CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE!!!!!

The large letters and exclamation marks show how happy I am that Søren and I just bought our very first Christmas tree together!! We were out looking for some other things to decorate for Christmas and saw some beautiful trees in a small parking lot. We decided to look and found the perfect one!!! We had to buy it! But we didn't have a trailer with or anything so were a little curious about how we would get it home in our little Toyota Yaris! Well apparently you can get them put into mesh bags for easier travel and after we had that done it could actually fit in our car! It was so weird driving home sitting in the back seat next to a tree but very exciting. I was like a little child!!
The tree in the car!

Then we came home and were able to decorate it. We don't have too many ornaments but it looks really pretty and I am so happy with it, even if it isn't exactly 13 feet tall! I have a little funny story about two cultures mixing during our shopping trip. When we were picking out what lights we should put on our tree Søren and I reached for 2 different boxes. Søren reached for the all white lights as he always had and I reached for the multi-colored lights that I am used to! It was so funny, but we ended up picking the multi-colored ones! So our tree is unique in Denmark!! Here are some pictures of our Christmas preparations! I also set up the village, Christmas really is here!!
Putting on the last ornament!

I GOT TO VOTE!

We had the county election here in Denmark and I was given the right to vote. Until now I have thought that I would never be able to vote in Denmark because I am not a Danish citizen, but apparently after you've lived in the country for 3 years you can vote in the county and regional elections! The second best part is that I know one of the candidates in our area and was able to talk with him briefly before the election to ask him some questions about differing opinions. I really took my ability to vote seriously, now that I know how it is to not have the privilege.

Also this weekend Søren and I were able to go to a beautiful 25th anniversary party for our friends from our church. We play in the band with Tove and two of her daughters. It was a wonderful party with lots of great music, funny speeches and skits, and during the night we even learned a gospel song and sung it together in one big choir.

Then just today we were able to celebrate Lukas' 5th birthday. It was a fun day with family and watching how excited Lukas was to get a Nintendo DS! We were all amazed as to what a 5 year old can figure out with technology! The highlight of the day for me was when Lukas and I were counting up to five together in English and then I said to him in Danish "Yeah and you are 5 years old!" and he answered in English "NO"...because his official birthday is tomorrow, so he was indeed not 5 years old yet!!

Since last time

Quick update since last time.

We have celebrated Halloween since last time. We did the normal pumpkin carving and having Halloween guests. This year it was just one guest but she came in style and scared us at the window holding an ax and some scary teeth!

Our pumpkins..Scary and Cute
Good costumes
The Jack O' Lantern Pizza

We also had the opportunity to show off our talented students at a huge event in Skjern. There were around 400 guests and we performed 5 songs with our mini-choir and the mini-band that accompanies them. It was a huge success and the students had a great time. Søren and I were quite proud of their performance and the way the acted so professionally. We loved seeing them in action! We've also had them out performing one other time since and it was also a success, I had tears in my eyes as they sang and played their hearts out!



And just last night I had a girls night out with my friend Kirsten. She just started playing the clarinet and is in a little band. The musical friend I am, I had encouraged here to join the band and I wanted to come see her in action and show her support. She had a concert where there was a Russian theme. There were lots of different musical groups there and they all played Russian songs. There were two breaks during the concert where we were feed traditional Russian food so we could get into the culture even more. It was a really neat idea and we had a gerat time.

London!

Søren and I just got back from a wonderful trip to London. We had a week long fall break from school and work so we decided to get a cheap flight out of here and see another part of the world. We chose London and have not regretted it in the least.

We left Tuesday morning for the airport, a short 6 hours later we were at our hotel in central London. We stayed at a small bed and breakfast and had just a small room but it was all we needed. The day we arrived we already jumped on the tourist wagon and saw lots of things. First we were hungry so we ate at Subway, okay maybe not so authentic England, but we don't have them here in DK so the American in me was very excited! Then we walked to Buckingham Palace and through the park.
Buckingham Palace.

