Merry Christmas / Happy New Year - 2020/2021

I have snapped a bunch of photos during late November, through December and New Years Eve.  I've decided to dump them all here into a blog, in no specific order and with only limited basic text.  Almost all the pix are taken with my dumb phone and just quick random snapping.  Not a lot of energy was put into it so don't be expecting any Ansel Adams / Annie Leibovitz shots. The first set of pix was for the X-mas photo greeting I sent out to close friends and family.

I put on my winter tires in the middle of November. 

A few days later I bought my baby boy some hub caps for his x-mas present.

Bought a few flowers for the holiday season.

I just grabbed this amaryllis from the stupidmarket.  They are always big and red.  I thought this was red.  But what a surprise when it opened and it was a beautiful pink flower.  The red bulbs always have 4 flowers.  This one only had 2.  When it blooms, it's done and I normally throw them out and buy a new one.  But before it was over, a new stem shot up almost over night. And when it did, it came out with 3 flowers.

 

A standard poinsettia.

My neighbor Böje and his wife take care of these 3 pots by the front doors and they asked me if I could add some x-mas lights to the mix.

Normally my plants just last a season. 2 years ago I bought a x-mas rose and then eventually I ended up planting it in the apartment apartment complex flower box.  It looks great this year.

Last year was a tough one.  Did just a few decorations and tried to smile.  This year I wanted to be sure Jens and I were going to get into the x-mas spirit.  So already in the beginning of November I did this:

A little boring.  A little simple.  But it was only for November.

 

 

Then, on December 1st, I gave Jens a little job to do. 

He clipped all the big branches into little pieces so that I could do this:

In the above photo you can see I have 2 new Christmas rose plants in the small white/gray pots.  In the spring I will end up planting them with the Christmas rose I planted 2 years ago.

Eventually I would end up putting a few lights on the back balcony too.  And here they will stay - at least until February.

Just before the 1st Advent Sunday, the garden club and I  put up a 5 meter tree in our garden in the apartment complex.  I have the best neighbors and we had a fun time doing it.  Afterwards I had to zip on to work.  But if I am off next year, I'm going to see about having a little x-mas tree party for the garden club.  Any excuse for a delicious port.  Skål Eva !

I should have had my Advent wreath completed but the garden tree and my job kept me busy.  But that's ok cuz I hate it when I can only light one candle.  I was able to complete the wreath on the 2nd Advent Sunday and light 2 candles.  Well..... almost completed.  I still had to go out and get some ribbon for 2 candles.    

Riddle:

Q - What do you call a wreath made of 100-dollar bills?

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A - Aretha Franklin

Here are a few pix that I had earlier sent out to a dear friend.  I pointed out our Cracker Jack box among all the others.

Christmas is also all about eating.  Thank-you Jesus for keeping our bellies full.  Today we had a cozy cheese lunch.  Jens' mother painted the plates.  The cheese plate set is a gift from Patrick and Fabien from Paris.

Then from time to time we had some simple deserts while watching a x-mas flicks on the tube.

For a number of years now, I have been taking walks around the harbor and/or through town.  I try to go every day for my mind and body. Here are a few pix I snapped on some of my walks.

One of the best youth hostels/discount accommodations anywhere.  This is located in the city center.  It has great views.  It's located on the city side of Langebro/Long Bridge which is just down the street from our place.

On a walk with my neighbor's dog, Deea.  She looks like a slim version of Bounty.  We stopped for a fashion snap at the Kultur House just down the street.  There is a tree on the front side and the back side of the building.

An apartment tower - also just down the street.

And when I say just down the street, I am talking about this street.  I live towards the far end in this photo.

And then just a bit further on down the road is a struggling restaurant on a beautiful boat, trying to make money selling x-mas trees and hot toddies/glögg.

Every x-mas, this is the most decorated bar in town and possibly in all of Scandinavia (who knows, maybe even all of Europe)  It's quite something and every year the decorations are different.  So fascinating it is, that it even makes the evening news.

The building is from 1802.  In the first 100 years it was a business shop/office. In 1917 it reopened as a bar.  The bar attracted the "undesirables."  By the 1950's it was an official homo bar.

One of my often used side streets when trying to stay away from the crowds in the center of town.

This is the shopping mall just across the harbor from where we live.  It's mostly corona closed at the moment. 

Some local specialties at the stupidmarket I shop at.

On one of my other walks in quite a different direction.

And then after my ice-capade extravaganza, I had to warm up with this one:

Hot Elderflower is Danish for sugar water.  Elderflower grows all over Denmark - like a weed but really pretty and then the flowers bud to black-purple berries.

Then a few more decorations. I always try to put out the decorations from friends.

I have a glass fireplace from Anne.  I actually met Anne a year before I met Jens.   She bought this in Sweden.  And the ukulele Santa from Hawaii is a gift from George.  One year we had a x-mas tree outside and I took a chance hanging ornaments on the tree. Santa's very shiny grass skirt blew off and I didn't notice it until the following x-mas.

The glass bulbs are from Stefan in Sweden.

The big teddy in the middle is my latest addition.

I bought this glass royal guard at Tivoli for Jens a few years ago.  In his younger days, he was a royal guard too. It even has Queen Margrethe's monogram at the top of the guard box.

 I also have 2 shiny teddy bears from Jørn.  1 green and 1 gold.  I put them out later but no pix. I also have two beautiful green with glitter Eiffel towers from Jørn but they never made it out of the box this year.

I also have 6 very unusual one-of-a-kind hand-made Eiffel towers from Fabien from Paris.  I normally hang them every year but we didn't really have anything to hang them from this year.  So they will be extra special next year when I set them out.

And then I have this from Dan and Stephan from Germany.

