Christmas Traditions!

Klaus and I spent this year's Christmas with the Krogsgaards in Jylland and I got my first taste of a Real Danish Christmas!

Danish Christmas Tree

It was very "hyggelig" or cozy and it was SUPER relaxing! It was just us, Klaus' parents and his sister and of course Tex who was the center of attention for the majority of the trip! lol! Ruth (Klaus' mom) had decorated their home so beautifully and I loved seeing all of the Nissemand and homemade table decorations.

Homemade Table Decorations

Danish Star ornament- Nichole do you recognize it???

Tex had a great time playing outside in the backyard- he was a little confused the first time we let him out and just closed the door behind him. He's ALWAYS been taken out on a leash and only in the parks is he allowed to run off the leash so it was a new and exciting experience to just play outside. Of course it was WAY more fun when Klaus and I would go out with him and play soccer!

Somebody found a stick to chew on!

Ready to join FC København!

The Danes celebrate Christmas on the 24th which was a bit weird for me, especially because most of it takes place in the evening so it makes for a LONG day, whereas in the States my family would wake up in the morning and celebrate then- no waiting! :)
So on the 24th we woke up and had breakfast and Ruth was already preparing the duck for dinner that night. The morning and afternoon were spent relaxing on the couch and going for a long walk with Tex. After lunch we got ready and went to church for the Christmas Eve service. The church was PACKED!!!! And since its a small town, it seemed like everybody knew each other. :) Most of the songs were new to me, but the last one we sang was Silent Night, except in Danish- which I had assumed would be the same message but just translated... NOPE! Totally different story just set to the same melody! lol!
After church, we went back home and had Christmas dinner! :) YUMMY!!! They served duck with apple and prune stuffing, Flæskesteg, red cabbage and three different kinds of potatoes(caramelized, boiled and roasted chips)! It was about as traditional as you can get when it comes to Danish Christmas Dinner :) For dessert we had Risalamande. There is a tradition in Denmark that they put one whole almond in the bowl and whoever finds it wins a prize, I was told before we started that if you get the almond you are supposed to not let anyone else know that you have it so that people have to eat the WHOLE bowl of risalamande before you reveal it.... well I apparently have NO poker face and on my second bite I got the almond!!! And immediately everyone at the table knew it! :) I'm not sure if they rigged it so I would get the almond on purpose or not, but I was super excited about it! :)

Risalamande with Cherry Sauce

I found the almond! And got the almond-gift!

After all the food, we needed to get some exercise in which was convenient because the next Danish tradition they introduced me to was singing carols and walking around the tree! :) They picked a CD that had both English and Danish carols and they printed out the lyrics so we could sing along. Luckily I had just heard a few of the songs in church so it was easier to sing along and the rest I just listened and tried to join in for the chorus! :)

Singing Carols

After the singing, we FINALLY got to open the presents!!! Like I said, its a long day! lol! Even Tex got a bunch of good presents! :)

Ready to open presents!

Super spoiled puppy!

Unfortunately, he was a little over excited about the new toys and we need to do a few repairs by the next morning, but he had a BLAST playing with all of his new stuff! :) And he LOVED that Klaus' dad was willing to play too! :)

So much fun to play with "Far-Far"!

Poor bird... Blind and missing a wing!

Christmas Day was again spent relaxing on the couch and playing cards and board games. I got to Skype with the American side of our family and wish them all a Merry Christmas too!

Playing Ludo

We had a really great time and I really enjoyed seeing how the Danes do Christmas! :) And we were THRILLED that Tex was on his best behavior for the whole trip, and only destroyed HIS stuff! :)

"MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas as well! And we wish you all a Happy New Year too!
Godt Nytår!
XOXO,
Joy

2013 Julekort!

If you remember from the post about the wedding I mentioned one of my new favorite Danish traditions is when they re-write lyrics to a well known song for any kind of big party or event. So, with this in mind, we created our 2013 Julekort (Christmas Card)

To the tune of Jingle Bells
 

Dashing through the airport - with a wedding dress in hand

Joy was moving to Denmark - in February!

In April we were wed - our friends and family came

We had a really great party and laughed the night away!

 

 

Oh 2013, 2013 its been quite a year!

We have many exciting things to be thankful for! HEY!

2013, 2013 Wedding plans were fun!

But we're happy they're over, and we can move on!

 

 

We traveled to the States - to Texas and the HEAT!

We probably should have gone - in springtime when its nice!

We had a second party - to celebrate our marriage

Lots of friends and family came to eat the bar-b-que!

 

 

Oh 2013, 2013 its been quite a year!

We have many exciting things to be thankful for! HEY!

2013, 2013 Klaus still works for Widex

Joy is learning Danish and looking for a job!

 

 

When we got back to Denmark - we went to pick up Tex

He is adorable and - happy every day!

