So site5 screwed up and deleted a whole bunch of database entries. I had a nice refund though but it took me some time uploading the entries again and such.
Things are going okay. We were admitted to the hospital for some time because Freja - my daughter had some problems with her lungs but she is doing great again now. I am still in the progress of getting my drivers license and currently I am dreading a visit at the dentists this Thursday. I always thought that I would grow out of fears for that kind of things but it seems that it only becomes worse and worse.
I apologize that the comments belonging to the previous entries are gone - feel free to comment on them again if you feel like like it - I obviously didn’t managed to create a proper backup.
I hope everyone I have been missing out on - is doing well!
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Entering a new year is usually time to reflect on the year we have passed. Just like I did last year I pulled up all of my entries and looked for the most memorable events. I must admit that my whole life isn’t stored within my blog posts and some things were left out.
In the beginning of 2007 I was very occupied with my new role as a mother. My daughter was at that time only 7 months old and so was my motherhood. It was a wonderful time where I got to know my daughter and husband - but also myself a whole lot better. I suddenly had a lot of opinions on subjects I never thought much about before - especially when it came to the topic - children. I learnt how important it is to find my own way of adapting.
In February I got caught in a blizzard. It was kind of cozy to be caught in the house along with my family and we drank a whole lot of hot chocolate and tried digging a path from our front door to the civilization. The snow melted away as fast as it had arrived though.
The thing that upset me the most in March was when a group of café owners in Copenhagen not only abandoned breastfeeding in their cafés but when they suggested that breastfeeding took place on the toilet instead. I followed this debate closely and I still have very strong feelings towards those café owners! I was especially angry about the fact that breastfeeding was abandoned while the café’s refused to obey the new laws constituted by the Danish government against smoking in public restaurants and cafés.
April was the month where my sister got married to her boyfriend for almost 16 years. It was a nice wedding and at the same event my little nephew also got baptised. I was in charge of taking the pictures and I was thrilled to attend the wedding with my new Canon EOS 400 hanging around my neck.
May was special to everyone in my family. Especially due to the fact that my daughter had her very first birthday. We all celebrated her and had a wonderful day. In my opinion - that year had passed amazingly fast.
Freja took her first steps in June and I was the proudest mother in the entire world. I celebrated the great month by ordering myself a brand new IBM ThinkPad T60 laptop. June was the only month in 2007 where we had decent summer weather.
In July it was vacation time and we rented a cabin in Sweden and went to the Pippi Longstockings theme park. We had a great time and it was very nice to escape from the daily routines. We also made an old dream come true and went to a Metallica concert - the husband and I. It was not as awesome as we had hoped for.
In August a lot of new things happened. Freja started in daycare and I suddenly had a lot of time to myself. I was a bit frustrated about the amount of stress in our daily life and we wanted to look for another place to live where we felt more comfortable. We were tired about the place where we lived and one day while I was browsing some estate sites I just found it! I fell in love with a little farm house not too far from the city where we lived and we bought the house. After realizing that we won the bidding on the house and the good vibes came back.
September - Usually a dreaded month - the month where I turned 25. I am not especially fond of getting older. I spend most September battling mucus attacks and packing our stuff in boxes preparing for the big move into the new house.
In October we moved in to our new home. I was very happy about moving in but there was also something else going on in our lives. Our neighbour from the place we moved away from Henrik Bjerremand Kristensen was beaten to death by a only 15 year old boy. This moved us deeply and I found it too difficult writing about in my blog. We weren’t that close to him but yet we in some way felt that something horrible had happened close to our inner circle. The boy was a part of some hooligan group and his motive was to film the violence with his camera phone and mail it to his friends. Absolutely meaningless. I still feel very sad thinking or writing about it.
In November I started taking driving lessons. I really need my drivers license now where we live in the country. At this moment I still haven’t completed the lessons but I expect to have my license in February 2008.
For once I had a delightful December. We bought a puppy. A yellow Labrador and named her Sally. Christmas turned out to be great and we also had a decent new years eve where we got to meet a bunch of our new neighbours which was awesome. I hope to get to know them better in the new year.
Then there was all the things that affected me a lot but that I never blogged about. The monks protesting in Burma, the elections in Denmark, the murder of Benazir Bhutto, the Virginia Tech massacre and of course the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and so many many more events.