This is my splurge decoration.  20 bucks - but I didn't know it until I opened it that it is damaged.  The shop is too far away to go back and complain.  And since I am half blind, I really can't see the scratches unless I study it.  

Then at a different shop, I saw these; the selection was huge.

And I shot this one for Tami because she like trailers.

I have a wonderful neighbor on the ground floor.  Lotte takes care of the garden and 6 of the 9 stairwells in our complex.  She is the one with the dog, Deea.  Jens and I always end up calling  her Bounty because she looks so much like our old dog.  Anyway, Lotte invited Jens and I to a Christmas lunch.  And OMG what a fantastic place.  The restaurant is in the tower of Christiansborg Palace (the parliament building.) 

I could tell Jens was happy to be there.  At the front door, Lotte and I had to go through x-ray and  the security gate before getting into the elevator.  Because of the wheelchair, a security guard took Jens a different way up to the tower restaurant.

The food.

This is the view from the restaurant level.  The upper levels were corona closed :-(

To get there and back, it was a short sail trip on the harbor waterbus and then a short walk through the royal library garden.  Here we are waiting for the harbor waterbus to sail back home.  The waterbus stop is smack in front of our apartment.

If you want to learn more or see more, you can go to the official site here and click on either The Tower or The Restaurant.

Then I took another longer walk via the town hall square for a free color show.

Still waiting for your x-mas card/present?  This is from work, out at the airport.  There was a huge back up of mail which is normal at x-mas time but also due to all the cancelled corona flights, to send the mail on.  And this is just one airport out of thousands affected by the virus and just days before xmas.

To help make the spirits bright, we watched a lot of tv.  One program was especially exciting.  It was about the castle at Bad Berleburg in Germany.  

Why does that name sound so familiar to you - you ask? 

Because I did a blog about it last year when we drove there in our new car.

You can skim scroll the blog here.

Scroll about half way down to the castle and go on from there.

Anywhoo...... here are a few shots at x-mas time at the castle.

This is a super brief story of the castle:  Queen Margrethe of Denmark has 2 sisters.  The middle sister, Princess Benedikte lives here.  Her husband, Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Bad Berleburg died in 2017.  They have 3 children and the youngest daughter and her brother are giving a tour of their home in Bad Berleburg at x-mas time.  The daughter Natali was also in several European equestrian championships and in the 2000 Olympics in Australia on the Danish equestrian team.  Their team won the bronze. That's why you see horses in the following photos that I snapped from tv.

THE MAIN CHRISTMAS EVENT

I was able to get time off for x-mas (thanks corona) so Jens and I drove cross country (3½ hours) to spend the holidays with his sister Gitte and her husband Carlo.  We were there for 4 days/3 nights.  It was a wonderful "juletid" celebration.

 Next exit is Middelfart but we are headed just beyond Kolding.

If Middelfart sounds familiar to you, this is why.

This is the view from Gitte and Carlo's backyard towards the church in the village of Jordrup.  It is the church where the Boesen family is burried.

It's now Christmas Eve and Gitte is going like crazy in the kitchen making the traditional x-mas pork with rind.

While the meat is burning on the grill, Gitte, her son Jesper and his girlfriend Lucia, do an amazing number on the tree in just minutes.  It is very typical for Danes to bring in the tree at the last minute.

It's very traditional to hang the national flag on the tree and to weave paper hearts.  This is an American heart that Anne, Gitte's daughter, made for me 30 years ago.  How amazing is that !

Get started now for next year.  Click here to learn how.

Time to eat.

Then of course comes everybody's favorite: Ris à l'amande.

Google the recipe if you want a taste of heaven and also if you want to put on 5 lbs. and stop your heart from beating.

Here it is from Wikipedia.

cook the rice.

Mix in the sugar and vanilla and chopped almonds.

Whip the cream.

 

Mix it all together.

Bury 1 whole almond.

  Chill.

Heat the cherry sauce.

Serve, die and go to fat heaven.

He/she who finds the whole almond wins the prize which is always a marzipan pig.  This was the prize which contained 3 little chocolate covered marzipan pigs.

The following day, December 25th, Gitte and Carlo's daughter Anne, her husband Martin and their 2 kids came by for x-mas lunch and celebrations.  It's always a big feeding, drinking frenzy on this day but we all managed to stay civilized.... until it came time to play Dirty Santa.  A 6 on a role of the dice will get you a x-mas present.  Either from the pile or you can steal it from one of the other players. 

This is what Jens won. - Ha Ha - Ho Ho

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

As usual, Jens and I held New Year's Eve here at home.  Drunken Danes with explosives make us nervous and we prefer to stay indoors.  I tried something new this year.  I ordered dinner on-line.  I got a horrible shock when I found out I had to cook the food.  WTF !!?  This didn't save any time or stress at all.  The saving grace however was the food was very tasty.

The table is ready.

But first a little shrimp with cocktail sauce to go along with the queen's new year speech.

The Royal Guards are ready to protect the queen.

Now for the appetizer.

Some kind of French meat called Gillion.  A mixture of duck and pork and fat. Covered with wild berries.  On the second slice of toast is salmon salad.

Then the lobster soup with beet chips, shrimp, and a dollop of sour cream.

 

And then the main course.  Super tender and delish stake with whiskey sauce. Formed potato mixed with emmentaler cheese and a slash of pumpkin puree topped with a chunk of pickled pumpkin.

It gets harder and harder for Jens to smile but he tries.

One of the best desserts ever.  Some kind of cheese cake with different flavors of berries, whole blue berries, and cream cheese balls with lemon and drizzled with liquorish crumbs.

Above  - snapped with smart phone.

Below - snapped with fancy camera.  

Which do you prefer?

Then comes the count down direct from the town hall.

And then we pop the bobbly and gorge on the kranskage (baked marzipan).

Have a wonderful 2021.

Happy New Year.

💖