GODT NYTÅR - 2017

Jens always likes to have the Christmas decorations down by the new year. 
Out with the old and in with the new - I guess. 
I spent several days putting them up at the end of november so that we could enjoy them for the full month of December.  But I had to move like wild fire to have them down in time to put up the New Year decorations and have dinner and everything ready for the queen's New Year speech. 
It's the number one, most watched television program in all of Denmark.

So you can imagine how pissed we were along with the other nearly 1.8 million YouSee cable tv subscribers when we all lost the tv signal just moments before the queen was to go on.

At the beginning of December we got a mail saying that there is going to be a few changes to the cable service starting January 1.
It said that it is just a simple re-setting of the MHz signal.
They suggested to do it now in order to avoid a black out. 

Of course I waited.
TV went black.
And just minutes before the queen was to go on the air. 
 I had to hurry and do the re-setting. 
I did it several times but nothing helped. 
I was getting upset.
First of all because a black out was not supposed to take place until Jan 1.
And here it was still Dec 31. 
And I started to panic. 
We have been waiting all month long for the queen's speech. 

So I knocked on my neighbors door and they said,
"Of course we have a connection.  You can just come over here and watch it." 
But they were having a party with guest and we were still in our grubby clothing. 
"Just come as you are", they said. 
They really are a nice couple. 
But I had to ask them,
"Could you please just check and see if you even have a picture on the screen."

Well, surprise....................... no signal.

It turns out that something went seriously wrong with the cable company.
Nearly 1.8 million people couldn't watch tv. 
Luckily my brain went into fast forward gear.
I clicked onto the tv page on the computer. 
Thank god we were able to watch the queen give her yearly speech on the computer.
Although it was not on the big screen nor from the recliner.

Earlier that day,
before we even knew there was going to be a problem,
our neighbor - the one who invited us in,
gave us some fresh baked kransekage (new year pastry).
And a few weeks earlier,
 our friend Birthe came by with a very fancy bottle of Danish produced cheery wine to say congratulations on passing the Danish citizenship test. 

I had to move everything from the new sofa table to the new computer table.
And there in front of the computer screen we started to ring in the new year with cherry wine, fresh baked kransekage and the queen - this is the essence of hygge (minus the computer chair - ugh).

  

When the speech was over, we got dinner going. 
We started with a bowel of amazing lobster based soup with lots of crab.

When we finished the soup, I put my American twist on an otherwise very traditional Danish dish called Shooting Star. 

3 kinds of fish, a huge pile of shrimp, 2 kinds of caviar, and white asparagus all on a huge thick slice of fresh baked Danish bread. 

Played cards,

walked the dog,

watched fireworks from the balcony

and watched tv from the computer screen on the dinning table. 

By the time midnight came around we still had not eaten dessert because we were filled up with fish.

Kransekage in the shape of a clock. 
The annual "Dinner For One" just before midnight is on the computer. 
You can see the comedy show here.  Start at the 0:30 second mark. 
It's in English.

 Blinking colored lights on the balcony.
Danes don't really do blinking lights and especially colored ones.
Soft white lights are for Christmas.
The colored blinking lights braided with streamers was my expression of New Year's

And then at 12 midnight, all hell breaks loose all over the city.

 You become what you eat.

Across the street from us is a parking lot.
It belongs to the union office.
So most home owners go to the lake that is just around the side of our building. 
From our balcony we can see a tiny bit of what goes on there.
But over the harbor we can see what is going on over the city. 
These few pix above and the 2 vids below are from the lake side.

I hope your new year will bring you peace and happiness and all that is good.
Ka-boom!