where's the craic?

Happy St. Patrick's day everyone!  I am very nostalgic today.  Living in Boston and of course in Dublin spoiled the 1/2 part Irishy stuff in me!  In Boston we never felt too old to find ourselves in Faneuil Hall or on Boylston St to celebrate in a very collegiate style.  I'm pretty sure at age 24 I was at Lir after work wearing my Irish flag as a cape... it's fine?

This picture is from when Lizzie and Toni came to visit me for St. Patrick's Day weekend in Dublin.  We started the day at the parade, watched some rugby and ended up dancing the night away until some absurd hour of the morning at a club in Dublin.  Brilliant craic.

This year I will be going home after work only to sign into a remote meeting with my US colleagues (9 hours behind me so at least I can safely guess they won't be drinking yet) and then who knows... dinner with grandma? Watch Friends?  My life is pathetic but I love it just the same. :)

On second thought... albeit Danish, the Irish drink a TON of Carlsberg... I'm sure I could drink one or two in honor of them tonight! ;)

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love my bff

Swalshy made it safe and sound to Denmark :)  Greeted her in the airport late Thursday night with flags and hugs - was so freaking excited to see her!

Somehow we stayed up late drinking a bit of bubbly and just catching up on the new adventures of swalsh in NYC and international work travels.

Friday we were very slow moving but made into the city in the afternoon to walk around a bit before heading to Heidi's to meet up with the Danish crew for cheap beer and lots of laughs.  I was so happy everyone got to meet my one and only Stephanie and I was also really happy she got to meet the great Danes that are in my life. :)

Another late night meant another slow start on Saturday.  It was a bit ridiculous but I was just so happy to have her here it didn't matter if we didn't see all the sights.  There will be plenty of other opportunities.  Nothing beats hangovers on the couch laughing our butts off.  We finally got our act together to go to lunch (was supposed to be brunch but oh well!).

After brunch in Hillerød we walked around the infamous castle there.  Most people who know me have seen pictures of this place a million times but I always like taking people there just the same.  Winter has a bit of a bare look but nice just the same!

After a tour around Hillerød we went back to Fredensborg (where we live) and took a walk in the park around the castle there.  Sunset made for some fun pics - Steph makes a very beautiful subject!

Saturday night Christian made some delicious Danish meatballs and ate with Farmor, Christian's Dad and fiance Ann.  Steph liked the Danish meatballs - success! 

My swalshy left reallly early this morning (feels like a day ago by now it was so early).  So without accomplishing a whole lot of tourism I still felt like it was the perfect weekend!  It is just sooo nice to spend time with someone you miss and love! :)  Hoping to catch her in London in May when she's there - love her new job!

Love you swalsh - come back soon!  Denmark misses you already! xoxo

thanksgiving in denmark

I have so much to be thankful for in my life and most importantly is all the love that surrounds me by friends and family.

My little Danish thanksgiving was fantastic!  We had an amazing dinner with great company and delicious food.  Most credits for the food go to Claus, our chef.  He had fun making new food and I had fun drinking wine in the kitchen saying yes we put marshmallows on our sweet potatoes and no it’s not the wine talking, hahaha.

Our menu included:

• 11lb Turkey
• Mashed potatoes (with lumps in honor of my dad and mom-mom and the rest of the Curley crew)
• Stuffing with apples, cranberries and chorizo
• Sweet potato mash with pineapples and marshmallows
• Cranberry sauce
• Creamed Spinach
• Green beans with rum soaked plums
• Pumpkin Pie (Chr and I made this)
• Pumpkin Bread (Chr & made this too)

Holy cow was it delicousss!  I have converted the Danes – they also agree that Thanksgiving is the best American holiday by far!  We are making it a tradition every year!  I am waiting on better pictures from Jeanette's camera - will post them when I can.  Until now - bear with the iphone pics! :)

There was no NFL to watch put I put on a little “Alice’s Restaurant” and then Christmas music that was Thanksgiving enough for me.

Only bummer thing is that Denmark doesn’t give us the Friday after Thanksgiving off so we chose to do it on Friday so that food comas and hangovers could linger into the weekend rather than the last of the work week. 

We need to find a way to expand Thanksgiving dinner next year – get more people on board.  Just need to find more seating and big enough kitchens.  Maybe we could make it the Jilly version of Julefrokost  (a very Danish tradition)… hmmm.  I have a year to think about it.

The countdown continues to come home.  I am so excited to 1)be on home soil so close to my family and friends 2) have a few days off from work (though, not enough). 

