fall fun

Busy weekend at the Als house. Friday night turned into a shopping extravaganza at Ikea as the designer in me has sprung to inspiration for the living room, finally.  Still have a few pieces to get and touches but when it’s done – I will be proud anyway.  Christian is a little sour that I am putting all of his old furniture in storage. ;)

Saturday I went to school while Christian assembled our new tv stand.  Came home for some quick cleaning and we were out the door to the ‘Gamle Elevers Fest’ – ‘Old Students Party’ directly translated.  It’s an annual reunion for any alumni of Helsingør Gymnasium (the high school where Christian and I met).  Here's a pic of the boys at dinner...

It was tons of fun; I danced my friggen butt off.  Paid for it on Sunday and am still in a small amount of neck pain.  Miss Steph Walsh probably doesn’t have to guess where the neck pain came from, she knows my dance moves. Erhmm anyway.

Sunday we had our friend Sillas over all day to hang out.  We all slept til what should have been 1pm but with day lights savings was ‘only’ 12pm.  I haven’t done that in ages, seriously.  We made food all day, including pumpkin pie – finally!

Now this pumpkin pie is good but not the real deal, not sure what is missing.  I think it might be the kind of pumpkin.  Here the only non jack-o-lantern pumpkins are these hokaido pumpkins – never really heard of them in the States.

Some fun pics from making our jack-o-lantern this year :)

 

 

Anyway will try again on the pumpkin pie for THANKSGIVING!  Can’t wait – good friends of ours have offered to host, and well one of them is a chef and is excited about cooking a thanksgiving meal, woohoo!

Loved all the Halloween pictures from the States that I’ve seen on FB, can’t wait to see my friends and family in just under two months!!! :D

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boo

Halloween has made it much further into Danish tradition than I originally expected.  This Sunday I went to Copenhagen famous Tivoli (world’s first amusement park) for their Halloween festival.

Now the decoration was nothing short of good and authentic fall with some 14,000+ pumpkins!  However I didn’t find it altogether spooky – which is fine I don’t care for spider webs fake or not, Halloween or not. So in that regard I was quite happy with their take on Halloween décor.

What was unimpressive is that I could not find one single vendor selling candy corn.  Uhm, did anyone check out Google before they decided to dedicate a huge amusement park to an originally American holiday? (I’m sure someone will soon tell me Halloween was originally from like Africa or something…)

Then there is my attempt to explain the damn things.  “Erhm… they are like pretty much colored confectioner’s compacted as a chew candy?” Haha… no clue.  I resorted to doing a Google image search and showing everyone instead.  And thanks to the lovely Cyndi Pebbles I will soon have some to share here.

Now here comes a really funny story.  I was also on a hunt for hot apple cider which may not be exactly Halloween specific but it’s as Fall as it gets, no?  So we went from vendor to vendor asking if they sold hot apple cider, “no”, “no”, “huh?”, “uhmmm no”… etc. Finally came upon a vendor selling the traditional Danish Christmas hot spiced wine and figured they’d be a good candidate.  “Do you have warm apple cider?” “Yep!”

What did she do? She took out a cold bottle of Sommersby cider (hard Swedish cider) and poured into a cup… took it over to the Espresso machine and STEAMED IT.  Who does thattt?! OMG! Hilarious.  In her defense, it was warm (luke warm) cider by definition. You just can’t help but laugh.

Anyway, I’ve gotten a little more into the Halloween spirit by now.  Might attempt a Sunday Halloween sweets get together with anyone interested.  Will make pumpkin pie (finally got the proper kind of pumpkin!) and some HOT APPLE CIDER (do you people make me do everythingggg from scratch in this forsaken country?!).  Who knows, maybe I can make Christian wear his cow costume.  Let’s all remember I got him in tights last year, how hard could it be?

Happy Halloween!

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making fall cross-cultural

While all of my favorite fall things (pumpkin flavored anything) may not have yet found their way to Denmark, I have found that fall can be somewhat similar here if you try!

Two weekends ago Christian and I went apple picking.  This is something I apparently took for granted at home in the US (along with cider donuts).  It's just not as widely available here, at least on the island we live on.  I found one farm that offers self-picking about 25 minutes away and voila, we went apple picking! 

There were four types ripe for plucking and I don’t recognize any of their names.  Not sure if they’re Danish or what.  We picked 3 different types, two of which are more for cooking things like apple pie, apple cake, etc. YUM.  We also grabbed a few pears that had already been picked by the farm.

Unfortunately, beyond the cute little apple crate I (obviously) insisted on buying, that was as cute as the experience got.  There were no cider donuts, no hay rides and no pumpkins.  But I take what I can get here!  Maybe I should take some of that back… how many castles can you go apple picking at in the US? ;)

We have conquered a delicious apple pie.  Christian has conquered a delicious apple pie.  I only made the weaving of the top crust, he made every thing else - he's a good baker!

We’re still hunting for proper ‘pie pumpkins’ to make some of my favorite pumpkin deliciousness.  I think pie pumpkins, while still difficult to find, will be easier to find than Libby’s pumpkin puree in Denmark. And of course experts say it will taste better, too. :) Here’s hoping!

We have a pumpkin to carve but no real talks about Halloween or costume parties.  Halloween is growing here in Denmark but it’s not something I’m dying to recreate here.  Thanksgiving on the other hand… whole different story.

In other news, I am really itching for a new camera, specifically a learner’s digital SLR.  I’ve been taking more and more photos in this blissful stage of my life and my point and shoot is just… well she’s not what she used to be even though (or maybe it's because) she survived the better half of college.

A friend, Kate, just got a Nikon D3000 and she took super cute pictures of her apple picking adventure.  I’m jealous!  Though her weather was better and I only used my iphone… these are the kinds of days I want to be a grown up with a grown up camera!

Anyone else have suggestions?  Keep in mind I am not a billionaire and will be most likely ask Santa for this…  and I don’t have a rich Santa either! ;)  The real question/testament is whether or not impatient Jillian can wait for Santa. :-/ Uhm yeah…  I suppose you’ll find out if you suddenly see stunning (because obviously I’m that good pfft) photos on the blog… haha.

Happy fall!

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october was phantastic

Well many of you know, hubby came back for a month to spend some time with me while his planes were grounded.  So, October has been pretty amazing. ;)

Instead of gushing on and on about everything I thought I would create a small photo montage to depict the events of our month!  Unfortunately I don't have pictures for everything but hopefully you get the idea!

Party Trolley for Jeana's Birthday

Phillie's NLCS

Fall walks

Phillies to World Series

Halloween in the Office

Halloween at home with the Fam

 

Family hike

I love my family and friends.  Christian and I are so blessed.  I reckon Fall will be coming to an end here in New England quickly.  It always goes fast!  

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 ...GO PHILS!

What will you BEE for Halloween?

Okay keeping with the fall theme (sorry!) I just have to discuss one particular adorable costume for Halloween, Bzzz.  Etsy.com is always emailing me with themes of various retail goodies.  Today's email was for Halloween costumes.

Check out the cutest bumblebee costume ever:

I about died when I saw this.  I LOVE it! Maya, will you please wear this? ;) This designer on Etsy has loads of precious tutu themed costumes. I couldn’t think of anything cuter for a little girl.  But maybe it’s just because Maya spoils me with her interests in dance and dressing up.

Lady bug anyone?

Or how about just a fun pixie outfit?

Maybe no one appreciates how cute these are but me as I love all things baby and children. However, hope they put you in a good mood thinking about fun Halloween costumes!

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