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