Then we decided to check out Piccadilly Circus (just a mini timesquare, weren't sure what the fuss is all about :)) and the West End district where there were many theaters and restaurants. They also had a China town and a fun atmosphere. Then it was time for dinner and we found a quaint little restaurant serving a 3-course meal for a reasonable price. The portions were small but yummy! Søren ordered the Fish and Chips and there were only about 8 chips..ha! Then we wanted to get a beer at a real English Pub. We found one near our hotel and stopped in. We went to the bar and ordered a local beer, but by the time we recieved our drinks, all the tables had been filled and that left us standing in the middle of the pub. Then we saw a table for 4 with only two men at it so we asked if we could borrow their chairs. Nice as they were they delivered them to our little corner and preceeded to chat with us. The talk then moved outside and lasted the next 1½ or so. It was fun to hear the English accent and talk to some locals. One of them was a bit "strange" but we had an enjoyable conversation anyway before our feet finally said, take us home!

Day 2: Harrods, Changing of the Guards at Buckingham palace, Camden market, Primrose Hill and walking some more. We started our day checking out the huge shopping center, Harrods. It is a 7 story or so department center with everything you could think of. It was quite pricey so we just looked but it was a cool experience.'
Harrods

Then we ended up back at Buckinham palace to see the changing of the guards. There were so many people there it was hard to see but we did enjoy the large royal marching band that came by.
Changing of the guards.

Next we headed to the northern part of London where we had heard about this interesting market area. We bought a day pass for the Underground and took a trip. The market was very festive and cultural with stuff from all over the world. But as any market is, it was a lot of the same stuff, and well stuff we didn't need, so it got a little mundane after awhile. However, there was this cool area with lots of different ethnic foods which we were able to check out for lunch.
Camden Market

The rest of the day went by with a lot of walking. We walked up Primrose Hill and could see out over the entire city. It was very beautiful.
Classic red phone booth.

The day wrapped up with a visit to Wembley Stadium where we had gotten tickets to see a National soccer game between England and Belarus. The stadium is huge with room for 90,000 fans and it was almost full, so you can imagine the atmosphere of that many English soccer fans. It was a good game and we got to see David Beckham play, which was the only English player I knew!
Huge stadium
An English fan?

Day 3: London sights. Yes we saved on the classic tourist attractions for our last day in London. We started with seeing Big Ben and Parliament Buildings. They are so beautiful and massive, it was incredible! The highlight was however being able to go into the Parliament buildings and hear debates in both the House of Commons and House of Lords. It was very interesting to hear that debates but also to get an inside look at what goes on there.
Big Ben

Afterwards we stopped by Westminister Abbey and just admired the size and beauty of it (we didn't want to pay the 17£ it cost to come in!)
Westminister Abbey

Then we took at ride in the London Eye a really huge enclosed ferriswheel that takes tourists up above the trees to have a look over the city. It was absolutely gorgeous with a panoramic view of the entire city with all the beautiful architecture as far as the eye could see!
The London Eye
View over London from the London Eye. Here you can see the entire Parliament building and Big Ben.

Then it was time to see the Tower Bridge and London Tower. Again very beautiful and cool just cause you've seen so many pictures of it before. We had some Ben and Jerry's icecream and enjoyed the fantastic weather.
Tower Bridge
London Tower

Our final trip was to see St. Pauls Cathedral. WOW! It is so huge and absolutely gorgeous inside and out. I also read that it is where Princess Diana and Prince Charles held their wedding ceremony!
St. Paul Cathedral

By this point we were absolutely exhausted so we went back to the hotel to get rejuvinated for the evening event! THE MUSICAL HAIRSPRAY! As you can tell this was my highlight of the trip! It was so incredible. They were all so talented and the story is just funny with lots of energy and great music. I enjoyed every minute of the 2 hour production!!
The Shaftesbusy Theater advertising for Hairspray!
Excited Mary with her playbook.

Then it was Friday and time to come home again. We were ready though as we had such pains in our feet and legs that we could not imagine walking another day. We did take a quick stroll through Hyde Park though before taking the bus to the airport. It was a great trip with fantastic sights and weather but most of all a fun way to spend some quality time together!

Now we are back into the swing of things back in Denmark with a pretty quiet week here. Hope all is well where you are!

When the Police came knocking..

Okay I got your attention.

