easter in denmark

I had my first official Easter in Denmark and well... it couldn't have been better!  Danes get Thursday, Friday before and the following Monday after Easter off from work - SCORE!

The sun shined the entire break, nearly 75 degrees every day.  Totally incredible.  Nothing I could have dreamed of in April in Denmark.  Got my sportsbra tan rocking already and a bit of color on my cheeks, happy days.

Every year Christian's family gets together for Easter for food and the egg hunt.  However this is no ordinary egg hunt where you try to find as many small eggs as you can.  Here each grandchild gets a big egg with lots of things in it.  Same concept as Easter baskets back home I guess!  So a bit of a combination.

This year Farmor wasn't going to do Easter eggs and a big deal because of her 80th birthday bash on Easter Monday.  However I pulled out my pouty lip and said "oh but I've never been here for Easter before I was so looking forward to getting an egg" HAHAHA.  I am such a brat and I really didn't mean much about it but then Farmor just said, well yep we'll do it for Jill. We had Easter Saturday together as a family.

So I suppose it wasn't a surprise that my egg was also the biggest, haha. (Okay I'm a  big brat!) But no, it was because Christian went in on it with Farmor. He was out flying so it was kind of nice to get presents as a supplement!  He contributed the necklace/jewelry tree and Farmor got me this super hip coloring book from Christian's uncle's store in Norway.  Yes I'm 26 and I still love to color. :P

It was an awesome day, though.  Almost the whole family was there and we grilled and hung out and then I stole all the grand kids to go for a walk and take their pictures for Farmor's birthday present as a collective gift from the grand kids.

Also decided that to be less of a brat I could make sure Farmor also got an egg.  She was confused but very happy for it!  Fantastic day, though!  Lots of family time which was great.

Easter Sunday we dug up Farmor's front yard/driveway area that has been overgrown for years with random projects half started.  It was 8 of us and it took 2.5 hours but it was like a night and day project afterwards.  I was sore for several days (shovelling is hard work) but it was worth it!

Easter Monday we headed to Sweden for Farmor's 80th birthday party.  That will get a separate post! :)

Hope you all had fantastic Easters!

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matador - denmark's mad men?

Seems that Denmark may have been ahead of the times with the period series, Matador.  It was aired from 1979 - 1981, 24 episodes in total.  It is about a small Danish town and the series takes place from 1929 - 1947 and gives great insight into Danish history during this time and how society as I recognize it was founded (okay that may be giving it a lot of props but I am obsessed).

Kate you would not be disappointed with the fashion.  Loads of it!  The only problem is because the show is old I'm struggling to find good pictures on Google.  Do any Danish friends know where I could get some more?  Specifically I am looking for a picture of the Varnæs' front door.  Sounds ridiculous but I find it to be SO chic.  

I am only at 1935, about 10 episodes in.  Things are already changing quite a bit!  It's all in Danish, and 'old Danish' at that so I am still watching with English subtitles but I think it's still helping my Danish a bit.  If nothing else for the cultural bit.  If I have any brave friends/family who are into foreign film (each episode is kind of a mini movie) I will see about how to get you in possession of a few episodes! :)

It's the perfect fix for the sans Mad Men winter break! 

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christmas came early for familien als

This past weekend was the only time we could arrange to get all of Christian's family together for all things Christmas before everyone took off for the holidays.  

We hosted the day of Christmas things at both our teeny house and Farmor's next door.  We baked cookies, made the traditional Danish Christmas dinner, played a game of 'yankee swap' (white elephant exchange, grinch exchange, whatever you call that), and opened gifts.

Christian did most of the baking - well he made all the dough and let Emma and I make the cut outs.  We made what I would kind of consider gingerbread cookies (the spicey kind), vanilla almond cookies and chocolate chip.

After cookie baking we went straight into Danish dinner making.  Danish Christmas dinner consists of a pork roast, brown sugared potatoes, regular potatoes, red cabbage (we did a salad this year with oranges and walnuts), gravy and there was sausage for Ann whose family has a tradition with it. So yummy.

Christian feels like Christmas is over now - I am still counting down the minutes to come home and hug my friends and family!!  Everyone needs to get rid of any grinchness! ;) 

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danish 'high school' graduation

I thought moving to Denmark and working from home would mean that I’d have all the time in the world to do things like blog and be lazy. Errrrt. 

One thing we’ve been celebrating for a little over a week now is Christian’s little sister’s graduation from Gymnasium (Danish High School).  The high schools here are notorious for gruesome exams and it’s not an easy school to get through so we are very proud of her.

Danish tradition lesson time!  Remember when we were trying to steal booze from our high school graduation parties? And how alcohol on school premises was pretty much forbidden in an amendment to the constitution somewhere? Well we greeted Emilie in the hallway immediately after her last exam and popped champagne! 

It was pretty emotional  for Emilie…. and obviously for me. I’m practically walking Hallmark these days, so touched by everything.  I cried, eh god.  No I think it was a very proud moment for everyone there (mom, grandma, brothers etc).

The following day we held a 10 minute party for Emilie’s entire class (~30 ppl). Huh?  Well tradition here is that once all the students in a class finish exams, they take a ‘party bus’ around to everyone’s house. 

Ok what?  So high schools here are small classes that ‘specialize’ / ‘major in’ specific academic areas.  Christian’s class was Math & Science and Emilie’s was Language and Social Studies (I think that would be the translation anyway).  So they’re taking all the same courses together for three years.

