Sundays

I love Sundays in Denmark! At first, I'll admit, I was annoyed at the Sunday schedule here. Church not until 1pm, nothing open, nothing to do, but now I really look forward to Sundays so much. Sundays are the one day that I sometimes get to sleep in a little while Jared feeds and entertains our little early riser. Then, we have all morning to have a big breakfast or just coffee over a great book. It is so relaxing and just such a relief not to be in a hurry for one day a week.

The 1pm service has developed into perfect timing as Ruby is cheerful after her morning nap and lunch, and more or less enjoys playing with the other kids in the nursery. Today she did her first coloring sheet. It was just a purple scribble on a cross, but I must admit it was exciting. Just the thought of all she's learned already and how much more she'll be able to do in another 9 months--it's staggering.

After church we went for a walk down Strøget while Ruby napped in the stroller. I enjoy window shopping on the Strøget, though most of the shops are closed. One of the funnier sights today was a "walk-thru" window at McDonalds. Since no cars are allowed on the street they decided to put in a walk-up window. I guess it makes sense, but it really does look a bit funny. We ended up getting a bit turned around, but the nice thing is that now we actually know the public transportation system well enough to get out of trouble. After a short ride on the metro we were quickly back where we wanted to be.

Now that we're home, Jared has been able to lay down for a nap while Ruby searches for new trouble to get into... and she found it! I just finished cleaning her up from a dive in the ashes from our wood stove. Oh well, these thing will happen. Good thing babies are washable!

As a quick update, I did go to choir and was the only one that showed up that isn't on the praise team, so that was a bit sad, but hopefully the choir will grow in the coming weeks. Also, we had our "american football" party last night which was pretty successful. We didn't end up watching any football, but everyone seemed to enjoy the food and company. I was exhausted by all the preparations, but today has helped me recover fully! The only sad thing is that Jared has been at a conference Friday and Saturday and then has to go back to work tomorrow, so it's a bit of a short weekend. We'll have to hit the hay early tonight and rest up for Monday. Hope everyone enjoys their Sunday and these pictures of our adorable Ru.

Brrrrr...

It has been soooo cold and snowy here! As for the cold, I'm finding that I'm really keen about the celsius system... doesn't "eeks, it's -6 out there!" sound a lot more realistic than, "oh, it's in the 20s... can't be too bad!". I'm here to say that -6 (or in the 20s) is bad--especially when you're walking everywhere in it. Sometimes I really regret not bringing my long johns with me, but I know that if I did wear them I'd just absolutely melt once I got into a store or onto the bus.

But then there's the snow. Yes, it's pretty, but the worst part of it all is that it is really hard to just go on with life as normal here. It takes quite some time to get the roads cleared and then only half (maybe) of the home owners/renters shovel their sidewalks, so I'm forced to push the stroller on the street a lot of the time. They do truck snow out of the city (which is interesting in and of itself), but it takes several days to get to the point where I can easily get the stroller on and off buses on my own. I've been rescued by strangers numerous times, for which I'm very grateful.

Anyway, the snow and ice ended up cancelling our dinner party last Friday night, so Jared and I had a huge ham dinner to feast on! It was really quite good (if I do say so myself!), but we missed having good fun and conversation with our friends. This Saturday we are trying to host another party... surprise, surprise--snow is predicted! Hopefully the weather reports will be wrong because if they aren't we're going to be eating chili for a week.

On a new topic (even I was getting tired of complaining about winter weather!), our church is starting a choir! Jared and I are trying to work things out so that I'll be able to go to the practices, which are on Wednesday nights. It runs from 7:45 to 9:00, but then the Men's Quartet (which Jared would like to be in) will have practices from 9:00 to 9:30. That's awfully late to have Ruby out, so we're thinking of trying to get a babysitter for an hour or so (8:30-9:30) so that Jared can leave in time to go to practice and then I'll come home and pay the sitter. Our best chance is our neighbor girl (Josie). She babysat for Ruby one other time and seemed to do okay. Of course in this scenario she'd just have to sit and watch TV or do her homework for an hour because Ruby will be asleep by the time Jared leaves. Anyway, I hope that it will work out because I would really enjoy being in a choir again.

There is also talk of a new small group that will go through the "Toddler Talk" book. I haven't read it, but our friends, Danny & Claire, live by the "Baby Talk" book and say that it's excellent. Does anyone have any experience with this series? Is it worth the time commitment? This will be once a week as well, so it looks like our evenings will be getting filled up if we decided to do it.

Starting in February some time Ruby and I will be spending a few hours a week with her buddy Carter while his parents are in Danish lessons. I think that it will be good for both of them to get some time playing together. When the weather is nicer, I'd love to take them both to the zoo, but I'll have to figure the logistics of that out since we don't have a double stroller. By then they may both be walking!! I'm also thinking of joining a moms'n'tots group, as much for my sake as Ruby's. I think that it would be good for me to try to make more friends with other moms...

Regardless of my complaints about the weather, it does seem to be cheerier lately as the days are getting longer. The sun helps to make even the coldest days enjoyable.

