What are you doing new year's eve?

Too cute. 

Breakfast this morning

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Christmas Morning

This one's for the grandparents...

 checkin' out the presents

 eating what was left of Santa's cookies

 He couldn't resist taking a spin on his new balance bike. With Daddy's help, of course.

 presents...

 ...presents...

 ...and more presents. 

 He didn't quite get the concept of presents. 

We'd try to get him to open one, but he would be so engrossed in the one we'd just opened that he 

really could've cared less about whatever it was in the wrapping. Until it was unwrapped. Then the

first present was forgotten (for the moment) and it was on to something new. 

 The Babe's uncle in a Wolf Pack hat. 

 Indian drum.

The Babe was very excited about his Indian drum and was all applause after each performance.

I hope your Christmas morning was as full of joy as ours was!

Thanks for reading!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas in Greenwich, London 2009 

Wishing you all the happiest of holiday seasons!

Christmas Cookies

The Babe made pebernødder for us the other day at school. 

There were more, but they were really good. 

So we ate them. 

The Christmas train to Grejsdalen

Saturday morning, in the lull between The Babe's bout with tummy flu and ours, we were all well enough to do one of The Babe's favorite things: take a train. It wasn't just any old train, either. It was a really old train from the 19th century - 1898 to 1916, if you wanna get technical.  It only took us a few miles outside of town to a little spot where people were selling Christmas trees, crafts, and such. I thought we might get our tree this weekend, but The Babe was so enthralled by the train we simply couldn't tear him away. Any attempt to even look a tree was met with loud protest. What can I say? The kid loves transportation. And since it was a kind of 'his day', we let him look at the train to his heart's content. The tree can wait until next weekend. 

 My favorite part was the real wood burning stove in our car!

Two things they don't have here...

 ...and...

Makes a pregnant lady with the stomach flu want to cry. 

Christmas Craft FAIL!

And it wasn't even my fault!

My big advent activity for yesterday was to make these coffee filter snow flakes.

photo via Made by Britta

I found the tutorial by the lovely Britta on Pinterest and thought it would be a fun/easy project for us on a dark afternoon. I pictured us sitting on the floor while I cut out dozens of snowflakes and The Babe played with the bits of confetti I cut out. We'd laugh at the tiny paper snow I would blow at him and he would scream with glee. It would be a grand old time. Only I didn't take into account two things. 

One - Denmark does not seem to sell flat bottomed coffee filters like the ones you need to make these snowflakes. They only sell conical ones.

Two - The Babe is not into crafts. 

Not to be deterred from making my snowflakes, I looked up "paper snow flakes" on Pinterest when I got home (honestly, it's becoming my new Google) and found an amazing tutorial on some beautiful (and surprisingly easy) 3d snowflakes.

gorgeous snow flakes from Annabelle at Three Red Apples

Love the red polka dot paper!

Scissors and paper in hand, I sat down to work while The Babe did his own thing, which involved cars. Occasionally he'd wander over to see what I was up to only to determine that what I was up to was boring and then wander off again. I tried to coax him into playing with the scraps of paper, maybe coloring, but no. He was not interested. ***sigh*** Oh, well. 

Here are my first two ...

Not too bad, huh? There are little clothes pins on the smaller one while some glue dries. I was originally only going to make three, but they're so easy, I might make more! I can't wait to show you what I have planned for them...

First Snow

This morning we woke up to a light dusting of snow. It was a lovely surprise. It's warmer here this year than it was last year and hope was beginning to fade for a White Christmas. I am always giddy when snow first starts to fall. It's so pretty and everything is so quiet. Reality sets in quickly, though, when I have to walk through it, inwardly cursing so as to somehow magically keep myself from falling down. (Winter precipitation is not part of my natural habitat.)

I didn't think the snow would last long. After all, my weather widget tells me that the high today will be 38°F (3°C). But as I walked into the kitchen to make myself a hot cup of cafe au lait (heavy on the au lait) I noticed that snow was beginning to fall. From the looks of the sky, I don't think it's going to stop for a while.

I think it might be time for new boots. 

Advent Calendars

I love advent calendars and their little surprises. It's like having a little bit  of Christmas morning every day for almost a whole month! Here are a few of my favs from around the internet. 

via Pinterest, Not on the High Street, Cox and Cox

 from Etsy shop CUT and TEAR

from Denmark's own Maileg

also found here

I must admit, this one is my favorite. 

I am an incremental holiday decorator. Rather than throwing everything up Thanksgiving weekend, I like to do a little at a time. Last Wednesday, I put our advent calendar up while The Babe was at school. I was inspired by Kim McCrary and her blog, All Things Simple, and decided that this year we would have an advent calendar with experiences and not things.  I used her list as a template, but also came up with a few uniquely Danish Christmas adventures, too. 

Here are our advent experiences:

Make hot cocoa.

Feed the ducks.

Ride the North Pole Train in the town square.

Visit Kolding Hus.

Make paper snow flakes.

Make a Christmas card for Grammie and Grandpa B.

Write a letter to Santa.

Make a Christmas card for Mamoo and PopPop and Grannie and Grandpa C.

Make a special ornament to put on the tree.

Ride the Christmas train to Grejsdalen and pick out our tree.

Decorate our tree.

Watch A CHRISTMAS STORY with pizza and treats.

Have hot cocoa with marshmallows.

Make a Christmas snow globe.

Learn to sing Jingle Bells.

Go look at the town Christmas lights at night. 

Take a trip to Arhus. 

Go to the Christmas Market at Tirsbæk Castle. 

Pick out a special ornament for the tree. 

Have a special afternoon with Mom and Dad. 

Have lunch at a special restaurant. 

Feed the deer carrots. 

Bake cookies for Santa.

Read the story of the first Christmas. 

And here is our advent calendar...

How about you? Did you put up an advent calendar this year?

Have a great Monday! Thanks for stopping by!