I hope you had a good 2007. Have a great 2008 and take care of yourself and your beloved ones.
Christmas was great! I spend the day and evening at my husband Magnus’ parents house along with his closest family - parents, siblings and their husband/girlfriend and children. Magnus’ brother Mads introduced us to his new girlfriend from China. We weren’t given a white Christmas this year either and I actually hardly remember last time that happened. it didn’t matter much to us - in fact we were happy about not having to drive in snow.
While our daughter Freja took her nap and with her Grandma looking after her my husband and I went to church. We are not very religious we think - we just like to go because of the spirit and singing. After the mass we went back and met my husbands brother and his girlfriend Ashley from China. This was her first time in Europe and we did our best to make her feel welcome and not too awkward. I think we succeeded! They had brought special treats from Asia and it was extremely delicious goods!
We had roasted pork and duck for dinner - well I didn’t since I am vegetarian. It was delicious but I think one of the greatest things about Christmas is to cook the dinner and we weren’t involved in that progress since we would probably be in the way in their little kitchen where everyone passes through all the time to get in and out of the house. For dessert we had rice pudding and as a tradition there is a whole almond hidden in the pudding and the person who finds the almond receives an extra present. This year I found the almond. The present was a frog made out of wood and I know it’s sounds strange but you can play on it with a stick and make it sound like a real frog.
After the dinner we danced around the tree. It was my daughter Freja’s first time ever to dance around it and she was extremely excited about the whole thing. We were singing carols for about half an hour then we finally started opening gifts. This year I had a nice amount of presents and to mention some of the absolute highlights I got a chainsaw (we live in the country and heat the house with wood - old school - indeed), a Canon macro objective for my EOS 400, rice paper lamps from China and a book about biodynamic gardening.
Freja of course got extremely many presents - one of her favourites is a wheelbarrow. My husband Magnus got about 8 screwdrivers! Unpacking is a slow but cosy process that in the end will lead to a floor covered in wrappings and children with wet eyes due to the fact that it’s over and that next time a reign of presents will come their way is their birthdays months away from now.
Lastly we played a traditional Christmas game where everyone brings a single or two little extra present. Everyone in turn rolls a die and every time it comes up 6 you can take one of the presents. When all presents are gone from the table a person sets a alarm clock to (for the rest of the players) unknown amount of minutes and then you continue rolling the die to get a 6 - but every time you do - instead of taking a present from the table you steal one present from another player. When the alarm went off I had only a single present but I took pleasure in the fact that my sister in-law who is a bad looser didn’t get any and that the present I got was one I stole from her.
Then we drove back home and went to bed and just before we did we agreed that this Christmas turned out to be absolutely awesome - after all. Merry Christmas everyone. I can’t help to wonder about those who doesn’t open their presents until the 25th - How can you sleep (especially as a child) when you know that the presents are waiting for you downstairs?
Tonight we opened a few Christmas presents. I know we are bad to do so but we have a good reason! Usually we don’t open presents until tomorrow night (which is common tradition here in Denmark) but we are going to spend Christmas Eve at my husbands parents house and they have the tradition that we only open one present at the time and in my opinion that is simply going to be too painful sitting through 10 people opening presents one at the time - especially for the children - so we opened the presents from my side of the family today.
I got a graphic novel by the French comic book artist known as David Beauchard, a enormous Sudoku book (yes I am one of those who is absolutely addicted to Sudoku), a scrapbook for collecting memories from my trip to China and as a shared present for my husband and I new royal blue towels! So even that Christmas really isn’t until tomorrow it certainly already have been rich on the materialistic side.
I am looking forward to see my husband and my daughter open their presents and hopefully they will like what I give them. In the afternoon we pay our annual visit to the church and after the ceremony we are hopefully reminded why we spend thousands on presents for the people who can easily afford the things they really want and need - such as ourselves. If not it’s too bad. I am not complaining.
My husbands brother Mads is currently working in China and he is taking a course to learn Chinese. The girl tutoring him was obviously more than his teacher - because he is bringing her halfway around the globe to celebrate Christmas with his family. I am looking very much forward to meeting her.
Next year I want to celebrate Christmas at our own house. I feel a need to start our own traditions and do things as we like them to be done. Whether you are cheating like me and celebrate Christmas today, the 24th or the 25th or perhaps not all all I hope you will have a great time. Merry Christmas.
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