Our day on the town

Søren was playing and practicing drums all day for a big worship song evening, so Silas and I had a day on the town.

We started out at 9 o'clock walking 25 minutes in the pouring rain/sleet to get to the train station where we were headed to Esbjerg.

When we got on the train we saw 4 of my students from last year! We charred with them and before we knew it the hour long train ride was finished.

We headed to Jensens steak house where we were meeting Farmor (Grandma) for lunch. Silas fell asleep on the way, so we found a table by the window so he could continue sleeping in his carriage while we ordered. We had a wonderful time with delicious meals and Silas had fun playing with Farmor and his very own balloon. The lunch date ended on a high note when I won a free dessert from a text message deal I saw on the menu! We split it and it was delicious.

Then Silas and I headed on to visit the Show choir. They were practicing with the orchestra when we got there and Silas was full of smiles the whole time listening to the loud music. Luckily they had a 30 minute break not long after we got there so we were able to visit with everyone.

Before we knew it, it was time to head to the train for our ride home. Silas was such a happy fellow the whole way and even slept a bit so Icould read a bit.

We had a fun day, and it was good practice for our much longer trip to the US in just a few weeks!

1) Silas' first train ride
2) Balloon!
3) Our free dessert

Daycare

Silas has now been in daycare for 2 weeks and everything is going so well. I am so fortunate that I am able to return to work part time (40%) until the end of the school year. This means that I only work on average 2-3 half days a week, thus Silas only needs to go to daycare for short days and some days not at all.

We had found a private daycare provider who lives just a few hundred yards away and she is absolutely wonderful. She has four other kids under the age of three and they are all so sweet and have really welcomed Silas with open arms (after the first day that is). When I drop him off all the other kids always run out to greet him and Margit (our daycare provider) has told me that they think of Silas as their little brother and smother him with toys. In return Silas flails his arms and pants in excitement when he sees the other kids.

Of course we were a little curious about how he would take the new experience of being fed and put down for naps by someone else, but there have been no problems. He eats and sleeps well while he is there, and Margit has always so many words of praise when I pick up our joyful little boy. He really enjoys being around people so I think it is a wonderful balance for both of us.

I am enjoying being back at work and enjoy having the chance to miss Silas and look forward to picking him up every day.

Our happy boy chilling out with Mommy after a day at daycare.

Happy New Year

New Years was twice as fun this year...and not just because there was an extra Madsen at the table.  This year we celebrated New Years Eve twice.

We usually celebreate New Years Eve with Søren's friends from boarding school, Thorkild and Rasmus, and their wives.  However, Thorkild had to work  on New Years Eve this year so we decided to celebrate a few days early on the 29th. The party was at our house and it was great to see them all again.  We made sure that the night was just as festive as we decorated, ate a delicious 3 course meal and even had champagne at midnight. 

Then on the 31st we celebrated the coming of 2012 again! Again we were at our house, there were 2 other couples, and we had a delicious meal.  The biggest difference was probably that at this party there were 5 kids and a lot of fireworks.  After a nice and a little louder meal the older kids headed outside to light off some fireworks before bed.  That gave me peace and quiet to put Silas to bed and he slept almost instantly.  After eating ice cream cones the other kids were put to bed and the adults had some fun playing games. At midnight we cracked open a bottle of champagne, jumped of the couch, kissed, and hurried out to see the fireworks in town.  It was the first time we had celebrated New Years in Skjern (a not very big town, but still many more homes then out in the country), so we were amazed at how much firework activity there was.  Five of the six homes on our little street were home with guests and had a bunch to light off. Then of course you could hear and see the rest of the town's fireworks and it was like you were in the middle of a lightning war or something.  It was so beautiful and SO loud.  We all had the baby monitors with us outside assuming the kids would be woken up by all the noise, but all 5 slept soundly through the entire hour of activity! We were so amazed and impressed. The night didn't end until 2am and all of us parents were quite tired towards the end but had a lot of fun. 

We all had to wear hats to the party!

Lighting off fireworks

Girls just wanna have fun!


It was hard to say goodbye to 2011, as it was a year FULL of blessings for our little family.  But we know that the Lord has more exciting things for us in store for 2012.

Happy Belated New Year!