Happy Thanksgiving!

Although we were missing family and friends, we somehow managed to have two Thanksgiving dinners without making a single turkey!

On Thanksgiving Day, Claire and I went out to the mall for shopping and lunch with the babies. We realized that missing Thanksgiving really didn't feel nearly as bad as we thought it might since no one here is celebrating. It really just seemed like an ordinary day... which could be good or bad depending on how you look at it I suppose. We did have fun shopping and got "elephant" hats for the babies to keep warm on these cold days... I also found the necessary ingredients to make my two pies--one pecan and one pumpkin (of course!). Making the pies wasn't nearly as easy as in the states since we couldn't find shelled pecans or refrigerated pie dough and paid $5 for a small can of pumpkin! In the end, both pies turned out yummy--hurrah!

Anyway, Friday night Jared's boss Kristian and his wife, Pernille, had us out for Thanksgiving dinner. They lived in NYC for a few years, but it was actually their first Thanksgiving dinner and the first time they had made a turkey. I brought a pecan pie and Homesteader Cornbread (yum!). Everything was delicious! The funniest part for us was that Pernille kept saying that Kristian was going to "chop up" the turkey! They also just put it out on the table with the stuffing inside and everything, but in the end Jared took over and carved the turkey and unstuffed the bird, which was wonderful. A good time was had by all and we were all totally stuffed--a sucessful Thanksgiving dinner!

Saturday evening we were invited to our neighbor, Mike & Christina's, home for a BIG dinner including some Danes and ex-pats from around the world. Everyone brought something and the dinner and conversation was wonderful! Ruby was a bit exhausted having several late nights in a row, but the nice thing about this dinner was that we were able to walk on home when we (or she) was ready to hit the sack.

We have been so blessed to have met so many friends here. People have just accepted us and brought us into their lives so openly. Jared and I are just so thankful for all of our family and friends in the US who have been praying faithfully for us! Things are going so much better here than we ever could have imagined--the perfect job, a cozy home, a wonderful new church home, and new friends. God truly knows best! It feels so good having taken that leap of faith and now enjoying all of the special blessings He has for our family.

Snuffy Dozes and Big Moves

This week Ruby has suffered from her first stuffy nose--which is quite annoying to her and quite funny to us! Periodically, especially when she's eating, she gets this funny face where she wrinkles up her nose and snuffles in and out trying to clear a passage. It hasn't really been running at all, just a bit congested. I don't think that she even notices it until she's trying to breathe through her nose. Anyway, it's really cute!


Ruby has also gotten much more mobile. She is standing on her own a lot now and is even starting to unlock her knees a bit to take tiny steps in one direction or another. Mostly she still just reaches as far as she can with her arms until she gets off balance and tumbles over--then we hear the screams! Her BIG milestone this week has been pulling herself up from the floor to standing with the help of the coffeetable. She seems to be losing intrest in trying to get places with her pseudo-crawl... I think that she thinks she's ready to just take off walking! I hope it isn't too soon though! We are NOT ready for her to be toddling around the house.



Because of all the pulling up and standing that she's been doing we finally had to break down and move her crib down to the lower setting. It's only about 6-8" off the ground so it's really a pain to get her in and out of it without straining your back, but it definitely puts my mind at ease that she won't be throwing herself out of the crib any time soon!

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

Ruby's favorite part of the Experimentarium were the crazy mirrors. Here are a few of her favorite pictures...

Experimentarium

Saturday we took a family trip out to visit the Experimentarium. It's sort of like a science museum for kids--well, it's supposed to be for families, but apparently families have taken to dropping their kids off there on their own, so it was a bit of a zoo!

One section of the museum was about health and physical fitness, so here's a really crazy picture of me trying to use the bicycle merry-go-round! It was a lot harder than it may appear. We also completed various tasks of measuring, weighing, etc. in order to determine how fit we are. My results were about 50% bad and 50% good, so I'm not sure what that says. My blood pressure has gotten much lower, so that's a plus! Jared came out, of course, as the picture of health.

Another area was about eating properly and various attributes of food. The exhibit that stands out to me the most was one where there were six "candy" dispensers filled with white tablets. We had to taste one of each of the five to find: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and something else. Then the last one was a mixture of all of them so you didn't know what you were going to get. Of course Jared ended up with two salties and I got two bitters--YUCK!! They also had this funny table with mirrors so that it appears to be an ordinary table, but then you can hide underneath it to see your head served up on a platter. We didn't even realize it was a joke exhibit until we saw a little girl's head pop through!

