ABBA, meatballs, and Bjorn Borg

Last week these items pretty much summed up our knowledge of Sweden. But we are slightly more enlightened since our Swedish house guests arrived. They are a family of 12, with 8 of them staying in our third floor. One of their older daughters attends our church and we offered to have her parents and six of her siblings stay with us during their 2 week visit. They spend their days at their daughter's apartment and we just visit with them in the morning and at night. Cholita adores them and has trouble going to sleep if she hasn't seen "the Swedish people" arrive back home. The dogs love them even more and wait at the door and whine . Apparently Charlie and Olaf now understand commands in Swedish. I never knew our dogs had such a gift with languages.

The Rosen children all play different instruments and they do concerts around Sweden. Our kids excitedly told us it's like having the Von Trapps in our attic--- without any Nazi tension.

With our new found interest in Sweden, I took the girls to our town's Mid-Summer festival.

The dancers arrived by boat and were lead by a violinist to the maypole.

The outfits alone made me want to cart my kids over to the Sons of Norway Lodge to sign them up for dance classes.

But my girls' reluctance to join hands around the maypole was a sign that maybe the classes wouldn't be successful. And getting Bruder into lederhosen seems unlikely.

Horns blasted from the street above, signaling the arrival of the Vikings.

They looked like they'd been at sea for many years.

And isn't it cold in the north?

No bother, their old bones were warmed by the bonfire. And thankfully the eldest Viking didn't remove his vest.

The girls made floral wreaths for their hair.

And Rose had her face painted.

It was a beautiful evening in our lovely Scandinavian Washington town. I'll never hear "Dancing Queen" again and not think of our wonderful friends from Sweden. And if we ever visit, we know we've got a place to stay.

Our dogs will stow away in the luggage.