He sort of knows some tricks - but only when he wants to!

What can we say? He's a terrier - but isn't he cute!

 

 

Oh 2013, 2013 its been quite a year!

We have many exciting things to be thankful for! HEY!

2013, 2013 we hope you're doing well,

We would love to hear from you, you can follow our blog!

2 Down 4 To Go!

Its official, I passed my module 2 Danish Exam! :) YAY!!!

It was a pretty comprehensive exam in my opinion and it was spread over 2 days. Yesterday we did the listening, reading and writing sections and today we did the spoken section. I'm really happy with my progress through module 2 and I'm really looking forward to starting the next module- honestly I'm really looking forward to FINISHING the Danish lessons, but I know I've got a LONG way to go. There are a total of 6 modules to get through...

Tonight, Klaus and I are going out to celebrate at Tivoli!! :) I think we're going to have a traditional Danish Christmas dinner at one of the restaurants, but he hasn't told me any details other than "wear warm clothes and don't forget your Tivoli pass" :)

Sorry this is so short- things have been a bit busy around here, but I wanted to let people (Dad) know that I passed my test! :)

XOXO,
Joy

Giving Thanks!

Thanksgiving was a week ago and WOW what a week its been! :) Klaus' parents came to visit and celebrate their first ever Thanksgiving with us and his sister came over for dinner too :) It was really nice to have them here and it kept me from being too homesick (I was too distracted by cooking the dinner on my own for the first time!)

Since the only whole turkey we were able to find (after MUCH searching) cost about $175 us dollars! We decided to go the easier route and buy three turkey breasts instead. In traditional Thanksgiving style it was WAY too much turkey for the 5 of us, but it meant we could have leftovers the next day. :) I also made bread dressing from scratch (they don't have the Stovetop boxed dressing here... and I wanted it to be gluten free so I could eat it too!), mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans (again there's no cream of mushroom soup so I didn't make the green bean casserole), salad (with dried cranberries) and rolls. And of COURSE pumpkin pies! I made the pies in individual serving sizes and had a mix of pumpkin and apple pies :) Overall I think it turned out well- I had to keep reminding myself not to say anything like "the stuffing doesn't taste like normal" since Klaus' family had no idea what stovetop stuffing actually tastes like! lol! As long as I kept my mouth shut they would think it was exactly right! :) I also forgot to take any pictures of the food because we sort of had a mad dash to get everything done quickly since the turkey cooked WAY faster than we had planned on! But I did get a few pictures of the living room set up for Thanksgiving.

 

The best part for me was the recognition that my Danish classes are actually helping A LOT! I was able to understand nearly everything his mom said and could even hold a conversation with her on our own for about half an hour!! That is something I could NOT say last spring when we saw them last so I was incredibly happy and a bit (ok a LOT) proud of myself and the progress I've been making :) There's still a lot to learn and I'm sure my grammar was wrong most of the time, but the fact that she could understand what I was trying to say was a HUGE accomplishment for me. :)

 

I definitely missed being in the states for Thanksgiving this year, but I was able to Skype with my American family after our dinner and before theirs which was really nice, and Tex got to "meet" his cousins!! :)

 

Klaus and I have begun decorating the apartment for Christmas but since its an ongoing process I figured I will do a separate post about it once we're done! :)

 

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

XOXO,

Joy



Midterm Exam, Christmas Choir and Voting in Denmark!

I can't believe I'm already at the midterm point of my module 2 dansk class! We had a written and spoken "exam" today. Really it was a practice test for the final, but mostly I think it was so the teachers would have a good reference point of how we are all individually doing so far. I had studied over the weekend and Klaus had helped me prepare as much as possible so I felt pretty confident going in today and I think I did pretty well (we get the results on Friday so keep your fingers crossed) For the written portion we had three parts. 1) Reading comprehension- we were given an article and a list of about 5 questions that we had to read and find the answers to. 2) Grammar- we were given a paragraph with blanks to fill in with the correct pronouns. 3)Essay- we were asked to write to a friend about a new job... this was by far the hardest section for me, partly because my mind went blank when I tried to think of vocabulary words I knew for different jobs... I haven't learned any of the terminology surrounding theatre, I don't know the words to describe a marketing job or a copy editor job... SOOOO I went with what I know and talked about getting a job at a coffee shop! lol! Three years at Starbucks is paying off again! :) Our spoken section consisted of being paired with a classmate and interviewing each other. We were given a sheet of paper with bullet points of a mans life "Food- oatmeal, vegetables everyday, red wine on weekends" etc (obviously all of this was in Danish not English...) We got to practice several times and then the teacher came around to each pair and listened to us interview each other.