The party bus is a Danish long-time tradition.  The class one year behind them decorates the truck with laurels during a small ceremony held in the morning after exams.  Then comes party party party.  The first house usually serves some breakfast but then on out it’s mostly a liquid diet and they leave as quickly as they arrive.  25+ houses in one day is a tough feat!! 

We served champagne, fruit and softice for Emilie’s class at Christian’s mom’s house.  They were at the house for literally 10 minutes.

These trucks are found all over on the Friday after exams – and everyone honks at them. You can hear them a mile away. Emilie’s truck had its own DJ, I was so jealous.  I so wanted to get on and pretend I was just finishing high school again! ;)

Another tradition are the hats/caps that the graduates wear.  They don’t do typical graduation ceremonies with caps and gowns like we do in the States but their hats are cooler and have more meaning anyway!  All your classmates/friends/family sign the inside of the cap and some bite on the rim for good luck (something like that anyway.)

We culminated the celebrations yesterday with a brunch to celebrate with family and some of Emilie’s closest friends.  We love you Emilie and are so proud of you! xo

dansk jul | danish christmas

Christmas in Denmark was absolutely fantastic, everything was exactly as I imagined.  I love all of the Danish Christmas traditions.  I reckon some of them are Als family specific but as a whole, Denmark has many traditions that are common between everyone.  I suppose it’s the homogeneity of the society here, but it makes for very cozy holidays!

Mike Prible came down to celebrate with us, which was awesome.  He has been stuck in Sweden for some time now so I kind of insisted that he come down and spend some Scandinavian holidays with us.  I think he enjoyed it! :)

So what about these traditions? 

Juletræ (Christmas Tree)

Christian and I got our own little tree. It’s not as Charlie Brown as I was originally expecting.  It’s no Curley traditional Frazer Fur but she’s a beauty just the same!  Danish Christmas trees typically have hearts, the Danish flag and even real candles amongst regular ornaments.  We left the lit candle business to Christian’s dad who hosted our Christmas Eve.  But the candles are only really lit when everyone is dancing around the tree and singing.  Yep, you read that right.  It’s pretty hard core.

  

Æbleskiver, Gløgg and “Konfekt”

Now… æbleskriver sits high in my top favorite things about Denmark.  I think it might be number three? Æbleskiver literally translates into “apple slices” which is kind of ridiculous seeing as apples have nothing to do with what I would describe as pancake balls!  O-M-G these little pancake balls are bites of heaven, I’m telling you.  They’re eaten with jam/marmalade and powdered sugar.  I find it disappointing that these are only really widely available during Christmas.  So I just need an æbleskriver maker!

Gløgg is a traditional Christmas red wine that is served hot with nuts and raisins mixed in.  YUM! We drink gløgg while we make konfekt and eat æbleskriver. :D  Konfekt just means candy making with soft nougat, marzipan, and melted chocolate supplemented by nuts, sprinkles, fruits, liquors, etc. 

Nisses (Christmas Elves?)

I don’t know how to best describe a Nisse. I consider them to be small elves that wear Santa hats and they live in the attic and talk to the pets of the home.  Keeping them happy is important and involves leaving them porridge to eat, I believe.  When things go missing in the house, it’s likely that your Nisse is upset.  Nisses are never seen but they are a very popular Christmas decoration inspiration!

Juleaften (Christmas Eve)

Unlike in the States, the big Christmas get together with dinner, gifts, etc all happens on Christmas Eve.  Santa even stops by the house during the celebration.  Typically the night kicks off with dinner followed by singing and dancing around the Christmas tree (again, I’m serious) and then gift opening.  Santa visits at some point before the gift opening, usually towards the end of dinner.  After gift opening there are some more desserts (konfekt and cookies and such) and socializing.  Some families then head to midnight mass followed by more food late night afterwards.  This year we called it a night after socializing for a bit.

Christmas dinner!

Christmas dinner in Christian’s family has always been hugely traditional.  I’ve been told that way back when families either had pork or duck as the main dish depending on how much money they had.  Pork being for the poorer families and duck for the richer.  So now many families (including ours) eat both!

One other must-have in many Danish families is Ris a la mande!  O-M-G this also makes my top favorites list.  This is a sweet rice pudding mixed with whipped cream, sugar vanilla and almond pieces.  This is served cold and then with a warm cherry sauce on top.  Drooling just thinking about it.  There is a game to look for a whole almond in your portion.  Whoever has an entire almond wins a prize.  Part of the game involves keeping it a secret as long as you can.  Guess who won this year?  Yep Mike found the whole almond in his second bite… so imagine my surprise when he goes for seconds without even mentioning it!  I was pissed!  Haha. JK!  Christian has not won, ever.  Not in 26 years.  Even I won several years ago.  Poor thing. ;)

Other traditional foods are boiled potatoes, brown sugar potatoes (boiled potatoes covered in caramelized sugar), warm red cabbage, and gravies of course.  So delicious.  I might need to make dinner immediately…

Juledag (Christmas Day)

Recovery from over eating and drinking.  Perhaps coupled with more overeating when visiting extended family.  In our case I made breakfast burritos to absorb any red wine headache still lingering.  We opened presents from Mike, our stockings (I have to keep some American traditions, duh!), and gifts from Santa to hubby and wifey.

Check out some photos from our superb Christmas.  We are so lucky and grateful for all that we have and all the family we can share it with.  And we were so glad to have Mike celebrate with us this year!

**Some of these images are rather blurry, hard to catch the essence of the lighting so we were fussing with camera settings quite a bit!

(this would be a picture of the singing thing... i told you it's true)