Catching up on 2010: Preparing for the holiday in Denmark - Part 1

Happy New Year everyone!
We hope you all had an enjoyable holiday season and transitioned smoothly into 2011.

After some travels in Europe and a challenging beginning of the year (tragic passing of a dear friend among other things) we are back to normal (or so) which of course includes much-awaited blog updates! So let's start first with what happened on our end here since late November, beginning with a Thanksgiving celebration at our place.

With all the snow we got since mid-November, we kinda got sidetracked into wondering whether it would disappear or not. Well, we are getting closer to the anniversary of our arrival here and snow is still on the ground... There's more or less of it as we go, but it's always there. Alright, let's try to not focus too much on snow again here...

Back to late November... On the Saturday following Thanksgiving, we organized a Thanksgiving dinner at our place with friends from work, including two American expatriates that we know here: Lee (who works with C) and Maureen (the wife of Claus, who also works with C). C was happy that we found a turkey in a downtown store. She then tried an unconventional recipe to bake it, piece by piece. The result was indeed as proclaimed: both dark and white meats ended up moist and tender. Even the cat enjoyed the recipe very much, because it meant C had to spend some time in the kitchen to spread the beast apart. Our cutie did not miss any of the action, oh no...

Of course this very nice meal was accompanied by some fine wines and ended with home-made pecan and pumpkin pies... Definitely a success! And altogether a feeling of being "just like home"...

The next Sunday we went to the inauguration of the 25 meter-tall Christmas tree all decorated with lights in front of the city hall. It was cold so we had some of the local glogg (warm red wine with some spices and almonds). We listened to a choir of kids dressed as mini Santas who were singing from a balcony. Then seven or eight kids joined the mayor on some stage and they all turned on the lights on the tree, further marking the beginning of Advent. The bronze pigs from the famous fountain were all wearing a red ribbon around their neck for the celebration...

Photos du jour - 11 dec 2010

Just as we were reflecting on how snow would never disappear until March or so, well, it just did! Overnight! Upon waking up this morning we were all surprised (that includes Sascha) to see almost everything gone.

So the day was much warmer (8°C/46F today instead of -4°C/25F yesterday around mid-morning), very sunny, and it was great that today was precisely a Saturday :-) A wonderful opportunity for a walk through the forest to the sea...

We won't be fooled though and we remember that this does not announce Spring for real... merely a remission before another cold wave. Stay tuned (and warm)!

Photos du jour - 10 dec 2010

A few pictures taken today, around 10am.
Enjoy!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow: As if we had a choice!?

Snow's here to stay, or so it seems since our last posting. It arrived back then and guess what? It just won't melt and more regularly replenishes the little that disappeared. This is definitely not lucky-happy Boulder where everything goes back into the air in less than 24 hours. The few millimeters on tree branches can even stick around for days. So just imagine what piles up on the ground in the meantime. Downtown they even send trucks to pick up the snow piles before they turn into hills that would mask traffic at intersections...

OK we haven't had 4 feet of snow in two nights. But whatever layer of snow is on hat picnic table outside our back door (about 1.5 foot thick) does not really get much thinner. Sascha keeps meowing at the glass door seeming to ask "can't you just do something about this so that I can go to my usual playground?". Well, we let him out the front door instead (where it's somewhat plowed) and he is usually back after 2 and a half minutes...

So we are pretty much resolved to not seeing snow melt until March or April. Not quite resolved to having to shovel snow so frequently, but working on it and at least getting better at shoveling (never got a chance to do that in Colorado with that wonderful God-given sublimation process). We learned (the hard way) that a big factor when looking for a place to live in Denmark is whether that place is on a street corner. Because when it is—like our house now—you get two sidewalks to shovel instead of one! And you just don't want to have to do that for the rest of your life in a place where it's an every-other-day kind of activity for several months in a row...

Isn't it insane what one can still learn about snow even after several years spent in Colorado? Who would have thought? And there are not even any mountains to be seen for hundreds of miles around here! Quite humbling, if you ask me.

It's true snow's been hitting Western (and of course Northern) Europe quite hard, paralyzing most of France (no strikers required this time ;-). What's funny though is that now we don't hear any longer our fellow Danes say "it never snows in Denmark" but rather "it's never snowed that early before". Come on, guys, please... One day you will need to realize that yes, you live THAT FAR NORTH! ;-)

Stay in touch for more news from the Pole sometime soon, weather permitting...

Il neige à Aarhus (again!)

Last night we got our first snowfall, naturally out of the blue (grey?) since Danes keep telling us that "it never snows in Denmark" or that "snow is exceptional". Hmm, well, we did not really believe that before moving, as snow seemed to be on the ground in several versions of Hamlet including this one. But OK, in such stories it could still have come from the imagination of moviemakers and storytellers, who would have taken a poetic license for the sake of intensifying drama. But when we were told that "Spring and Summer are beautiful here" and indeed experienced a nice Spring and Summer that lasted from June until August, we were not too surprised any longer to see again snow fall from the sky last night... Threw us right back into the chill of our first days in Aarhus, although we did not dare to go by the sea to see if it was frozen!

But in any case, wasn't it fun to watch snow fall last night! Q went outside a few times, just to turn on the automatic exterior light and lighten up all these snowflakes. Sascha did not ask to go out on his usual night adventure though ;-)

Although it snowed overnight, there was merely an eighth of an inch on the ground by morning, which had mostly melted by mid-day today. We still spent most of the day inside, experiencing in our own way what Danes refer to as "hygge", which could be translated into "coziness": Baby, it's cold outside, so why don't we stay home and enjoy the snow covered backyard throughout the window from our comfortable chairs... It was Sascha's hair removal treatment again, so it is fair to say that it also snowed fur balls today...

So after our first two or three weeks into the darkness, with daily dinners by candle light, this arrival of snow marks the official beginning of the holiday season. Right on time for our upcoming Thanksgiving celebration a week from today. Oh yes! C plans to celebrate Thanksgiving just as usual, albeit for the first time outside the US. We will have some of our American expat friends over at our place a week from today, so it'll be just like home!