Another exciting new development for me is that I have joined a Christmas Choir this year at the International Church in Copenhagen! :) We started a few weeks ago and meet on Saturday mornings for a couple hours and then we'll perform on December 8th- and its in English!!! :) We're singing some of my favorite carols like "Silent Night", "Away in a Manger" and "Little Drummer Boy" :) I'm having a great time and I really have enjoyed meeting new people! Its been a LONG time since I've been in a choir, but it makes me miss my HGBC friends! :)

Today ALSO happened to be election day in Denmark! It was the regional and municipality level elections- not national, but its been really interesting to talk about it with Klaus and read about it online. The biggest difference to me is that there are a LOT of different parties- like 10 for the municipal elections and probably 20 or so on the regional level! I won't be allowed to vote here for another few years, but it was interesting to observe how it works first hand. Klaus even took me with him when he went to vote. I didn't go in the voting booth, but I got to see how its organized and the GIANT ballots they give you (seriously its like an 8"x 48"!) I hope between now and the next time when I can vote, I will be able to figure out how the parties are organized and how to pick which candidate to vote for! ha!

Anyway, that's about all that's going on here- other than Tex being adorable! ;-) He's figured out how to jump ONTO the couch, but he hasn't figured out how to get down yet, nor has he realized that if he jumps up there when a human is NOT there- he's gonna get stuck!!

Please come get me down...?

And I'm also preparing to host Thanksgiving dinner for Klaus' parents and sister! :) Wish me luck!! ha! I'll be sure to post a recap of that as well :)

I hope everyone is doing well,
XOXO,
Joy

Happy Halloween from Denmark!

This past weekend, Klaus and I hosted our 2nd Halloween party in Denmark!! I LOVE decorating the apartment for any occasion, but especially for Halloween! :) I would love to say that I'm super creative and came up with all of these decorations on my own, but really Pinterest was my inspiration for most of it. :) I'll post links to the original pins that I used to come up with my ideas, or note when they were actually my own creations! I'm really proud of how it turned out and thought I would share the details on here :)

So, the spider web wall was super easy to make, I just used black curling ribbon and tape. I came up with the idea last year and it was a big hit, so I did it again this year but on a smaller wall. :) And our cute furry spiders were a purchase at Tivoli last year! :)

The 4 signs were inspired by this post, but I put my own spin on it and cut them out of cardboard to the layered effect. They read "Keep Calm and Scary On", "I'm Here for the Boo's", "If the broom fits, ride it" and "Trick-or-Treat"

This guy was a TOTAL copy from this post, but I thought he was sooo cute! It was nice to have a non-sugary snack option too. :)

The "Boo Mix" was also a pinterest idea found here, but I modified it a bit. I changed out the "monster scabs" for "zombie boogers" because I couldn't find chex in Denmark and used raisins instead of chocolate chips for the "witches warts" I also opted to not mix them up so it was easy for people to take what they'd like!

The severed fingers turned out WAY creepier than I had anticipated, but apparently they were a hit because they were the first thing to be finished off! I found the idea here.

The spider web pizzas were originally intended for the kids since I was planning to serve chili for the adults and I wasn't sure the little ones would like that too much. I had seen several ideas for Halloween pizzas, but this one seemed the easiest. You just take string cheese and lay out the spider web and then cut up an olive to make the spider. Super easy and a great idea from here.

 

The punch bowl with the floating hand was something I had tried last year as well, it came from this site. They say to cut off the glove, but we found that using a thin clear plastic glove and leaving it on worked best for us. When we put it in the softevand the ice actually shattered within the glove, but it still looked ok.

 The witch was just drawn on cardboard and cut out, it was something I had gotten inspiration from multiple sites, but the design of this one was my own.

The 4 little faces were inspired by this site. I decided to make a bat instead of a spider because Klaus thought my spider legs were cat whiskers... :-/

 This was again something we had done last year that got great results, so this year I adapted it a bit and made different silhouettes, as well as adding colored lights behind the spooky house and graveyard. This site has a good tutorial on the general idea and then I just google image searched for things I wanted to make and drew them on cardboard and cut them out.

This was originally inspired by a decoration my dad had made for our front yard of a witch crashing into a tree. (I'm sure he found the idea somewhere, but I don't know where so I'll just assume it was his own creative genius) Then when Klaus and I were in Tivoli we saw the same concept except she had crashed into the door and I said "I could totally make that!" (they wanted like 250 kroner for it!!)

The spiders on the door were my own idea- I couldn't figure out how to get the plastic to stick to the door (tape wasn't working) so instead I super glued some black sewing thread to them and taped that along the top of the door.

 

The bats are probably my favorite decoration and SO easy! Here is where I got the inspiration- she has a fancy vinyl cutter that she used to cut out the bats... I just traced them onto black cardboard and cut them out with an exacto knife.