This morning while Søren and I were enjoying slowly waking up to a new Sunday we heard the doorbell ring. We were still upstairs in bed and in our pj's so we didn't feel like answering the door. We knew that the Red Cross people were coming around to collect donations today so we figured it was them. Well a few seconds later there was a loud pounding at the door, which was followed up by another door bell ring and round of pounding. We thought, wow these are persist volonteers and thought they were gone. When a half minute later we heard one more knock at the door we decided we would check it out. Søren went to the window and saw a police car in our driveway. He immediately went downstairs and opened the door asking the police officer what he needed. The police man said he needed to speak to Mary and Søren could see he had a piece of paper in his hand and in bold block letters he could see it read "Confiscation of Visa" His heart immediately sank as he wondered why I was losing my right to live in Denmark. Next I came to the door and the officer explained to me that were hand delivering a letter to me where it said that they had to cancel my work visa...We thought a little bit about it and realized that all that was happening was that the work visa I had before we recieved our family reunification visa a month ago was no longer valid because a person cannot hold two visas at the same time. So I was not getting kicked out of the country, but we thought it was pretty crazy that the police had to hand deliver this message. Luckily we were able to calm down again before the The Red Cross volonteers came a little later.

So yeah, that is the drama as of lately. Otherwise things are going well for us. We are loving the balance and stress free daily life we have and how we are able to be spontanous every once in a while. Like just this past weekend. Søren was looking at buying an electric guitar using the online classified ads. As he was browsing around he saw that there was an incredible price on a very very nice electric piano. It was the same kind that I had looked at a year ago when I bought the piano I have now, but it was way too expensive. Anyway, this dream piano was now at a very reasonable price and we couldn't help but hear more. We found out that we could get the seller to come down 25% from his asking price which was already almost half the price of a brand new one and it was in great condition being only 3½ years old. So we decided to drive the hour and a half to go look at it and left there 15 minutes later with a new piano. We laughed the whole way home about how crazy we were but I am particularly happy for this spontaneous buy!!

Football golf and more...

Søren and I have had the opportunity to play football golf twice in the last 2 weeks. What is football golf you may ask!? Well I guess it would be better translated as soccer golf because it is basically just as it sounds, golf with a soccer ball! It is quite similar to regular golf or frisbee golf except that you kick the soccer ball towards the flag and hole instead. Of course the hole is quite a bit bigger but the concept is the same! Anyway, we had a family outing with us, Søren's sister's family and his Mom last weekend and that was one of the activities we participated in. It was fun to try to kick the soccer ball around, and a little frustrating at times. (I know personally that I got a little bit too frustrated at one point!) But it was all in all a fun day and Søren was the winner!!! We ended the day going to the ocean having an ice-cream cone, shopping and eating at a pizzaria afterwards!! A great Sunday!

Going for par!

Then again this past weekend we were able to try our luck on the soccer-golf course again! We have a tradition with our friends Jette and Carl Andersen that we every now and again challenge each other to a competition! Back in January we played a mini-tournament with floor hockey, badminton and ping-pong and family Andersen won. However this time it was soccer-golf that we were competing in and guess what???? Family Madsen won!!! As I write we have the trophy (which is really just a shiny candle holder) sitting in front of us, lit up to celebrate the victory earlier today!!

There are sand bunkers here too!

Now OUR trophy, notice our matching outfits!! I'm sure that's why we won!!

So yeah that's the fun we've been up to! I was also recently in Copenhagen with the 10th graders. It was a fun 3 days but I was definitely tired when I got back home! The highlight of the trip for me was going the see a Theater-Concert with songs by The Beatles! They had incredible musicians and some really cool effects and stunts. I was "wowed" as were the students!!

Otherwise Søren and I have been enjoying our time playing around in our music room at home! We bought a handheld music recorder when we were in the states and have had a lot of fun playing around with it. With the recorder and a computer we can make our little family of 2 into a full rock band. We just switch off playing intruments and recording them into the computer and when we are done we just mix them together and we have a whole song! We've spent quite a bit of free time doing that, its fun to have a hobby together!!

Singing the vocal track!

August!

