Tivoli is lit. December 2017.

Tivoli is spectacular during Christmas. My Mother-in law lives in Callaway Gardens, so I have seen their Fantasy in Lights many many times. Having seen those, it takes a lot to impress me. Tivoli impresses, big time. They have strung lights on virtually everything. It looks magical, the pictures really don’t do it justice.

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ps. This is a typical Danish Christmas tree and typical Danish Christmas candy. Not very impressive. Andy and Katherine seem to like the candy though.

xoxo-sk

Christmas Markets. December 2017.

Christmas markets are a big thing in this part of the world. They have food, drinks, and stalls set up, with vendors selling traditional Danish Christmas presents. We visited ones in Nyhavn Harbour,  Kongens Nytorv, and Nytorv Square.

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The Hotel D’Angleterre’s beautiful Hans Christian Anderson themes advent calendar. IMG_3075

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Just grilling up some dogs and buns, old school style. Andrew enjoyed one of these.

The Scandinavians love them some Glögg. It is a mulled wine with spices, and it is everywhere at Christmas. Not my favorite. The had fudge though. And I do like fudge.

KRK enjoyed her hot chocolate, she didn’t like the glögg either. kidding.

Kids with a slightly creepy Hans Christian Anderson.

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xoxo-sk

Danish Deliciousness.

In general, Danish favorites, smørrebørd, rye bread, herring, are not really my thing. But, I can get on board with their love of potatoes, roast pork, bacon, sauces, beer, and pastry. Lucky for me, Copenhagen has a fabulous variety of restaurants and foods.

Chips and guacamole and sweet potato soup with coriander and coconut milk at the California Kitchen.

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Cafe A’s version of a club sandwich. Not what I was expecting, but good none the less.

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Pastries Andy bought one day. They are from my favorite bakery here, Lagkagehuset.

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I had a Thanksgiving style dinner at The American Pie Company with some friends. Turkey pot pie, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, dressing, cranberries, and apple and pumpkin pie. It was a great taste of Americana. So good.

This is brunch at one of my favorites- Wulff & Konstali. Scrambled eggs with herbs, blood oranges with rosemary honey, thyme bacon, danish style waffle with caramel and raspberry cream. So fancy, I know.

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ps- Look what we found. They weren’t that bad.

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xoxo-sk

Ice Ice Baby. December 2017.

There is a small outdoor ice skating rink we went to in Frederiksberg. It was cold, it was fun, and it was clear; our kids are not naturally born skaters.

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The kids did get better. They were able to skate (somewhat) independently by the end, and no one broke anything, which is a win. And a good time was had, and that is always the most important.

ps. If you know me at all, you know I couldn’t help but crack up at their falls. I know, I can’t help it.

xoxo-sk

Danish KRK and Danish AK.

Katherine and Andrew love being in Copenhagen. They love their new school and have made a bunch of friends. The weather doesn’t seem to bother them. They only sometimes mind all the walking. They miss friends and family obviously, but they have settled in better then I could ever imagine.

Katherine is eight, going on eighteen. She wants to be a big girl so bad. Her favorite thing these days is her baking class she takes after school on Thursdays. I don’t know if it’s the sweets, or getting to hang with the cool high school girls that teach it that she loves more.  Katherine loves unicorns, cats, LOL dolls, tacos, silver and purple. She likes to hang out with her friends. K is creative, dramatic, and likes to write in her many notebooks and journals. She can be critical and a bit of a know-it-all. She’s the “but, actually” kid sometimes. Katherine is an adventurous eater and will try anything once but is scared of getting her ears pierced. K loves to read like her Mother. She is super smart and likes to be funny. Katherine likes to be with me all the time and hold my hand when we walk.

Andrew is my sweet sensitive Mama’s boy. He has a great imagination and is constantly creating. He likes to draw and write stories. He loves scary movies. Andy let him watch the old IT, he was so happy. He is a pleaser and wants to make everyone happy. He is cautious and tends to look after Katherine a little to much. A likes things to be fair and can get upset easily at times. He is messy and kind. He hates cheese, but loves cheese pizza and queso. Andrew is very into the Earth. He likes to pick up litter and he makes sure we are always recycling (we are, you pretty much have to here.) He loves animals, Minecraft, burgers, school and his friends. Andrew still loves to cuddle, and he really really misses McDonalds breakfasts.

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Andy took them to Fredriksberg Park one day.

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Twinning with their iPads.

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Halloween (Scream Guy and Zombie Vet)

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KRK rocking the high pony and feeling really good about it.

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Yeah, my kid likes to sleep in a box sometimes.

