Merry Christmas and happy new year, everyone who actually reads this! (Hi Mum, hi Jess) Eller God Jul och en Gott Ny År! This noble character is Julbok, the christmas goat. He used to deliver all the presents in Sweden but has been replaced in the last few decades by the more commercially viable Tomten (Santa). Nowadays the goat is mainly given as a gift, or in some towns modeled in wood or straw in a large effigy in the town square which is inevitably burned at some point. Our Bokky is seamlessly posed in front of our new canvas print of a photo I took of the forest in fall.

We are off to Abu Dhabi on Thursday, so basically I'm attempting the delicate balance between appearing to still be at work and yet not actually doing any more experiments in case they fail and kill my festive season buzz. It has been a busy few months at work, but it has been so cold and dark and grey outside that there is not much else to do anyway. We are extremely excited about the prospect of direct sunlight (and 28degrees!), boating, quad biking in the desert, and indoor skiing in Dubai (what, just because we could go outdoor skiing here doesn't mean that's not a novelty) and various other awesome activities Greenie has planned for us.

After christmas we also have a few things to look forward to; catching up with Jacqui (if she ever manages to book a flight), Zoe, and potentially a few others from across the channel, then we are moving on Feb 2nd to a bigger apartment at Wenner Gren (with a bedroom! hooray!), and finally we actually booked something more than a month in advance - tickets to Roskilde music festival in Denmark in July! So bring on 2008, it should be a good one! At some point we will also post some photos of our last few trips, we still owe you Oktoberfest photos!

Hope you are all winding down for christmas, have a good one, and keep in touch!
love Steph