Upstairs there was the "Physics Circus" where there were (duh!) fun exhibits displaying physical principles! Here was one of the "circus tricks" where you had to balance your body on a board by positioning it just right. It wasn't too hard for us as we are so tall, but for the kids it was more of a challenge! All in all, they had some really fun and interesting exhibits, though for the price (115kr/ea) we decided we'd probably have more fun there once Ruby is a little older, so that she's one of the annoying little kids too! Stay tuned for the next post where I'll show you Ruby's favorite part of the Experimentarium!!

Mama said there'd be days like this...

Days!?! Try a week! Sorry that this post is so long in coming, but we've had a heck of a week in Ruby-land. Sometime Monday she got a bee in her bonnet and she still seems to be having problems. But, nevertheless, I'll attempt a recap of our week...

Monday was a big day for Jared as his enchanted year (27) came to a close and he turned 28! The biggest highlight for him, I think, was his birthday gift from Ruby and I, a new iPod Nano. The little bugger is tiny and has 4GB of memory which translates to over 1000 songs. Needless to say, Jared has been "plugged in" to it almost 24-7! Ruby and I also joined Jared down at work for a small birthday shin-dig. It was also an Italian girl's birthday so there were two treats to choose from and a nice crowd turned out. After our time there, our trouble began. The plan was to get cash and go grocery shopping so that I could make Jared's meal of choice, Cajun Chicken Pasta. Well, we caught our bus okay, but then got off one stop too late and had to walk a ways to the bank. Then we walked back past the bus stop to SuperBest (the grocery store) which I then discovered was closed for renovation. The whole time, Ruby was screaming/crying at the top of her lungs hungry, wet and harried by the whipping wind that was reaching tornado-like speeds! So, near tears, I was forced to nurse Ruby on a bench on the side of a busy road and call Jared for emergency help. Thankfully, after Ruby nursed she fell asleep in her stroller and we were able to get home. Jared, meanwhile, cycled home as fast as he could then had to go gracoery shopping. It wasn't exactly the evening we had hoped for, but at least Ruby went to sleep at a decent hour and let us relax!

The rest of the week went by in a fussy blur highlighted by a major clean-up around the house on Tuesday including putting up some of our Christmas decorations, and having my neighbor, Jane, over for coffee and Lime-Glazed Coconut Banana Bread (YUM!!) on Wednesday. Thursday is a total blank for me and then Friday we had another very fussy trip to the grocery store to get necessities for us and Jane (who was home with her sick daughter, Maja). What a week! Of course there are always happy moments in the midst of all the fussing, but sometimes the fussing threatens to put a dark shadow on the whole day. Hopefully whatever is bothering her will be put to rest soon and we'll have our sweet little girl back soon...

More good news! We got news this week that my sisters, Alyssa and Christina, are going to be coming for two weeks at the beginning of January! I've already started to plan where we should go and what we'll do while they're here. It should be a real blast--so all of you should come visit us too!!

Also, some people have inquired about what we'd like to recieve in packages... Cheap Christmas decorations would be a big hit with me! I wasn't able to bring any along, so we've just purchased a few so far. I'm getting into the Christmas spirit early this year and I love decorations!!

Mommy's Night Out

Friday night we had a ladies night out for church at the Lotus House Restaurant downtown. It was my first time out on my own to do something fun since Ruby was born! It sure was easy just being able to hop on the bus without shoving her stroller into half a dozen people! There were fourteen of us who attended from all over the globe. Everything about the evening was wonderful from the tasty food (seven courses!) to the company. I couldn't believe it when it was already 10pm!

While I was out, Jared took Ruby to a game night for the guys at our pastor's home. One of the ladies babysat Ruby and Carter while the guys played Mexican Cut-throat dominoes. Unfortunately, Ruby was a nightmare and cried from the time they left the house until she saw me after the dinner. Apparently she's getting extremely attached to me! In a way that made me feel good, but I was sorry that it made Jared's evening so unpleasant. I guess this is more motivation to leave her with a babysitter every now and then so that she gets used to being away from me.

Even though I was really anxious about breaking out on my own without Jared there as a Danish-speaking safety net, I'm so glad that I did. I think that it was really good for me and gave me a lot of confidence, even if it was just dinner...

P.S. November 12th was also my sister, Alyssa's, birthday! Happy birthday Alyssa!!

Christmas in Tivoli

Thursday evening we were able to go to the pre-opening of Tivoli! (They are closed for most of the winter but do open for almost two months around Christmas.) Anyhow, a guy at our church works at the Hard Rock Cafe next door to Tivoli and gave us the tickets for free, so we were able to go with our friends Danny, Claire, and Carter from church.





