We took some time out of the calendar and went to the summerhouse in Sweden Saturday to Tuesday of this week. Monday it just started snowing. We went for a long walk in the forrest. Axel and Ellen was certain that we had went through the wardrobe and in to Narnia. The landscape was truely magic. When we got back to the house we had about 3 inches of snow on the ground.
Can you believe it. 7 years old. Rita had a full birthday package. The day started with fresh baked rolls. The we had all the girls from Rita's kindergarten class for a great birthday bash and ended up with have Farmor, Baba, Merete, Edith, Felicia and the Zuletas for dinner.
Ellen had a usual been creative. This time she had created a Dalmatian. That is - it was meant to be a dalmatian, but once the white icing had come on the cake we couldn't figure out a good way of adding the black dots. So it ended up being a white dog!
Last week we had an awesome vacation in Northern Sweden. We had lots of snow and sun. We all had fun skiing and playing in the snow. Did some one say the Vikings enjoyed rolling in the snow after sitting in the sauna? We did it! Unfortunately Erik hit a pole when taking a lift to the top of the mountain. He had to five stitches. It took a couple of days for him to get on the skis again.
Meanwhile we compensated by going on a scooter safari - both Erik and I enjoyed it. Those machines have an amazing pick up and a top speed around 100 miles per hour. We only managed 50 but it was fast.
Fastelavn is the Danish celebration before Lent - like Mardi Gras. The children go trick or treating sort of like the anglosaxon Halloween tradition. Rita, Axel and Hanna (Axel's really good friend) spent a good part of the afternoon together. They got lots of candy and coins. For the first time Erik preferred to stay at home.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
- - - 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 :-)
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Erik and Rita made butter cookies. The recipe should have made 100 cookies. We only got 30. But they are good! Now, I must admit I was happy it was Ellen's turn to do laundry.
Axel and Ellen made bourbon balls. You can trust Ellen to make enough so that they will last until Christmas although Axel did his best to challenge that.
The excitement is rising. Six Christmas Trees are we up to in the Christmas. And we have almost two weeks to get the last four. It is certain to be a winner.
1.000.000 Danish kroner, now what kind of Christmas gifts could we get for that amount of money?
It was time to decorate the Christmas tree. All three kids were dedicated to make it the best looking tree ever. Each spent a good part of the time trying to find the decorations Grandma has given to each of them. And it is beautiful.
We did put the tree up after a good lunch, but I'm certain this is not the cause of the tree's lack of straightness.
We got our Christmas tree. We went to a near by plantation and cut it ourselves. According to tradition it is 8 feet tall and must be cut quite a bit to fit in the livingroom. What would life be without traditions.
Ellen and Rita scraped the lotto Christmas calendar and got a Christmas tree. Nine more of these and we will win the grand price of 1 million Danish kroner.
Erik rushed to his calendar when he woke up this morning around 11 AM (so he wasn't more proud than that). He looks very happy for the tickets for the UEFA game between FCK and Atletico Madrid on Wednesday.
Rita and Axel were early out of their beds. They knew it was the first day of December and somewhere in the house there would be a Christmas calendar with their names on it as is the Danish tradition. Axel got a thing ma jigger and Rita a toothbrush. Erik thinks he is too old for a daily calendar so he has to wait until tomorrow to see if he gets an advent gift.
I had a great birthday yesterday. We celebrated it with my parents, Merete and the girls. Ellen and the kids had made brunch with lots of bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, fresh baked rolls, cheese and you name it. It was very good!
David sent 40 e-mails with birthday wishes. It took some time to answer each mail.
Now we are looking forward to the big birthday party in January.
Some time back Axel had stumpled over The Witch's Handbook at the library. He's really enjoyed all the secret advises and spells. Yesterday came the time to experiment with some of the recipies. We had poisonous pie made with mushrooms, onion and boiled egg. Axel was responsible for decorating the pie. He did a good job and we survived! (it was very good).
The movie Surf's Up has premiere in Denmark next weekend. My uncle Alfred invited Erik, Rita and Axel to a sneak preview yesterday where they were able to shake hands with Cody. They all seemed to enjoy the movie.
1. Welcome 2. Food 3. Growns up talk and children play 4. Musik 5. Dessert 6. Coffee and good company 7. The end
Last night we celebrated Thanksgiving. Axel made the programme and we followed it strictly.
As usual we had a lot of fun with my parents and our friends: David, Nadya and Marik and Maria, Zulu, Lukas, David and Cecilia. Unfortunately Merete and her girls weren't able to join us this year.
The last couple of years we have debated how and when Thanksgiving became an official holiday. This year Ellen once and for all gave the official explanation. You can find it here.
Axel and I went on "father weekend" with Axel's school class. We had a lot of fun. Axel and his very good friend Hannah fed each other flødeboller blind folded - it was just a bit messy. Last night we had a bon fire in the forrest. It was cold but very special. We sang songs and enjoyed each others company.
Tonight Axel got so fed up with the green peas for supper. He stood up and went straight to the kitchen. He fetched the shopping list on the kitchen table and put down cabbage. "I'm so tired of all those boring vegetables. Give me something good to eat!" I doubt any of his friends would even touch cabbage :-)