Well oh dear, looks like we have not written in over a month, and just when I sent out an email telling people to remember to look on our blog. Woopsie! But anyway, not much else to do now than to give an update.

The last month has been consumed by getting back into the swing of things. School started for me already August 10th with teacher meetings and a real busy 3 days filled with new students! We have a special thing at school where each teacher is assigned 6-10 students who are their contact students. We call it our "family" and these first 3 days are pretty much used for getting to be with our "families" and helping them to feel comfortable at the school. Also that week Søren and I had auditions for the bands and choirs at school! We had a fabulous turnout and are very excited about the amazing musical talent we have at the school this year.

Søren has also gotten back into the swing of things with school. He switched schools this year so that he doesn't have to drive an hour each way but instead a mere ½ hour! So he is liking that, I believe to quote him he has said "Whoah I should only be halfway and I'm here!" He is studying social studies this year and he is glad to have a subject that he is really excited about! Otherwise we have gotten back into the swing of things at church as well. We had a church barbeque and have played for service a couple times. We love having such a great fellowship and church to call home!

Also not long after we got back from the US we were able to celebrate Nikolaj's 1st birthday. It was a fun day and Nikolaj seemed to enjoy it and all his presents!

Just 2 weekends ago we had a big Watermark reunion! As some of you know, there are currently 5 of us from our Watermark band who now live in Denmark! We are quite spread throughout the country but luckily Denmark is only a 1/5 the size of MN so we can quite easily see each other. We had a great time catching up, speaking English and reminiscing. There is now one baby in the clan with another one due in October so that is exciting and fun!

Other than that I have celebrated a birthday this past month! I turned 26 and had a wonderful day. I had to work but only for 4 hours so I am not complaining too much! The girls from my "family" sung Happy Birthday to me in English and had made a USA flag for me to have. Also the whole school sang to me and all day I heard "Tillykke, Tillykke" (Congrats, Congrats)! Later that evening Søren took me to dinner and to a hockey game afterwards. We had a great night together and I received many wonderful gifts.



But yeah, we are doing great! Currently the stress level is quite low and we are finding lots of time to spend together. Last week we had a fun evening online drafting for our NFL fantasy football team. We have been a part of it for the last 2 years with some of our crazy American Football danish fans. We sat and ate nachos in our Vikings pants and jerseys and chatted with our other friends in our league, a different kind of husband and wife bonding!

Enthralled in our own computers!

This week I am going on a class trip to Copenhagen with the 10th graders! I am looking forward to it as it is a fun and alternative way to be at work! Søren is home alone but I think he'll find some fun sports to watch or something!

Hope all is well with you our readers!

PS: Here is a little picture of our friends little girl in her new Vikings jersey we gave her!! (Her daddy is a football fan so they needed to know who to cheer for!
Go Vikings!

Vacation

Søren and I have just returned to Denmark after a fabulous vacation in Minnesota! We had such a wonderful time and we're really able to relax and enjoy time off from work and school! It was all just exactly what we needed so thanks to all of you who made our time there so fantastic and memorable.

Here is just a little bit of what we we're up to in the USA!

Our flight over there was wonderful, no problems no delays and we felt pretty good when we arrived in Minneapolis. We were greeted by my Mom and instantly it felt like we had never been gone. We had decided to rent the guest apartment at my Grandma's apt. complex so we went there and crashed after a few hours.
Our "home" for the month!

We spent the first few days visiting family and friends, relaxing and just enjoying the beautiful weather and being in MN again! The 4th of July was a special day for us. I took Søren to the Delano parade where he got to witness true American Pride! It was a beautiful day and we spent it hanging with my highschool friends Andrea and Jason at their softball tournament. Afterwards we had a camp fire and watched fireworks!

A traditional Red White and Blue Parade Float
A Parade is not complete without a marching band!

Then Søren, my brother Johnny and I went up north to the Boundary Waters with my Dad for a few days. We stayed in a cabin just outside of the Boundary Waters so we took small day trips onto different lakes, portaging and fishing. One day just Søren and I went on a long hike and had a wonderful time. It was a bit hot and the trail wasn't exactly easy to see at all times but we made our way out and back so we were happy. All in all it was a great trip!
Søren carrying the canoe!
A beautiful lookout on our hike!

