(Boller) og Lagkage!

Bare uden boller..

I torsdags var det Theresas fødselsdag, og det blev fejret med middag hos hendes mor i selskab med Jims ekskone og døtre. 

Jeg havde fået lov til at medbringe kage, så nu var der endelig mulighed for at få brugt de lagkagebunde som mor havde sendt over tidligere ;-) 

Kagen blev rigtig fin, og med friske jordbær, hindbær og godt med kagecreme og flødeskum, gik det rimeligt hurtigt med at få spist den. 

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(Title: birthday buns and layered cake) - a Danish birthday tradition

Just without the buns... 

Thursday was Theresa's birthday, and we celebrated with dinner at her mom's house with the company of Jim's ex-wife and daughters. 

I had asked to bring a cake, which was a perfect opportunity to use the "layered cake layers" that my mom had sent over earlier ;-) 

The cake turned out great and with lots of fresh strawberries, raspberries and a good bit of curd and cream it was no problem to finish almost all of it in one sitting.

The layered cake has three layers of cake, and three layers of filling. Typically the filling is a vanilla curd and then different types of fruits and jellys like banana, strawberries or perhaps even chocolate. 

You usually just eat this kind of cake for birthdays, after you have had the buns with butter, jelly, chocolate.. Both are usually accompanied by hot chocolate with cream or coffee for the adults :-)

Showing off my Danish pride

Man må sige at de danske farver bliver vist frem på disse billeder, men det var også netop meningen. 

I lørdags var der arrangeret et lille photo shoot for de internationale studerende som havde lyst til at være med til at reklamere for dette års internationale middag. 

Arrangementet afholdes den 4. april og byder på forskellige retter, underholdning m.m., alt stablet på benene af internationale studerende og medhjælpere. Der plejer at komme ca. 300 spisende gæster. 

Jeg havde egentligt ikke planlagt at være med i photo shootet, men bare at kigge forbi hvis jeg alligevel var i Valdosta. 

Det viste sig at blot én studerende dukkede op, og så var det jo heldigt at jeg kunne cykle hjem efter min rooligan-hat som min mor var så sød at sende over i starten af december :-P 

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I must say that the Danish colors are prevalent in these pictures, but that was in fact the whole point. 

Saturday the Society of International Students here at VSU had arranged a small photo shoot for those students who wanted to take part in the flyer for this years international dinner. 

The dinner is held on April 4th, and contains different dishes and entertainment all provided by international students and some helpers. Usually there are about 300 guests at the dinner. 

I hadn't actually planned to be part of the photo shoot, but rather to just stop by and say hello if I was in Valdosta. 

As it turned out, only one student actually showed up, so luckily I could bike home and get my rooligan-hat that my mom so kindly had sent over in the beginning of December :-P

The word rooligan comes from "hooligan". 

Hooligans used to be associated with rather wild, crazy, and occasionally violent, soccer fanatics, and as a counter movement to that, the Danes chose to invent the concept of rooligans instead. The word "rolig" in Danish, means calm, and rooligans are therefore calm soccer (or sports) fanatics, who dress up in all the Danish equipment they can find, and cheer for our national team in a more family-friendly way than hooligans. 

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.

22/12-14: Lights, lights, LIGHTS!

De fleste har nok en ide om at de går lidt "over the top" med julepynt herovre i USA - og det er der sørme også nogle som gør!

Her er det billeder af et hus her i Valdosta som er totalt gearet til julen - lysene blinker og skifter farve så de passer til forskellige julesange, som blive sendt ud via radio. Så du sidder bare i din bil ude foran huset, og så tuner du radioen ind på en bestemt kanal, og så nyder du ellers showet så længe ud har lyst til (dog kun fra 17-22 af hensyn til naboerne...) 

Huset har i øvrigt vundet den lokale konkurrence for julepynt de sidste 4 år.. 

Derudovar var der også et helt boligkvarter som var gået all in på pynt med lys, og gigantiske julekort ude i forhaverne med hilsner til alle de besøgende :-) 

Theresa, hendes mor og jeg kørte rundt i omkring en time for at kigge på alle lysene og komme i julestemning. 

