Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Twelfth Weekend

Our twelfth weekend (how is it twelve already!) didn't go quite as we planned. We were intending to go to Copenhagen to visit a friend of Jeff's who lives in the suburbs, and go into the city and do touristy things, like see the changing of the guard. Alas, Thursday in the middle of the night I woke up sick with the flu. So, that derailed our plans entirely. I stayed on the couch all day Friday and Jeff took care of getting the boys to and from school. Grandma Vickie had sent them some Halloween treat bags with stickers and candy and marshmallow ghosts to take to their school, so they brought those on Friday as well. That was fun -for them to be able to share with the kids, and for the other kids to get a treat of American candy. They don't eat nearly as much candy and sweets here as they seem to back home -typically, it seems, they get 100g of candy on Fridays for Disney Sjov, and that's generally it unless it's a special occasion. Our kids have had a bit more than that, and we typically choose popcorn for Disney Friday, but their candy consumption has been quite moderate for the most part. It's amazing (well, not really, if you think about it) how not having things present makes it so much less likely to indulge. They ask for candy sometimes, but when you don't have it in the house, and when the snacks in your house are carrots and cucumbers, or cinnamon hard tack, that's what they eat. And when they're gone, they ask for more...of those. That is the part I like, and that surprises me a little bit. They eat and enjoy the foods that are good for them, and then ask for more of those foods when they're gone, rather than asking for things that aren't as good for them.

Incidentally, there was a large "Christmas" party -yes, on Halloween- planned for this weekend at the højskole, so now Jeff was going to be able to attend that.

Friday we ate dinner at home, then got our jammies on and settled in for Disney Sjov. The game show that came on afterward wasn't the same as "Versus" that often comes on, and this one was too much talking and trivia to be fun for the boys, so they went to bed fairly early. I also went to bed about 8:30! It was glorious. On Saturday, the kids all slept in until after 7:30, and Jeff got up with them and they all went downstairs. Happy Halloween to me -I got to be the last one out of bed! The boys all walked over to the højskole to see what time brunch was this weekend, Jeff let Anders ride the bike and Torben rode the skooter alongside him. Schedule change again! It was breakfast and lunch this weekend. We had already eaten breakfast, so just planned to attend lunch.

For the Christmas party, which they had planned for the last weekend in October because it was the closest one to the holidays when people could still attend and not have other things going on, there were approximately 150 former students from the last five years who came back. They divided all the students -about 200 now, including the current ones- into four teams and had contests Harry Potter style. It was fun to see the dining room all decorated with their team crests, and the chicken wire pillars they made to keep track of points, and it was very fun to see the room so full of people.

We learned at lunch that supper was going to be a rather formal affair -jackets required- so decided then and there that the kids and I would eat dinner at home, and Jeff could go and enjoy the evening. The kids aren't quite at the age where a formal (long) dinner is very enjoyable -for them or us- so it seemed better this way. We went to the grocery store and said they could pick what they wanted us to eat, but then Anders was taking too long and not deciding anything, so I chose some of the gyro-marinated chicken we discovered shortly after we got here, and some fresh spinach fettuccini. Anders then decided on the pancakes -the ones just like we have for brunch. He wanted to have those with raspberry jam for dinner. So, Svea and I ate spinach fettuccine with olive oil, parmesan, and marinated chicken, Torben had a bit of that and a pancake, and Anders had a pancake with raspberry jam. It was delightful!

Jeff left just before 6 to go to dinner, then sent me a message at 6:15 saying that dinner had been moved to 7. At 9:15, I got another message saying they would be starting dessert "soon", and it was about 12:30 when he got home. The party was still going strong. When we went to brunch on Sunday at 11, some of the teachers told us the bar was finally closed just after 7am... we were awake already by the time the party ended! Incidentally, we were quite a bit more awake than the others who made it up for brunch, as well. It was apparently a very good "fest". They had turned part of the dining room area into a room for smashing pumpkins -it was Halloween afterall- and there were still remnants of that as we navigated the brunch tables.

The boys didn't really ask much about trick or treating this year. We had told them they don't really do that here for Halloween, but do something similar in February. Several people were dressed up, though, at various times. There were a few random trick or treaters on Saturday, but when we asked what the process was for that, no one seemed to really know -"there isn't really one"- and the kids seemed OK with that. We bought them each a small bag of gummy coins at the grocery store.

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