Kerstin 60th Birthday

Last weekend, we were invited to celebrate my dear mother-in-law 60th birthday at Piteå.(Piteå is 70km from Skellefteå & has a pretty archipelago, which is one of the reasons it is a popular place for tourism both in summer and winter.) Swedes like to use their national flag to decorate on birthdays and special occasions. Swedish children are often served breakfast in bed on their birthday. Birthday cakes in Sweden are similar to pound cakes and are decorated with marzipan. When it come to celebrating the 40th,50th,60th etc..birthday, they like to celebrate it in many ways. It´s like "Since I survived the pass 10th years, it´s worth celebrating it differently!" Some people celebrate by going for a holidays overseas, some being kidnapped & terrorized by their family & closed friends, some had "Open house" buffet party and some walk in town with funny costume etc.. I celebrated my 40th birthday with a garden barbecue party 2 years ago, my father-in-law Lars was kidnapped by a friends for a helicopter ride when he turned 50th. I like the birthday celebrations here, I think the Swedish has many brilliant ideas for this kind of special occasions!
We were staying at the Piteå Stadshotell (4-star business hotel in the heart of the city). The hotel was built in 1906,there were also 22 hotel rooms festivities room, where generations of Norrbotten residents had their first experience of the theatre. 
The hotel was built in Art Nouveau style, by an architect named Åström. I took the opportunity to meet up with my Malaysian girlfriend Carrie & her family who now lives in Piteå for coffee at Wayne´s(a nice & cosy café run by another Malaysian lady).Carrie´s son (Kevin) is so adorable!
In the evening, our family gathered at the hotel restaurant for a lovely dinner. I ordered a lamb hot stone and garlic bread, while the others ordered fish, ox steak and beef steak. The picture of the food were not of world´s class. (I bet it was because I was too hungry at that time..sorry!)
My parent in law has 5 kids altogether. Mattias is the eldest, then come Emma, Fredrik, Frida & Petter. Petter has recently extended his family with another member, Casandra who is always smilling! It´s so nice to have a baby in the family, the ambiance is so more liver & full of laughter's! After the dinner, we had a dip at the jacuzzi & sauna...what a perfect way to calm down a wonderful day!
We had a few rounds of card game at Emma,Frida & Nelina´s room before we retired.
Nelina thought it´s so fun that everyone is living in hotel so she could run between the rooms & get naughty with the others.
The next day after breakfast, we went to shop at the dollars store. There´s not such thing that everything is $1 there! It´s just the concept from America. I brought 10 sets of dinner plates and some other practicle stuffs for the house.
After shopping, we went to visit a famous resort Pite Havsbad - A centre of entertainment. This resort remind me of the NTUC Club family resort in Singapore There were indoor swimming, indoor adventure playground for childrens of all ages,
a dome cinema, a indoor golf club, exclusive spa, a mini bowling alley and a couples of restaurants.In terms of accommodations, you can either stay in hotel rooms, apartments, cottages/bungalow or bring along your caravan to camp at the resort.
We catch ed a exciting Kupolbiograf movie (Mystery of the Nile) at the dome cinemas. During the 45 mins film, I heard Nelina & Emma screaming, the impact of the orbita theater is quite effective as one can really experienced how´s it like to fly!
We end our fantastic weekend at a Thai Restaurant back in Piteå. Mattias & Frida ordered a 4 small side dishes, while I ordered a spicy wok squid and Nelina fried Thai noodles. This is the first time I taste real Thai food in Sweden!
I would like to thank my mother-in-law Kerstin for making our weekend such a memorable one, may this birthday for her be just the beginning of a year filled with laughters, good health , wonderful moments and shining dreams!