 

The window stickers and mini jack'o'lantern were things I brought with me from the states. :)

 

These little guys are another one of my favorites, probably because they were my OWN idea! :) I just took some of the flower pots we have around the apartment and gave them faces and filled them with candy! :) I think the bat and Frankenstein are my favorites! :)

These peanut butter eyeballs were something I thought looked really cool and I was really excited about, but I forgot that danes aren't particularly fond of peanut butter, so we have a few of these left over. They're just peanut butter mixed with powdered sugar and covered in white chocolate with a chocolate chip for a pupil and red food dye painted on to make them bloodshot. Here's where the idea came from.

The ghost in the corner is just a scarp piece of fabric I had draped over a balloon and hung from the ceiling- I think its cool that he was backlit by our normal lamps! The hanging decorations are a mix of things I brought from the states and things we found here in Denmark. :)

 

The ghost and jack'o'lantern wine bottles were from this post. And the luminaries are from here.

 

We had 12 adults and 3 kiddos and a puppy in our apartment for the party, and yes it was a bit crowded, but I had soooo much fun and was really glad everyone came! :) It was fun to have people from several different areas of my Danish life in the same room and everyone seemed to be having a good time too! :)

A couple of witches and a mad scientist

Dorothy, Scarecrow and Toto!

 

Toto and a cat!

And one more with Toto in his basket!

What about you? Did you make any Halloween decorations this year? I'd love to get more ideas if you have them to share!

 

Happy Halloween everyone!

XOXO,

Joy

France and Spain!

The second to last day of the cruise took us to Toulon, France where I took a bus tour to Marsielle! It was a bit surreal to be in this port and driving along the roads because I have seen so many of these places on tv when my family and I would watch the Tour de France- I kept expecting to look out the bus window and see some crazy drunk guy dressed as a water bottle running along side the bus! :) But alas, Bottle Boy did not make an appearance. It did however give me a whole new appreciation for how narrow those roads are and how steep the hills can be (and we weren't even in the mountain areas!) Our bus driver was INDREDIBLE and navigated our giant bus through some of the narrowest roads and sharpest turns!!

One of the stops on our tour was Notre-Dame de la Garde where we could climb to the top and get a gorgeous 360 degree view of the city! We also drove along the coast line and got some amazing views of the Mediterranean Sea and its beautiful bright blue water!

After our bus tour we had about an hour of free time in the shopping district. I used this time to find a quaint little sidewalk café and enjoy a cappuccino (and free wifi) as well as writing a couple postcards to friends and family back home! :) As well as a little bit of shopping at the street market!

That night, for our last night on the ship together, Linda and I went to the Pinnacle Grill (the super fancy restaurant on board) It was Amazing!!! I felt so spoiled eating my 4 course meal that included shrimp cocktail, ceasar salad (that the waiter mixed the dressing AT THE TABLE), filet mignon and 3 different flavors of crème brulee! It was Fantastic and I was soooooo full afterwards! :)

The next morning it was time to say good-bye to Linda and my Holland-America experience... :( I
was able to take my luggage to the Barcelona airport to drop it off there so I would be free to explore the city! :) I had about 12 hours between getting off the ship until my flight left for Copenhagen.
I didn't really have a plan for Barcelona but I decided I would walk down Las Rambles and then figure it out from there... well I got off the "Aerobus" and promptly headed in the WRONGE direction! Oops! After wandering down a very quite street for about half an hour I started to wonder if maybe I wasn't actually on Las Rambles since all I had heard was that it is REALLY crowded.

NOT Las Rambles... but a cute promenade!

Sooo I found a café and ordered a cappuccino and got the wifi password and pulled out my handy-dandy google maps and realized I was no where close to where I thought I was!

Cappuccinos and wifi... the theme of my vacation?

So I finished my drink and headed back in the direction I came from. Past all of the fancy designer stores- Armani, Dolce and Gabbana, Burberry, etc... and then I looked to my left and saw a CROCS store!!! What?!?!

Thinking of you Dad! :)

Once I got back to Plaza de Catalunya I decided that the best option was probably to buy a Hop on Hop Off bus ticket and spend my afternoon visiting the sites that way (so I didn't get lost again!) 

Plaza de Catalunya

Plaza de Catalunya

Ready to do some hopping!

Sagrada Família

FC Barcelona Stadium

Once I completed the loop of the hop on hop off tour I found the REAL Las Rambles and headed down towards the Columbus Monument enjoying the shopping and people watching along the way. :) I had a great time exploring, but I was also exhausted so I headed to the airport a little early and checked in for my flight and relaxed a bit.

Las Rambles

I should have just looked for the signs... oops!

Street Market! :)

It was an amazing trip- one that I will never forget and that I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to go on! But it was also really nice to land in Copenhagen and see Klaus and Tex again!

Thank you Linda for an incredible adventure and I hope to see you again soon! :)
XOXO,
Joy