Bubble show

The kids and I went to bubble festival at the Childrens' museum yesterday. An American artist, Tom Noddy, performed the most awesome show. It was amazing what he could do with soap bubbles. Here is a little video of the performance. I think it's easy to hear how excited the boys were about the show.

40

Happy birthday, Ellen!

I believe Ellen had a great birthday. In the morning we exchanged gifts. The kids gave Ellen a gold necklace to match the pendant Mary and Gary gave her in Prague. I had among other things found a gift pack of jelly beans with a collection of 40 flavors.

In the evening we went to a fondue restaurant and then to the opera to watch the Danish opera Maskerade. It was the first time we had the children to the opera and they really seemed to enjoy it. They all stayed awake all the way to the end around 11 PM.

Birthday party

Saturday we celebrated our 40th birthday. We had a lot of fun. As is customary at Danish parties we had personal songs. I had made one for Ellen and my parents had made one for both of us. The children also had a fun song in several "languages" - fx. consisted the Russian verse mostly of Danish words added a "ski" in the end (you can hear part of the song in the video). The song accentuated the global company - we were all together 5 different nationalities from 2 continents.

We had found a caterer who made a wonderful menu:
First course: Potato cake with cod, bacon and red beet, shrimp saslik with aioli, bread and tapenade
Main: Veal tenderloin with pineapple/chili relish, potato gratin with parsnip and carrots and a onion pie.
Dessert: Crepes with custard and rich chocolate mousse.

We had had fun picking a French Gewurztraminer for the first course, an Italian red for the main course and a Spanish muscat for dessert.

It was very good.

Erik, Axel and Rita was of great help. They helped serve and clear off the table.

After dinner we danced and talked. The children managed to get most of our guests to join a game of musical chairs.

As gifts we got 3 electric tea kettles and a toaster. As our friend Laurent said, now we are ready to open a bed and breakfast.

Timemachine

We had a great time today. For Christmas Ellen gave us all tickets for Film X which is a small movie studio down town.

It was fun. First we went to the studio to tape the film. After that we went to a sound studio to add dialogue. Finally we cut the movie and added sound effects.

The kids really got into it. Rita wanted to be a princess, Axel dinosaurs and Erik wanted something with a vampire or mad scientist. I believe we managed to please all.

The story line is as follows. The scientist arrives in the future where dinosaurs are in the streets. Suddenly a knight and princess arrives for the medieval ages. The scientist realizes he has messed up things. He pushes a button and converts time. The scientist swings back into the past to set things straight.

A happy 2008

Erik and Axel had made sure we had lots of fireworks for New Years Eve. We had been to the shop for at least 4 times filling up with supplies. It was great and spectacular.

Kirsten and Jens, David, Nadja and Marik joined us for the evening. The menu was a roll of puffed pastry with spinach, mozarelle and olives served with pureed mushrooms. Salted pork tenderloin, red beet salad and potatoes. For dessert we had ginger mousse in chocolate cups.

It was a wonderful evening.

Happy New Year.

Of fireworks and blind people

Yesterday we broke in our Christmas gift from Grandma and Gary - a annual family ticket for the Experimentarium (comparable to the Childrens museum although with focus on science). We had a grand day were we tested the speed of sound. "Talk into one tupe and test how long it takes before you hear it at the end", the sign said. Rita really enjoyed the exhibitions were you could try how it is to be blind. It was a pitch black room where you had to feel your way through. The boys got excited about the fireworks show. In the show we saw fireworks but also heard about the science behind it. Fascinating!

It was a great gift. Thank you Grandma and Gary!

Finally Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve last night. This years big present was a Wii we had bought in Berlin. The kids were excited. We have spent most of the day bowling, golfing and playing baseball. I'm certain we have burned off all the calories we got at the Christmas dinner last night.

The last day before Christmas

It is amazing Santa came with gifts from the US during the night. Rita and Axel were up early checking out the gifts under the tree. Thank you all for the little dog, the girl's book, rubi cube, Colts watches, soup, Jack's Snowman and the Star Wars book! (Grandma and Gary's gifts comes this evening).

Alas we didn't win anything on the lottery tickets -not even the smallest prize. And we had 6 chances!

Now we are looking forward to Christmas Eve. We will go to church at 4 PM and then it is home to roast duck and pork. We will, naturally, conclude with living candles on the tree, singing and gifts.

Christmas is wonderful.

On the second day before Christmas

We had a wonderful evening. Dinner was cold cuts and lobster soup. We read the last chapter in the book we've been reading for Christmas. And then we played Tripoley. Axel was happy he won. Rita was certain she heard Santa on his sleigh. They are all so excited. I wonder when they will fall asleep.

Hot news flash

- - - This is a quick news update in between the picture entrees - - -

We just scraped our lottory tickets and although we didn't win we now how 6 chances of winning tomorrow: Ellen has 8 Santas (50.000 dkr), 6 drums (1.000 dkr) and 4 Christmas candles (100 dkr); I have 9 Christmas trees (1.000.000 dkr), 8 Santas and 3 Glass ornaments (40 dkr). We are bound to win and hopefully not just with the ornaments :-)

On the third day before Christmas

We went to the Royal Theatre to see the Nutcracker. It was a whole new production. The scenography was spectacular as was the costumes. The kids really enjoyed it - and so did we. On the way home from Copenhagen we came by this house were the whole front yard was decorated with lights and Santas, reindeers and what not. We had to stop and take a look. Now we really are in the Christmas spirits.

On the 4th day before Christmas

We celebrated pre-Christmas with my parents and Merete and her daughters. Before exhanging presents we had a good game of bingo. Felicia was happy she won two times! We had a fun evening and - as usual- plentty of good food.

On the 5th day before Christmas

The excitement is rising. Nine Christmas tree have now been uncovered on the lottery ticket. And we are only missing 2 Santas on the other ticket which holds a prize of 50.000 kr. The kids are very excited. Keep your fingers crossed that we win on at least one of the tickets!

- - - - -
I have to correct myself. We are only missing 1 Santa!

On the 6th day before Christmas

Rita went to the dentist and had a baby tooth removed. The permanent tooth had started growing up behind it and didn't push the baby tooth out. It was kind of awesome to have a kid with sharks' teeth as long as it lasted. Rita did very good at the dentist. She just lay there and let him do the work.

On the 7th day before Christmas

We celebrated the 3rd Sunday of Advent a day late due to our Berlin tour. We keep it a tradition to take some time off in the evening and prepare for Christmas singing Christmas songs and reading the Christmas Gospel.

On the 8th day of Christmas

It is in the middle of winter and we have this rose blooming in the front yard. In the news we hear of deathly snowstorms in the US. My wish for the new year is that the world's nations will be able to find a political solution to global warming and prevention of climate changes.

On the 9th day before Christmas

We had to say good bye to Berlin. It had been a fun and very enjoyable weekend in Germany. Last night we witnessed the Santas on wheels parade - it was a huge parade of santas on motor cycles riding down the center of Berlin. We also had to give our farewell to all the plastic bears placed all over the city. It definitely won't be our last visit. Next time we bring the kids with us.

More from Berlin

... and we had ice cream fondue.

On the 10th day before Christmas

We went sightseeing in Berlin. We saw the place of the Berlin wall and
did our giftshopping in Ka De We and the nicest little markt at
Ku'Dam. The kids will be happy!

On the 11th day before Christmas

Ellen and I enjoyed glühwein and a yard long bratwurst in Berlin. The glühwein was served in mugs that looked like a Christmas stocking.