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Most people in Denmark probably have an idea about how some people over here might go slightly over the top on the Christmas decorations - and I can now confirm that some sure do!

Here are a couple of pictures of a house here in Valdosta that is completely ready for Christmas - the light twinkle and change color so it fits with different Christmas songs that are sent out via the radio signal. So you just sit in your car outside the house, tune your radio into the right channel, and enjoy the show for as long as you want (although the lights are only on from 5-10 to not make it too terrible for all the neighbors). 

By the way, this house has won the local decoration competition the past 4 years.. 

Other than this one house there was another neighborhood in particular that was really cute - the entire neighborhood had decorated their houses with lights and giant Christmas cards on the front lawns with greetings for all the visitors :-)

Theresa, her mom and I drove around for about an hour looking at all the lights in town and getting into the right Christmas spirit. 

6/12-14: Commercial... or Christmas?

Selvom Valdosta umiddelbart virker til at være en lille by hvor der aldrig rigtigt sker noget, så finder man ud af at der faktisk er en hel del mennesker her, når byen har et fælles arrangement - som f.eks. juleoptog!

I USA er det meget normalt at man har optog til Thanksgiving, jul, 4th of July, og flere andre helligdage m.m.

Flere timer før optoget skulle starte var enkelte allerede begyndt at slå sig ned langs gaden med klapstole og snacks. 

Optoget bestod af en hel masse gamle biler, store trucks med lange trailere som var ombygget til forskellige jule-vogne, lastbiler med åbent lad, brandbiler, marching bands, spejdere, og andre tilfældige mennesker som havde lyst til at gå med i optoget. 

Fælles for dem alle var at de gerne havde en eller anden form for budskab, hvoraf det mest gennemgående var en reklame for deres firma. 

Optoget varede over en time, og sluttede af med biler med kæmpe jul (og en enkelt monster truck), og motorcykler som larmede frygteligt meget. 

På trods af mange kommercielle indlæg, var det rigtig hyggeligt med julemusik m.m. og det var sjovt at se et lille, lokalt optog fremfor de endnu mere kommercielle optog fra de større byer. 

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Even though Valdosta doesn't seem like a very big town and there's hardly ever anything going on, you realize that there actually live quite a few people here when there is a bigger event going on - like the Christmas parade!

Here in the US it is very common to have parades for Thanksgiving, Christmas, 4th of July and other holidays etc. 

Several hours before the parade was to start, there were already a bunch of people lining up along the street with their fold out chairs and snacks. 

The parade consisted of a whole lot of old cars, big trucks and long trailers which had been transformed into Christmassy decorated wagons. Also firetrucks, motor cycles, boy and girl scouts, marching bands and much more. - I am detailing this cause we really don't have anything like these parades back home!

Common to all participants was that they all had some kind of a message - the most common was an advertisement for some local company.

The parade lasted for over an hour and finished with cars with gigantic wheels (and one monster truck), and some very noisy motor cycles.

In spite of the many commercial elements, the parade was really nice and cute, and it was funny to see one of these smaller, local parades as opposed to the much more commercial big ones from the bigger cities. 

Catching up...

Der har været stille på bloggen i et stykke tid - 21 dage for at være helt præcis. 

Denne december har været min mest afslappede december måned i mange år, eftersom jeg ikke har haft en hel masse gaver at købe, et arbejde, eller en masse julefrokoster at rende til. 

Samtidig har det været en travl måned alligevel fordi der har været så mange ting jeg gerne ville nå her i Valdosta (primært julehygge,) ved siden af at skulle afslutte semesteret med 4 eksaminer, og bruge en uge i Florida.

Jeg beklager stilheden som jeg straks begynder at rette op på i løbet af de næste par dage :-)

I dag er der kommet pakke hjemmefra med det fineste lille juletræ og derudover har jeg pakket julegaver ind, klippet julehjerter og flettet julestjerner, og lavet risengrød så jeg kan lave ris à la mande! 

Nam nam nam - det smager af jul! 

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It's been quiet on the blog for a while - 21 days to be exact.

This December has been my most relaxing December in many years since I haven't had a whole lot of presents to buy, a job, or a lot of Danish Christmas lunch/parties to go to.

