Sometimes I wonder whether this is a family blog, an industry blog, or a blog wholly dedicated to Swedish traditions. I guess it can be a little of all of these, since they are all so important to our family's life.

Today, the topic is crayfish  yes, crayfish. As much as most Americans think that crayfish are indigenous only to New Orleans, they are completely wrong. There are several foods that Swedes love universally  loose candy, hot dogs (yes, hot dogs), and crayfish festivals in August. (Drinks are limited to vodka "snaps" and coffee.)

When I say crayfish festivals, I mean just that. This is a national past-time. In fact, all major Swedish newspapers run front page articles in August about which varieties are the best each year. And every grocery store in Sweden sells crayfish printed hats (imaging the cone-shaped kids birthday party hats with crayfish printed on them), bibs, song books, and even banners. These are not for children, for grown-ups. It is amazing. They really do wear them. I guess the Snaps makes everything seem 'cool'.

This year, because we were in Sweden in June instead of August, we were able to celebrate twice. My in-laws scored some pre-season crayfish from a benevolent seafood merchant friend of theirs, allowing us an early feast in Sweden. Then, my amazing husband, managed to find a source for live crayfish in Louisiana. Minimum order  20 pounds of live crayfish. You can't just pick up crayfish at the local store in the U.S. because anything you find will be Cajun-spiced. Swedes like a different flavor, soaking their crayfish in a mixture of beer and dill.

The crayfish appeared at Christer's office last week, packed in ice. Christer selected one particularly frisky one and immediately named him Larry (seen here 'pinch' hitting as his staff assistant  but he was a little 'snappy' with the customers). Larry was very popular with our kids, leading Kelly to ask if we were really going to eat Larry. (Vegans of the world, please stop reading here ... ) The answer, of course, was YES. In fact, I told her that Larry would be sad if we did not eat him because his entire purpose in life was to be eaten.

Both kids happily accepted this position and now apply it to everything, including the ice cream that they insisted would be sad if we did not eat it for dessert tonight. Hmmm ... clever kids.