I have never been to Tivoli at any time of the year, but it was apparent that the whole place had been totally transformed into a winter wonderland with lights and decorations everywhere. They also have dozens of little shops full of ornaments, Christmas decorations, and typical Danish Christmas foods like sausage and glögg (a brew I call the European sangria). Several restaurants in the park were serving typical Danish Christmas dinner, which we all enjoyed! Since we weren't able to bring any of our Christmas decorations with us, we did buy several decorations including some nisser (little Norwegian elves that they are obsessed with!) and an ornament for Ruby's first Christmas. Another Christmas tradition here is to burn what I would call an advent candle. The candle is numbered 1-25 on the side and you burn just a little bit each day until Christmas. We also got one of these because I will be going to a party in a few weeks to decorate a special candle holder for it.

One of the highlights this year was Ruby's first photo with Santa. Santa isn't allowed to hold the children here, so Jared hopped into the shot too. It isn't exactly the best pic since it was pretty cold out and we had Ruby all bundled up with a plug in her mouth to quell the fussing, but it captures the experience! Here's one last picture from the evening--Danny and Carter with Jared and Ruby. We couldn't pass up a picture of babies wearing antlers!

The Good, Bad, and the Ugly

Well, things here have been buzzing along at a pretty frenzied rate...

Last Friday marked the beginning of the Christmas season here in Denmark. Without Thanksgiving, they plunge headlong into Christmas cheer beginning with Tuborg and Carlsberg releasing their holiday brews. Stores are decorated to the nines seemingly overnight and lights are starting so be strung up everywhere to greet the season. It's really quite cheery and helps off-set the shortening of the days.

When I returned home from my Friday shopping trip with our neighbor, Jane, I found that I had just missed a package being delivered. So, Saturday Jared, Ruby and I went out on our bicycles to collect the package from the post office. When we got there we were greeted with a huge, heavy box from Anne! Thankfully I was able to stay behind with Ruby while Jared carried the package home in Ruby's trailer. While we waited I got a new headset so we can make calls for free on the computer using Skype (which, incidentally, everyone should get so they can call us for free!). After that, disaster struck! On the way home I had my first bicycle wipe-out since... oh, middle school?!? Even though it didn't really cut, I think that adult knees aren't meant to hit the pavement that hard and it's still quite stiff. Back to the package... it was stuffed with all kinds of goodies including Cambells Cream of Mushroom, Celery, and Chicken soups!! They don't carry anything like it here and I have had to abandon several of our favorite meals because of it. It also included (drumroll please!) bakeware! Cookie sheets, brownie pans, muffin tins! I was sooo excited! We had been limping along with a cookie sheet that Kay sent us (thanks Momma K!!), but now we can actually make a whole batch of cookies in a reasonable amount of time. Now all I have to find is a cooling rack and my kitchen is stocked!

We have really been enjoying our new friends, the Danfords. Last Sunday they invited us to tag along to a real mall called Fields. We didn't get too much time to shop, but found that they have a Bilka there which is something like a Super Walmart... so I'm sure we'll be returning! It won't be anytime soon on my own though as someone broke the elevator to get down to the train and there's no way I can possibly get the stroller down 3 flights of stairs by myself! A guy from church who works at the Hard Rock Cafe by Tivoli also gave all four of us passes for the early opening of Tivoli this Thursday evening, so we're planning on meeting for that. I'm sure I'll have pictures to post from that. It's supposed to be quite beautiful at Christmas.

So, that's what we've been up to. The good, bad, and the ugly!

Ruby's Six Months Old!

I can hardly believe it, but our little girl is already six months old! It really seems like not long ago we were waiting for her arrival.

I thought I'd give a six-point Ruby update today in honor of her half birthday...
1. She has eaten: rice cereal, peas, carrots, bananas, sweet potatoes, and apple cereal.
2. She loves her jumper and exersaucer.
3. She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth.
4. She can push up on her hands and knees and can squirm half way across the room in a hurry.
5. She has two bottom teeth.
6. She has the most infectious laugh of anyone I know.
7. She's the light of our lives and we love her to death.
Okay, so that was 7, but I figure it's like the birthday spankings, you need one to grow on!

Here's a cute picture after her bath yesterday. She is starting to enjoy splashing in the sink and tries to pull the plug any chance she gets. As you can see from the top pic her hair is getting long and her bald spots are starting to fill in.

On a non-Ruby note, we went to the library by bicycle yesterday! I was somewhat disappointed with their section of English language books as I have already read many of them, but I did find a few good ones. Also, I made the most delicious Chicken and Wild Rice Soup yesterday from AllRecipes.com. It is a bit time intensive, but worth it.

Well, Ruby is howling for attention, so I better go! Have a grrreat day!