Our next big adventure was going to the Sonshine Music Festival in Wilmar. It was a 3½ day festival with over 100 Christian Rock bands playing some of our favorite music. We met up with two Danish buddies we knew from Frøstruphave and had a fun time with them as well. Some highlights included concerts with Skillet, Sanctus Real, Hawk Nelson and Newsboys! The weather was a bit cold and windy but we enjoyed our time in sweatshirts and jeans and were mostly okay.
Tenting area enjoying lunch!
Hanging out between concerts!
A good view of the over 20,000 Sonshiners!

We drove back to our apartment we had rented late the 18th so that we could wake up on our anniversary the 19th in a bed and not on the floor! We had a wonderful 1st anniversary. We we're able to have some of our frozen wedding cake, were treated to a wonderful meal at a famous steak restaurant and went to a drive-in movie to top off the day. The day was glorious and we can't believe we've been married a year already!

Mmm year old cake :)

At Murrays after the best steak ever!

Looking out from our car at the drive-in!

Over the next few days we took a boat ride on the lake with my Uncle Mike and cousins, visited friends and had a little family get together! In between we did a little shopping and more visiting with friends and family!

Then suddenly it was already our last week :( But the fun wasn't over yet. It was time for a mini-vacation from our vacation! Søren and I went up to Brainerd with my Mom! My Grandma used to have a cabin up there so we had to give Søren a little tour of where we spent many summer vacations years ago! It was a little weird to see it all again because so much had changed but we had fun playing Pirates Cove Mini-Golf, shopping in Nisswa and golfing at Crosswoods in Cross Lake.



The last days were spent again visiting friends, packing and picking up the last things on our "needs-list". It was quite hard to say goodbye to everyone in the US and to MN in general but that just means we enjoyed ourselves so much. We had a great flight back and are feeling back to normal again after a bit of jet-lag.

This week has been devoted to getting ready for school again (starts on Monday!) and enjoying the last moments of relaxation before the crazy week that is the first week of school! Ugh...isn't there a famous saying "I need a vacation from my vacation"? Well it is true in our case but we are relaxed and renewed to start our "real lives" again, I think! :)

Schools out for Summer!

What's been going on with us? Well 2 weekends ago we had a family reunion with the Madsen family. Søren's dad has 5 siblings so it was a huge get together with all the kids and grandkids too! We were up on the north east side of Jutland close to the ocean where we had rented a big cabin. The place was huge and we had lots of room to eat and play games etc. We also had beautiful weather so we could be outside playing soccer or hide and seek! We don't get to see that side of the family so often so it was fun to spend time with them again!

Then just this past week I had the pleasure of participating in my first ever Saint Hans party! What is this? Well it is an old tradition in Denmark and maybe other parts of Europe to celebrate the summer equinox. Every year for this celebration people get together all over Denmark to grill out with friends or family and have a HUGE bonfire!! The special thing about this HUGE bonfire is that it is tradition to have a witch on top of the bonfire. When the bonfire is lit everyone sings a songs and watches as the huge bonfire begins to engulf the homemade witch! In the old days they actually did burn witches as a symbol of burning away the evil! But luckily now-a-days it is just made of wood and such! (see below)

Saint Hans Bonfire!


Other than that we been busy finishing school for the year. Søren had his final exam last Wednesday and it went well so he is officially on summer vacation and is done studying math forever! I am also done with school after a long week of teacher meetings, cleaning with the students and goodbye parties. Thursday I was at work from 8 am - 3 am! Crazy huh? But the day was filled with fun things. After cleaning during the day we had just enough time to get ready for the Galla Party. All the teachers and students get dressed up all fancy and eat amazing food.

My family group and I at the Galla Party

The evening continues with some funny skits and songs put on by the students and teachers. Then around 10pm we go into the nearest town for an end of the year Worship Service which is always powerful and such a special way to end the year. Finally around 12am we are back at school for some more food, hanging out and sports! This year it was a volleyball tournament and our teacher team was undefeated!!! Then on Friday we have a little party for the students and parents and say goodbye to all the students with tearfilled eyes! It is all emotional but at the end of the day we were happy for summer vacation now!