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xoxo-sk

Stockholm Syndrome II. October 2017.

Good Morning Sweden.

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We visited Junibacken, a Childrens museum/play area devoted to Swedish books and authors.

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Kids on Pippi Longstocking’s horse.

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Andrew took this fabulous pic of us.

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We also visited the Vasa Museum. This is probably the most impressive museum I have ever seen. They have completely restored the warship Vasa, that sank in the 17th century on it’s maiden voyage. The Museum tells the story of how it was built, life on the ship,  why it sunk, and how they recovered it. Truly a sight.

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Andrew loved it. Katherine is not in any pictures, because she did not.

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It’s true. A lot of places over here you have to pay to pee. It’s not expensive, but it’s a hassle.

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xoxo-sk

Stockholm Syndrome I. October 2017.

During fall break, we took the train up to Stockholm for a few days. I really liked traveling by train, it was super easy and relaxing. Stockholm is very similar to Copenhagen, very flat, on the water, windy, similar weather- rainy one minute, sunny the next. It does have a little more of a modern feel to me. We walked around their parks, visited the Palace, Museums, shopped a little. Sadly, (only for me) there was no time to visit the Abba Museum.

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We stayed at Hotel King Carl in a family room. The Europeans don’t really do suites. If you have kids, you can pay for an extra hotel room, or try to find hotels with bunk beds or sofa beds.

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Kids wanted burgers for dinner (shocker.) Food and drinks in Stockholm are a little less expensive then Copenhagen.

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The kids may have liked the breakfast buffet most of all. Even picky Andrew loved the rolls and cold cuts, he’s soo Euro now. K stuck with eggs and bacon, so American.

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Riksdag, the Swedish Parliament

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About to address the nation…

The Royal Palace

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K is super into this.

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Swedish Katherine.

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How can you not have Swedish meatballs in Sweden? Also, I have noticed they love their cucumbers over here, in Copenhagen too. They are everywhere.

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xoxo-sk

Happy Birthday x 2. October 2017.

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My babies are eight. Time flies these days. We did a birthday breakfast with Mimi before she had to leave.

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Yes, Andrew wanted and got a litter picker upper. My sweet boy is very into saving the planet. Katherine is always happy with something cute and cuddly.

Birthday celebrations at school. I brought doughnuts for Katherine’s class and cookies for Andrew’s. IMG_2049

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We had friends over for a little party at our place. Cupcakes and Dominos. Yes, the have Dominos here, and it tastes pretty much the same here as it did in the States.

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xoxo-sk

Kulturnat. October 2017.

Kulturnat (Culture Night) is an evening in Denmark where over 250 museums, businesses, theaters, parks, churches, places have special events open to the public. You buy a pass for 90kr ($15ish) and have access to all events and free pubic transport (kids are free.) They have activities and events all over the country. We tried to pack in as much as we could.

One of the places we went to was the Cinemateket. Special effects artists gave K and A gnarly face wounds. Very realistic and impressive. They looked amazing, and it literally took less then five minutes. The kids loved them.

They also freaked my parents out when we texted them a picture.

We also went to Christiansborg Palace. This Palace houses the Danish Parliament, Prime Minister’s Office, and the Danish Supreme Court. The Royal Family has Reception rooms (hence the thrones) at this Palace. The Royal Chapel and Stables are also at Christiansborg.

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And a quick trip to the National Museum of Denmark, and then the kids were finished. Off to go home and clean off the blood.

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xoxo-sk

The King’s Garden, BBQ, and Mimi. October 2017.

We are so excited, Mimi came to see us. Kids were so happy when she came with me to pick them up.25311341_1758608090856784_8020068571705598026_o

We showed her all around Copenhagen. We went to The King’s Garden.

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Katherine is working, very seriously, on her “non-stick figure art.”

 

We all went out to the Meat packing District and ate at Warpigs. It was quite good. Not as good as my beloved Fox Brothers, but very good.

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Brisket, Pork, Chicken, Mac. Note the pickles- unfortunately they don’t really do the dill pickle thing in Denmark, it’s all sweet (cringe).

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Danish pimento cheese, not great.

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Matching lipstick at the BBQ joint, because why not?

While Mimi had the kids one night, while Andy and I went to see IT. The movie theater we went to is attached to a mall, Fisketorvet. The malls are similar to ones in the States, just on a smaller scale. They also routinely have (small) grocery stores inside. We did a little tailgating with our free time before the movie, with our grocery store Carlsberg on the water, right outside Fisk. It’s nice, but windy. So windy.

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xoxo-sk