate in there has to be a pink set up of the gear - in any sport.

I who have stared golfing have been to several stores looking at clubs and every sales representative took me immediately to the pink clubs, the pink bag, the pink tees and the pink balls together with the pink clothes I should wear. I hate pink!!! And why should I choose a pink rifle going hunting? It will glow in every environment - there is not very much of kamoflash over the color pink.

But I guess ladies here in Alabama likes pink. And their husbands likes to buy pink stuff to them, according to the sales representative I spoke to when I asked who the buyer is.

First grade and already in pursuit of excellence.

Well, it feels like it when I sit down with my daughter to get her daily homework done. At the beginning of this school year, about 3 months ago, she didn´t know what was waiting her - homework, routines, discipline etc. The routines are important and therefor everyday of the week looks exactly the same. Discipline is also important and they have rules to obey while in school like good behavior, learn to be responsible etc. The school has a high focus on the academics, which in my Swedish world, is a little bit too early when attending first grade. But they argue it is easy to form the students at an early age and it becomes easy for the students later. I guess some parts are good and some parts I just want to take out of the curriculum if I could choose (but that is due to cultural differences).

My daughter starts school approx 8 a.m. and gets out at approx 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. When we get home we have about an hour of homework ahead of us - (for a native it maybe is 20-30 min). I get out the blue folder, sent home with her everyday, where I can find personal notes from the teacher or general information from the school. I can also find a section saying: "Homework to do". I pull it out and it can be anything from two to four or sometimes five different papers that should be done until the very next day. We begin with spelling homework and try to learn how to pronounce and spell the words. They are usually about ten of them. Later in the week a spelling test will be held. We continue with math and we help her prepare herself for an upcoming test later in the week. If she is not too tired at this time I will help her finish whatever work she did not complete before the end of the school day.

This is tough for a girl that cannot even read or write in her own language and now in a very short time needs to learn English, a language she has not heard of or not understood until about now. But I am amazed how fast they learn. It goes fast and I wish I that capacity to learn a new language in one year. She works hard and I am very proud of her!!! It is amazing how flexible they are and trying to their best in any situation.

However, in the beginning it was a struggle and she could not understand why she needed to work when school was over for the day. Today, 3 months later, she has less unfinished work with her home. She tells me what homework she has with her home and there is much less protests when doing her homework and it goes faster to complete them every day. We are progressing and she is growing amazingly fast of learning it all - A Pursuit of Excellence I guess...

Inside the blue folder I have sections to look at. This blue section with a zipper I send personal and important messages the teacher needs to know about.

Every Monday I get a letter of what homework needs to be done thought out the week. I also get all the homework in math and spelling in this section. That needs to be returned the very next day.
When the homework is done I put this in the "completed" section so the teachers knows it has been done. I also sign the homework before sending it back.

Routine, routine is very important and I agree. This is the morning routine for my daughter.

Some of the homework that arrives home. Some are more difficult than others....

This is a picture of the car pool line I am lined up in while waiting the school to dismiss. I am at the end of the line and I probably have 20+ some cars in front of me. I don´t walk in to get her - I line up with my car and she is released as I pull up and where I will be identified as the right person.

Sunshine, warm weather, shorts and sandals and Christmas approaching...

In Southern USA where it is still warm and the sun is shining (today and most days) it is difficult to get into the feel of Christmas and the Swedish holiday season starting in two weeks - the first of advent.

One cannot avoid what season of the year we are approaching - any store you walk into displays their latest Christmas decoration and are getting ready for the big Christmas shopping spree.

However, walking around in the store in shorts and sandals does not get me in the right mood quite yet! But I am trying to get into the feel of it and together with my mother we walk through department stores to interior design stores where Christmas and winter country now rules...

So here I am walking around in shorts and sandals and trying to portrait an American Christmas tree and the decoration I should get this year. And what is the best looking tree in our Swedish tiny apartment back home? I must say that Americans do have lots of space since many of them have these huge trees. Some of the trees below will actually take up a majority portion of our living room space in our apartment down town Stockholm.

I also must give the American Christmas trees and their decorators some applauds because the trees they look fabulous and inspirational (even if they are plastic). But I am also amazed on how much stuff actually can fit in one tree. Below you see a great collection of American Christmas trees from a nearby Interior design store.

Should I have this one... Absolutely stunning but lots of decoration in it. I could hardly see the tree..

Or should I go with the more winter like...
Our the maybe city like tree... look like the three outside the shopping centers.
Or should I go with the traditional American Christmas tree with lots of bows...

Christmas tree at Target... what size do I need?

This is a Christmas outdoor decoration. I am guessing the southern version....