But yeah other than that not much else is new except that we just got finished making a Worship CD with our band at church. It was fun to be a part of the project and to now hear the final result!

Show Choir

Well we've been back at it with the Show Choir since January and this time we have just taken it nice and easy singing a few songs and learning a few dances for our next bigger show. Anyway, we worked up enough songs to sing that we figured we should give a small and cosy concert for our friends and family. We sung a lot of different types of songs from old Danish classics to Gospel. The concert went well and now we are on summer vacation with the choir until August!

Golfing

Søren and I had our first golfing experience with just the two of us this past Tuesday. It is a smaller course and only 7km from our house. Søren has been there many times but it was my first time playing golf in Denmark. We had been talking about going after Søren got his new golf clubs, and I had borrowed Søren's mom's clubs awhile back so now it was just time to get out there and do it! I warned Søren that he needed to be patient with me because I thought that golf was difficult and well not exactly enjoyable, cause I kinda stink at it! But to both of our suprises, I had the game of my life!! I was hitting almost every shot in the air, straight and quite far! I actually impressed myself, and well, I'm going to admit it, I HAD FUN!!! (Mom and Dad, maybe golf isn't just a waste of a perfectly good walk after all!)

The highlight however was getting the first par of my entire life already on hole 2! It was a par three, I was on in two and sank the put for par! I actually jumped up and down and screamed a little bit I was so excited! And actually later I got another par on hole 17 as well! We had a lot of fun together and Søren was very patient and supportive, always a plus to the fun-ness! Makes me want to go again soon! Lets hope it wasn't just "getting into the SWING again" luck! :)

A bit of this and that...

I must say that for all the times I have said that we have been busy, now is not one of those times. Søren and I have had a lot of free days and freetime these past weeks, and ironically we haven't found time to write here, hmm.

The first bout of freedays we have had were about 2 weeks back where we had a 4 day weekend because of Ascension day. Together with our bible study group, we thought we would celebrate this special day in the church by taking a little day-trip together with everyone and their familes. We went to a mini-zoo by the beach here in our area of Denmark. We all had a picnic lunch and spent most of the afternoon looking at animals. The highlight for me was holding a baby goat, he/she was so cute! Then we had some cake a coffee before heading off to one of the other members' house where we had a grill night. We had a lot of fun, just relaxing, chatting and enjoying a day off with friends.

Picnic
Ida trying to pet my little goat!

After this day-trip we still had three days left of the weekend where we spent much of the time with our past Watermarkers and their wives and kid. It was a reunion type weekend where we were at our house grilling friday night and went to a wedding on Saturday. It was so fun to be 5 out of 7 together again and laugh about old times and make some new fun memories.

We also had a long weekend this past weekend because of Pentecost and we spent the day with Søren's mom, Inger in Esbjerg. It was a beautiful day and we spent it outside where we ate both lunch and dinner on Inger's patio (Mom, you have also eaten there!) and we went mini-golfing where we were able to play two rounds and recieve the 2nd free. It was fun and Søren won the first, but I won the second!

We have also spent some of our days off enjoying the beautiful weather and nature in Denmark. We had our first visit to the ocean where we just walked the shores eating ice-cream and talking. The sky and water were so blue and the wind just as still so it was warm and pleasant. We also enjoyed the weather today working in our yard. As said before the previous owners have not done so much in the past many years, so there is a lot to do, but we are just taking it one step at a time and enjoying seeing all the changes.



Our front yard after some hard work!


Lastly, last night we spent the evening exploring and eating at an island off the west coast called Fanø. Our school had invited all of the workers to have a kind of thanks for a good school year party (even though we still have 3 weeks left). It was fun, we had to take a ferry over to the island where we then met an older lady who showed us around the island on a bus tour telling us about the history and how old some of the buildings are! It was a beautiful afternoon and it was interesting to hear about how people live and lived on this island. One of the weirdest things we did was take the bus on the beach. The shores of the ocean are actually used by buses and part of their bus routes. It was humorous to see the bus stop signs right on the beach.

Only 26 days now until we are in the USA! We can't wait!