We’ve also started some small Christmas traditions.  This past Sunday was the first Sunday of advent – we lit our first candle.  Normally on the first day of December Farmor makes risengrød, a very traditional Danish Christmas dish.  It is unsweetened, warm rice pudding served with butter and cinnamon.  I like it, but not as much as Christian does.  Anyway we did the tradition last night because little Farmor is in Sweden the next two days.  Yum.

Hoping we can get our lottery advent calendars to start tomorrow as well but everywhere is sold out lately.

By the way, we also received maybe 18 inches of snow over the weekend.  Was not paying attention as there was a little snow here and there all week.  I don’t think I realized until Saturday that we had over a foot of snow and it was still coming down.   Winter is here!

Should have broke this post up a bit – had so much to say!  Too busy these days, that is for sure.  I know it won’t calm down any time soon,  unfortunately.  But it’s Christmas time – lots to be thankful for and lots to look forward to!

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bachelorette number two

Two weddings has started to appeal to my good side lately.  Never considered that I might get two bachelorette parties, how fun!  I am waiting on pictures so bare with me on this text heavy post! :)

I was under the impression I would have to leave school early for a meeting at the church but just before I was going to leave there were visitors at the door of my classroom.  It was all my Danish girl family members, so exciting!

We drove into Copenhagen and I was given a bag that Christian packed for me with two bathing suits inside.  I thought, bring on the champagne.  Me and bathing suits aren’t friends these days, sigh.

Much to my surprise and relief it was the opposite of torture. :) We had a day at the spa.  One of the big swimming halls in Copenhagen has a whole floor above their facilities dedicated to a spa and this is where we ended up, phew!

Friends from Copenhagen met us there and we enjoyed aroma baths, sun tanning, swimming, massages, refreshments and so on.  We did a themed sauna tour where we got aromatherapy in the sauna, then mud masks and salt scrub in the steam room and then back to the sauna for a body oil treatment.  We finished it off with a dip into the ice bath.  I felt so Nordic.

I would have slipped right out of Christian’s hands at the end of the day there my skin was so smooth.  It was soooo nice.  Emilie, Christian’s sister, did a great job putting it together and picking a very Jilly activity!  I am so blessed to have such caring and loving family and friends in my new country!

There were only minor embarrassments, such as a swim cap with flowers on it – something out of the 1960’s synchronized swimming!  For those in the US… I just kept singing ‘Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Saturday Sunday Every dayyyyy’ – you know, that annoying Nuvaring commercial? This is obviously not me, but I did manage to find a picture of the cap on Google:

Hahaha, oh man.  Then I had some little girls princess dress-up accessories to wear – nothing torturous!  :D

After the day at the spa we met up with two other friends and wandered down to a café in Christianshavn along the canal for cocktails and dinner.  We were all starving!  The café had great cocktails and food – just delicious for a not so expensive price ticket (very unusual in DK!).  I will definitely go back.

Lots of people headed out early before any karaoke happened but it was very hygge (this word deserves its own post at some point).  Lots of drinks and conversation to go around!

The night ended by convincing Christian to come in and have a beer with myself and Jeanette.  We sat on a bench and had a beer and talked about life and looked for shooting stars, literally.  Haha!

A huge thanks to all the ladies that helped plan this very lovely day and another big thank you to everyone that shared the day with me – it was truly great!

Wedding is so close!  Lots to do!

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anniversaries and 2nd weddings

I am confusing many people these days when I talk about our second wedding.  I think half the people I explain it to here think that I am getting remarried to a different man less than one year after my first wedding. hahaha.  

In more exciting news we received a present for our first wedding anniversary!  Thank you Uncle Matt, Aunt Angela, Jack & Maya!!!

I was working from home yesterday, it was the perfect midday surprise!  Take notice of the heart glitter EVERYWHERE.  I have a feeling these will be haunting us for many anniversaries to come!  i found one in the shower this morning, another one in a sock this afternoon... etc.

My aunt, Angela, is so crafty.  She took my dried bouquet and put it in a shadow box frame with our invitation.  Soooo cute and so original compared to some of the more traditional invitation frames.  I LOVE IT!

And what would a care package from the Huberty's be without child artwork?  Melts my heart.  Our fridge here is overflowing already.

Jack's drawing of him and Christian in their monkey suits:

Maya's artistic spin on my wedding dress.

I love guys and miss you SOOOO MUCH!!! Thank you for being so thoughtful!! It means a lot to us :)

Also got a card in the mail from my bestie Stephanie - thank you my love!  (i miss you)

And finalllllly customs took their grubby hands off my dress!  It's here and laying out - hope the wrinkles fall out before the wedding otherwise I will have to steam it.  I just noticed three buttons are missing from the back grrr.  Those definitely could have fell out dancing at our (first) wedding, though.

Wedding numero dos is a week and a half a way.  Should be a great time - we'll miss friends and family from the US!

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