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Published: December 29th 2009
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Winter has come and gone...I hope. Its been hellishly cold. Not ridiculously of course, just enough to make me stay inside for days on end and find ways to make food from strange left over ingredients in order not to go to the store. That's all.
Its that strange, unreal time between Christmas and New Years, when shops may be open or closed, they're never really clear on which it will be until you get there; when people act as if its the weekend because we're not at work (oh thank you!) but are still working (from home, the best kind) and when one is trying to catch up on all that was left behind in the Christmas madness. For me it feels a little bit like neither. I didn't go to Canada this year instead we had a bizarro-land Christmas festival where the 24th is Christmas (Santa comes on the 23rd apparently) and then the 25th is just another day. So for the 24th, Dzl and I went to visit his Grandma who is amazingly 99, and doing well, a little blind, a little deaf but decidedly still 'with it' and strong so that was wonderful to see. However,
Dzl and I have both had the mother of all head colds for two weeks now and the 24th was my worst day yet so I was, at best, a zombie. Nonetheless, we survived. We got a call at 11:00am from our friend who was working to organize a dinner for a bunch of people that night, apparently the main organizer had fallen and hurt himself and there was one hour before all shops close to get dinner for 10 people. Fun times. Luckily I had gone Costco-sized shopping a few days before and Dzl and I managed to whip up a pretty Christmas dinner for 10, where only 5 people showed up so all of us ate too much and then enjoyed the fun non-Christmas-Christmas party that was our Dec 24th Luau. We got the cargo room of the ship up to 40 degrees, had a huge theatre spotlight acting as our sun, all wore leis and sarongs and drank pina coladas from pineapples while listening to hawaiian tunes. It was fantastic! When I went to bed, people had rigged up a full sized surf board to the cargo room ceiling so it was hanging about 5 feet off
the ground and were trying to 'surf'. Good times. 😊 Great idea for Christmas, warm, fun, friendly and COMPLETELY untraditional.
The next day was "Christmas" to me, the 25th. We went to Dzl's parents house with his son and had a proper Christmas complete with tree decorating and might I mention, a tree with candles on it! Real candles that were lit! Scared me but fun. There was singing of Danish songs while dancing around the tree, duck, pork roast, rice pudding with controversial caramel sauce (it *should* be cherry sauce) and much fun with me trying to speak Danish with Dzl's parents. A great night with all the right traditional elements to make up for the debauchery of the night before.
We hopped on our bikes the next morning, me fueled with the Canadian excitement of boxing day, only to find a complete ghost town, "Christmas day 2" meaning EVERYTHING was shut down and people were hiding in their homes. We went back home and followed suit, having a delightful day of tv show marathoning and sleeping. It was spectacular.
Its still a strange and oddly hectic but not-panicky time. First Christmas eve, then Luau, then
Christmas, then weekend, then finding out I wasn't to be IN the office this week, meaning my workplace is Pussy Galore, a cafe at Sankt Hans Torv where I'm being fed endless coffee and veggie smoothies - the ginger in this smoothy is sure to kill my cold! Tomorrow is Dzl's birthday, nothing big planned but we have his son over so we are restricted to child-friendly activities, though I don't know what else I would have done, impromptu trip to Berlin maybe? I miss Berlin. Anyway, then the next day is New Year's Eve, and after that, our wedding is on January 9! Crazy. We've decided to make our 'wedding anniversary' in the summer though when we have our reception because otherwise this two week period each year will be met with insanity, pressure and crying trying to meet demands of cross-continental Christmas paired with birthday and New Year's Eve.
On the plus side of all this cold weather and darkness at 4 in the afternoon, is the understanding of Denmark's trademark hygge-ness. (Coziness) the candles everywhere suddenly make sense, wearing a scarf and leg warmers is not a fashion statement but a necessity and when the snow melts, bikes keep you warm cycling along though we're so grateful to have our car. I miss my family at this time of year, so hello to you guys. 😊 Its hard to believe its Christmas when one is not with their family but I guess this is the reality, we trade years back and forth and that's simply how it must be. It was good to spend it with Dzl's parents and I think they enjoyed it a lot. I would still love to see my parent's huge dogs play in the snow or watch my mom redecorate the Christmas tree five times until its to her liking.
A Merry Christmas, God Jul to everyone - and Happy New Year! I have learned so much this year its been pretty much equally good and bad I think, fantastic things have happened and also a lot of frustration and dealing. I think its equalled out though and I'm looking forward to next year. There will be some serious resolution writing tonight and tomorrow I think. Not the typical lose-weight kind but the what to do with my life kind, the getting married, what to do how to move forward, what will this year bring and what should I aim for kind. Should be fun.
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