At the same time it has been a busy month because there have been so many things that I've really wanted to do around Valdosta (mostly Christmas stuff), at the same time as finishing the semester with 4 exams, and spending a week in Florida. 

I do apologize for the silence which I will immediately fix during the next couple of days :-)  

A package from home arrived today with the cutest little Christmas tree, and besides that I've been wrapping up Christmas presents, cutting and folding Christmas hearts and stars, and cooking Danish rice pudding so I can make a traditional Danish Christmas dessert called ris à la mande!

Nom nom nom - it tastes like Christmas!

Just a heads up...!

Nu når vi nærmer os den søde juletid, er det ko også tid til julekort, så i den forbindelse vil jeg bare lige give alle jer som (naturligvis/forhåbentligt/muligvis/måske) har lyst til at sende mig et kort, en lille heads up:

Skulle du ske at sende kortet senere end på fredag (i overmorgen), så brug endelig min adresse hos min værtsfsmile, da vores campus gerne lukker fuldstændig ned i ferieperioder og min ferie starter næste fredag ;-)

Dette er naturligvis ikke en hentydning........ 

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Now that Christmas is approaching, time for holiday greeting cards is also just around the corner, so I just want to give all of you who (of course/hopefully/possibly/maybe) are thinking about sending me a card a heads up:

If you happen to send the card any later than this Friday, please do use my address with my host family as campus tends to completely shut down during holidays and my holiday starts next Friday ;-)

This is of course not to be considered as a hint to anything.......

Glædelig 1. december!

Danmark! Danmark! Danmark! - Now I can cheer for the Danish handball teams at they compete in European Championships

Jeg har den absolut bedste mor - og værtsmor!

Ikke nok med at jeg i dag endelig kunne hente den pakke som mine forældre har sendt mig helt fra Danmark (fyldt med godter og gode sager!), så har jeg også fået adventsgave samt de første 7 dage af en hjemmelavet chokoladejulekalender af min værtsmor :-)

Jeg har tidligere fortalt om alle de mange (læs: utallige) traditioner vi har omkring julen derhjemme, deriblandt alle vores julekalendre..

Udover skrabejulekalender og chokoladejulekalender, indeholdt min danske jule-pakke også ingredienser til lagkage, brunkage krydderi, julestjerne-strimler, tyrkisk peber, kravlenisser m.m. - alt godt til lidt dansk julehygge + mere!

Og jeg må indrømme at eftersom der i dag har været omkring 20 grader udenfor her på 1. december, så går jeg altså ALL-IN på julepynt og hygge dette år, for at overbevise mig selv om at det altså ER jul - så der skal nok komme nogle julepynts-billeder på bloggen senere :-) 

I går var det 1. søndag i advent, og jeg havde besluttet at købe små adventsgaver til mine værstforældre. Jim fortalte at de i øvrigt havde tændt adventslys i kirken den morgen, så næste søndag prøver jeg at se om jeg kan tage med ham i kirke. 

I går var jeg travlt optaget af at bage danske pandekager til morgemadsbordet med familien - de faldt vist i god jord :-)

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I have the absolutely best mom - and host mom!

Not only did I finally have the opportunity today to get the package my parents sent me all the way from Denmark (filled with good stuff and goodies), but I also got both an advent present and the first 7 days of a chocolate christmas calendar from my host mom :-) 

I have been telling her about all the many (read: endless) traditions we have around Christmas back home, including all our Christmas calendars..

Besides my scratch ticket Christmas calendar and a chocolate one, my Danish Christmas-package also included ingredients for Danish layered birthday cake, Christmas cookies, stuff for decorations, candies etc. - everything for good Danish Christmas-hygge + more!

And I must admit, since today's temperature reached the mid 70s on December 1st, I have decided to go ALL-IN on Christmas stuff to convince myself that it IS actually Christmas - so I'll be posting some pictures of decorations soon :-)

Yesterday was 1st Sunday of Advent, which we usually celebrate back home by lighting candles and sometimes giving/getting small presents, and I had decided to get some for my host parents. Jim told me that they even lighted the Advent candle at church, so maybe next we'll I'll try to join him. 

Yesterday morning I was too busy cooking Danish pancakes for family breakfast - I think they all liked them pretty well :-)