25/12-14: Christmas is here

Our tree at Theresa's mom's house

Most of the cars outside the house

Our tree back at Moore Crossing

Så er det blevet jul i USA - den 25. vel at mærke. 

Den 24. var der ikke noget særligt på programmet, og det var da lidt trist at se hvordan alle hjemme i Danmark fejrede juleaften med deres familier. 

Jeg fik heldigvis facetimet en hel masse med min familie, så det føltes faktisk næsten som om jeg også var der, og så var det ikke så slemt :-) 

Om eftermiddagen havde jeg fået arrangeret at invitere hele familien på æbleskiver. 

Det lykkedes mig at finde en professor på universitet som havde en æbleskivepande jeg kunne låne, og jeg fik vist lavet omkring 60-70 lækre æbleskiver :-D Så blev det lidt julet alligevel!

Til aften var jeg ude at spise med to venner fra Brasilien, som også plejer at fejre jul den 24.

Det endte med at vi inviterede dem begge over til den store familie julemiddag dagen efter, men en af dem var desværre ikke helt rask til at komme med. 

Den 25. tog vi tidligt over til Theresa's mor som er flyttet til Valdosta for et par måneder siden. 

Der startede vi med morgenmad, og omkring kl. 9.45 kom der gang i gaveåbningen. 

Som I kan se var der flere gaver end der var plads til under træet, men de var alligevel alle sammen åbnet på under en halv time :-) 

Jeg fik selv en masse fine gaver, og mange flere end jeg havde regnet med! 

Efter gaveregnen skulle de sidste forberedelser til julemiddagen klares. Ligesom Thanksgiving er det ikke aftensmad, men mere en sen frokost man spiser, og mange af retterne er de samme. 

Jeg havde lavet brune kartofler, rødkål og ris a la mande som tilskud (samt et par andre småting) - der var dog alt for meget ris a la mande, så vi nåede aldrig at finde mandlen.. 

Vi havde en rigtig hyggeligt eftermiddag, og var hjemme ved en 19-20tiden - jeg skulle nemlig have pakket til Miami og der var afgang ved 22-23tiden. 

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Christmas has finally come to the US - the 25th of course. 

We didn't have anything special planned for the 24th, so it was kind of sad watching everybody back in Denmark celebrating Christmas with their families. 

However I Facetimed with my family a whole lot, and it actually almost felt as if I was there with them - so it wasn't so bad :-) 

For the afternoon I had arranged to have the entire family here invited over for Danish "pancake balls" (Æbleskiver).

I had found a professor who had the specific æbleskive-pan that you need to make them, and I made about 60-70 delicious æbleskiver :-D That made everything more like Christmas!

At night I went out for dinner with two Brazilian friends who are also used to celebrating Christmas on the 24th. We ended up inviting both of them over for Christmas dinner the day after, but one of them was unfortunately not feeling well enough to join us. 

On the 25th we started out early and headed over to Theresa's mom who moved to Valdosta a few months ago. 

We started with breakfast and around 9.45 we were ready to open all the presents!

As you can see there were more presents that there was room under the tree, but somehow we still managed to open all of them in less than 30 minutes. 

I got a lot of really nice presents too, and many more than I had expected :-)

After the present madness, we started taking care of the last Christmas dinner preparations. Just like Thanksgiving, Christmas dinner is actually a late lunch, and many of the dishes are the same as for Thanksgiving. 

I had contributed with a few Danish Christmas dishes such as "brown potatoes" (caramelized potatoes), red cabbage, and ris a la mande, which is a cold rice pudding dish with chopped almonds in it as well as ONE whole almond. Whomever gets the almond, gets a small present, but I had made so much that nobody ever found it.. 

We had a really nice and relaxing family afternoon, and about 7-8 we went home. I had to get ready and pack my suitcase for Miami and I was being picked up around 10-11.