Copenhagen and Tivoli Gardens

On Saturday we got to spend the day in Copenhagen seeing a few sights downtown and enjoying a Christmas wonderland in Tivoli. LEGO offered a deal to employees to coordinate tour buses to drive from Billund to Copenhagen, including entrance into the park for 100 DKK ($15 USD). It was too good of a deal to pass up and a  nice excuse to explore another city in Denmark. The bus ride was a bit interesting since both kids got sick on the bus. Fortunately I had come prepared with plastic bags and wipes and kids with successful aim and the mess was minimal. 

We were glad to be off the bus after 3 hours of travel. We met up with our friends Mike, Karen and their son Jacob and decided to walk through the pedestrian shopping street to the famous canal view that many tourism photos of Copenhagen picture. There were lots of touches of Christmas decor throughout the walk with giant Christmas trees, storefronts covered in lights and two large markets with Christmas themed gifts and food. 

On our way to the canal we stopped for lunch at a new restaurant open by two American women call "The American Pie." We enjoyed some delicious homemade pot pies and a couple slices of sweet pie. It was so so yummy and it was a nice little taste of a familiar environment and food. After lunch, we continued on our way to the canals, got some nice family photos and then headed back to Tivoli Gardens. 

The decorations inside the park were beautiful. Everything was covered in lights, fake snow and Christmas decor. There was a fun playground area for the kids to run around on and a few carousel rides to entertain the girls. It was a great trip, minus the bus sickness that we began the day with. The girls were so excited from the day, they stayed awake the entire 3 hour bus ride home much to the chagrin of their parents. 

Fortunately we had a low key Sunday to recover before the start of another week. Merry Christmas to you all and hope you enjoy celebrating this month. It is absolutely my favorite time of year and I can't wait to get back to California and finish out the holidays with our families.

The view down the walking street - hello Adele :)

The girls were quite entranced by the horses. 

Joel enjoying his pulled pork pot pie at a new restaurant called "The American Pie." It was delicious.

Dining with the Psiaki family

Delicious peanut butter pie (Joel got a piece of key lime)

Enjoying some people watching while we finish up our pies

Lots of Christmas lights along this area, the photo didn't do it justice.

Better views from Daddy's shoulders

Classic Copenhagen view of the canal

Love my people and all the Christmas decor/colors.

Peek a boo 

Excited to head to Tivoli Gardens

Making our way into the winter wonderland 

Sleigh ride...just missing some reindeer

Cute miniature houses for the girls to peek in

Karen helping me keep track of the kiddos

Beautiful view

Ornaments bigger than Evelynn's head.

Enjoying the kids' play area

Sliding off the shipwrecked boat.

Her favorite activity of the night...carousel rides

Daphne got a turn too on a giant bunny. Waving to the crowd.

This was the final ride of the night. Double decker, fully lit and she got her first pick of a pink horse.

My attempts at capturing some of the Christmas light displays

Goodbye Tivoli!

Snow, Thanksgiving and the beginning of the Christmas season...

The past few weeks have held some special moments for our family: the girls experiencing their first snowfall and snowmen, Joel's 30th birthday, Thanksgiving parties and the beginning of my favorite season - Christmas. It has been nice to have these sweet moments in the midst of the difficulties of settling into a new country and culture. I am still far from feeling at home here, but trying to embrace the new opportunities and adventures we get to experience. The days are getting much shorter, but we do see more sunrises and sunsets. They are especially beautiful when its not raining. We purchased our first light therapy lamp and are trying to take Vitamin D supplements to counteract the lack of sunlight we were used to in Oceanside. Our house is slowly looking more Christmasy as we await the arrival of our Christmas tree tomorrow (we found a local company who can deliver it right to our door for free, which is super handy considering we don't have a car). I am very much looking forward to watching more Christmas movies, sitting by the fire and enjoying our tree this next week. Joel has a busy week ahead with travel to Hamborg, Germany for play tests, LEGO factory tours and moving further along on his other secret projects.

Now onto new photos for more stories of our latest adventures...

We have not been able to secure our real Christmas tree yet (so much for my early decorating reputation), so Daphne and I opted to make one out of the numerous pieces of cardboard we have waiting to be recycled.

My latest bread baking ventures - our current favorite made with some Rye flour - they taste even more like sourdough now.

Rainy day walk home from school drop off.

Touching their first fresh snowfall. Daphne immediately put it in her mouth to taste while Ev stayed pretty mesmerized by the texture and temperature.

My personal lumberjack restocking our wood supply. After 7 years of marriage, we found a chore he actually enjoys doing :)

Olaf throwing snowballs at me

Snow buddies with their snowmen

Nice big snowflakes were coming down at this point and my house robe was not cutting it to keep me warm.

The trio gathering snow to make more snowmen

Daphne was quite proud of her snowman

and so was Ev :) Daddy made a giant 3'+ wheel of snow.

Post snow play, rosey cheeks might be my new favorite look on this girl.

Evelynn recovering from the cold with her Christmas tea and a LEGO set (which she built all by herself - notice the 7+ age recommendation!) She recently got to go spend a few hours at work with Daddy. Joel set up a mini desk for Ev with a little name plate and she got to pick out bricks to design her own model. She worked on a new castle for Elsa and has been begging to go back to finish the job. Hopefully she'll get to return in the next few weeks.

View from our back window after the snow stopped.

All the snow play created a great opportunity for Mommy to make our official family Thanksgiving meal. Daphne was quite excited about her big plate of food.

Evelynn chose and plated her own food. Her favorite was the turkey with gravy.

Handsome hubby enjoying his personal sweet potato casserole and cranberry sauce. 

Pumpkin pie for dessert

Daphne and Mommy had a Duplo building date. 

Evelynn showing off her turkey she made on Thanksgiving at school.

Pumpkin and Apple pies for Joel to have at work to celebrate his birthday. At LEGO, if it is your birthday, you're responsible for bringing in a dessert to share with your coworkers. Joel picked some traditional Thanksgiving pies for them to try. Pumpkin, especially as a dessert, is not common in most other countries, but fortunately sounded like it was a hit. He was in a building workshop most of the day and they surprised him with a little singing and birthday cake.

Carnitas tacos, friends and lots of good conversation (so much so that we forgot to play Settlers like we intended...it may have also been the two pitchers of Sangria we consumed)

Evelynn pretending to have rainbow hair. Mimi sent the girls a super fun craft kit. She kept giggling saying "I'm so happy about this hair"

Daphne peaking through her mask and Ev trying to decide what to make next!

After all the pie baking, we had a few extra scraps of dough and made Christmas trees and stars for the girls. Daphne brought me a doily to decorate her plate. Her face cracks me up.

Evelynn has been asking on a daily basis, "Is today Christmas yet?!?" Today we made a paper chain so she can officially count down to Christmas day. 27 more days to go!

Cutie

My other favorite cutie

Waiting for the tiny Christmas parade in Billund (aka Santa and a few of Santa's helpers riding trackers pulling kids in wagons)

Santa!

Their reactions to seeing Santa

The huge town Christmas tree - officially lit for the season after the parade.

On our way to our final Thanksgiving dinner with some fellow Americans and British friends, we met a VERY friendly cat. Daphne ran up to him yelling, "SAMMY!!!" I think we might be missing our Sam kitty who is currently being loved on by Grandpa and Grandma in California.

Daphne was pretty excited to play with new friends.

Evelynn enjoying some chocolate pie with Joker.