Well, I better get going with dinner preparations. Ruby will be up from her nap soon and then it's hard to get anything done until Jared is home. She's totally obsessed with the only three things that are off-limits: the tv/vcr, the houseplants, and the wood stove! Adios for now!

Wonderful visit

We have had such a great time with my sisters the past two weeks, that I haven't even had time to think about posting! I really can't believe how fast the time flew by. Unfortunately the weather has been quite chilly here and not very comfortable for too much sight-seeing, but we did manage to do a little bit. The first weekend we went out to Hillerød where we saw the Frederiksborg Castle. The castle was purchased by the Carlsberg Foundation and extensively restored to the Museum of National History that it is today. The castle was quite beautiful and the treasures inside were worth the trip. We also saw many of the shields that have been created to honor Danes of note throughout history. Each person has a crest created for them and painted on a shield along with their name and the date. There were hundreds there stretching back hundreds of years up to present day.

Ruby felt extremely comfortable with my sisters from the moment she saw them which was a HUGE help for me! Alyssa and Christina played with Ruby a lot and got to see her develop into a professional crawler/troublemaker over their stay! I'm not quite sure how I'm going to keep up with her now that I'm on my own again...

Last Friday night, Alyssa and Christina babysat for Ruby and sent Jared and I out for a night on the town. We ended up going out to dinner and to see Memoirs of a Geisha. I had read the book back in college, but didn't really remember the details of the story. It was really a great movie! The theater that we went to is one of the largest in Scandanavia with well over 1000 seats. It's so strange here how you have to buy your tickets in advance and choose a seat. The ticket prices even vary depending on where you sit. In a way it is nice because you know exactly where you'll be sitting and don't have to rush to your seat, but it's also a bit weird to be sitting right next to everyone since in the US we like to have that seat or two buffer between each group! Anyway, it was great to get out and Ruby (of course) did wonderfully while we were away.

The second week Ruby came down with a fever and then a horrible cold, which we all eventually ended up getting. Much of the week was spent watching "Alias" (my favorite show), as I got Season 3 & 4 for Christmas this year-- yippee!! We did manage to get out to visit the Domkirke in Roskilde, which is a large cathedral where all of the Danish royalty are buried. Interestingly enough, this is also the church that Jared's boss was married in, so his family had us all over for a traditional Danish lunch before showing us around the church. I'm shocked to report that we all really liked the herring! I can't believe it! Jared said that the stuff we had was very high quality and it wasn't "fishy" tasting at all. They also had the ever present liver pate, but I couldn't force myself to try any. Anyhow, we really had a great time!

On their last full day in Denmark we visited the Build a Bear Workshop to make a gift for our other sister, Heidi. (It's her birthday this week!) We decided to try to get Ruby to help pick out the animal and the heart and help to stuff it, etc. She was really pretty oblivious, but she did give the heart a big sloppy kiss before we stuffed it inside!

Well, now I'm back to being on my own during the day, but I think it will be okay. I've already had my neighbor over for coffee and cake and have a party to go to this weekend. We are also having Jared's research group over next weekend, so I'm sure I'll be cooking and cleaning up a storm for that. I'm really enjoying getting to try out new recipes all the time here. It's nice to do everything from scratch and I'm finding that I really don't miss as many things from the US as I thought I would.

Anyway, if you have a hankering to try a new recipe, several that I would suggest are: Simple Whole Roasted Chicken, Coffee Date Bread (sounds weird, but tastes really great), and Beer Cheese Soup.

Snow, sleep, sisters!

Once again, I'm behind. I think that I should probably just accept this as a fact of life... especially when my life includes a very precocious 8-month old!

I can't believe how much she seems to be changing and growing on a weekly basis (I know I sound like a broken record!). She really never ceases to amaze me. Our life is just soooo much nicer now that she is sleeping through the night consistantly. The really ironic thing is that her first night going to sleep well on her own and sleeping through the night was on New Year's Eve. This is especially amazing since I was pretty sure we were right smack dab in the middle of WWIII. The fireworks were absolutely insane! It was like a hundred "grand finales" going on all around us with fireworks whizzing past every window. I actually had quite a hard time getting to sleep and I usually drop like a log. Anyhow, noise and lights were no problem for our Ru and she didn't even wake up until past 8am! What a treat!

I did want to post a picture or two of our big snow storm the week after Christmas. It was a lot of snow, especially when you don't have the luxury of a car with 4-wheel drive-- or a car at all for that matter! For about three days it just kept snowing and they didn't even come down our street with a plow until it had stopped. I don't think any adults even left their homes unless they were supervising sledding excursions. So, the chances of getting our stroller through were nil. It actually was really nice though. Jared was home for the week and we spent almost entire days in our pajamas just puttering around the house. Fiddling with the computer, watching movies, playing with Ruby-- really nice!

This last week my sisters, Alyssa & Christina, came to visit. We have managed to brave the cold weather to see a church, a palace, and a castle. This morning though, Ruby woke up with a fever, so we're going to be doing indoor things tomorrow. Ruby has loved having her "aunties" around and acted like she remembered them instantly! Jared and I will get to have another date night this week while they are here, which we are of course looking forward to.

Well, I better challenge my sisters to a quick card game before I hit the sack. Hope everyone is having a wonderful Lord's Day!