Midsommer or Why am I dancing like a frog around a maypole!

Sweden has a HUGE holiday in June called Midsommer.  

From Wikipedia: In modern Sweden, Midsummer's Eve and Midsummer's Day (Midsommarafton and Midsommardagen) were formerly celebrated on 23 June and 24 June, but since 1953 the celebration has been moved to the Friday and Saturday between 19 June and 26 June with the main celebrations taking place on Friday. It is one of the most important holidays of the year in Sweden, and probably the most uniquely Swedish in the way it is celebrated. When Sweden got its National day (6 June), discussions were held about making Midsummer the Swedish national day because of the strong civil celebration on this day.

Raising and dancing around a maypole (majstång or midsommarstång) is an activity that attracts families and many others. Before the maypole is raised, greens and flowers are collected and used to cover the entire pole. People dancing around the pole listen to traditional music and sing songs such as Små grodorna associated with the holiday. Some wear traditional folk costumes or crowns made of wild springs and wildflowers on their heads. The year's first potatoes, Soused herring, Chives, Sour Cream, Beer, Snaps and the first strawberries of the season are on the menu. Drinking songs (Snapsvisor) are also important at this feast, and many drink heavily.

We did all of these things!  Here is Annalise with her beautiful crown of flowers made by our friend Renata.

Here Lanni, Nikki, Annalise, and I are picking flowers to make our own crowns!

 Then we made our own crowns.  It was fun but hard!

I got to try snaps for the first time!  It was so disgusting, I could barely swallow it.  And apparently I was drinking "virgin snaps."

It was so cold. The party was held in a tent.  Lucas slept in the ergo on Ray's back for three and a half hours and this is him after he woke up.  He was pretty dazed!

 Here is Renata, the amazing flower crown maker!

 Here we are dancing around the maypole.  It was really fun.  The only song Annalise and I knew the words to was "sma grodorna" (small frog) so we sang it a few times!

 Posing by the maypole.  It felt kind of like posing by the Christmas tree!

 It was so fun to have Nikki and Lanni with us to celebrate!

 Lars chilling in the wheelbarrow!

 This was Lucas' favorite game, pushing the beer down in the tub and watching it pop back up. He did this for over an hour!

It was really awesome celebrating this "new to us" holiday with good friends! One note about the weather, it was freezing until about 6 pm and then the sun came out and it was beautiful!