President elect no longer

On Innauguration night, we were ready...American flag napkins - check, cheeseburgers and french fries - check, Apple pie and ice cream - check, oh and a gift from the Danish Rotary club for my speech on Obama the previous week a Californian red wine - check and cola for the kids -check.

I even found Tennessee buns for the evening, what a hoot with the foreign description below!

The kids were really good sports and hung in for the entire Obama speech before I let them off of the hook and they could play "quietly" so I could hear the political banter. :) I am not certain how much they will remember about this evening, but I thought it was so important to commemorate the event so they just might have a flicker of a light when asked about this evening years from now. Witnessing the first elected African American man to step into the highest office in the United States from a country an ocean away.

From the moment I witnessed the results of the election and read on the television in Danish first, Obama America's nye President at 5:02 am, to the 20th of January I was tuned in to the details. There is something to be said for seeing the goings on of the election outside of the US borders. To be certain there is pride, but it is mixed with a renewed awareness and responsibility to really know what you believe and why it is exactly that you believe it.

Dreamin' of a "White" Christmas

Since the kids and I would be in Michigan for Christmas, Finnie's sis had us over for pre-Christmas coffee and gift "exchange". We have been loved without boundries by our new Danish familie and are sooo lucky to be able to be included in their traditions. They are warm, kind and giving, really the best you could hope for in a multi-cultural familie like ours!

Svend og Lydia were there to wish us a safe trip while Leo and Karin feeding us well!

The yummy spread that Karin had prepared for us! The homeade hot cocoa with whipped cream was soooo tasty! The adults were spoiled with something like mulled wine and it was equally yummy!


The girls being cozy!

Max being MAX! ;)





ADVENT

The Hassing tradition of celebrating Advent was enjoyed by all of the kids! It reminded me of running through my parents home growing up hunting for our Easter Baskets on Easter morning!

The kids woke up and before brushing teeth, or wiping sleepers out of their eyes they were running wildly through the house searching for Advent gifts. This year was a little different since we would be in Michigan for some of Advent, we delivered the gifts all on the same day! Daniel and Simone missed out on the running around, but to be sure the gifts were delivered later that week!

I know I have included so many shots of bicycles, but it still never ceases to amaze! Bailey and I giggled that instead of a packed parking lot...you had a pile up at the bicycle stands!

So fun to see how quaint town is!

Sophie checking out the Nisse display in town. Moving characters behind glass display cases doing what elves(nisse) do best...make toys!

on our way to michigan...

I know it has been ages since we posted last, but the trip mixed with back to school events, a speech about Obama for the Local Rotary club, Max's 9th Birthday...AND the flu had us all out of commission for awhile.
The side view of these pictures will be edited soon, however I was afraid if I didn't save them in here I would forget I had them!

Our trip to the U.S. was eventful to say the least! We varied from our "normal" airline and traveled with Lufthansa through Frankfurt. Although it might seem like this was a small change, it turned out to be a huge factor in our travel. From the moment we arrived in Billund to find that they were using a new check-in system and they were working out the kinks to the flight home...we had trouble! And not the kind from "River City", but definitely with a capitol T! :) The day prior to our flight, Finnie had spent 3 hours trying to "check-in", to no avail. Even speaking with the help desk 5 times didn't work! However, we were assured that once we arrived at the airport we would be able to sort things out. You see, they had placed all four of us in seperate areas of the plane. Not even two of us were seated together, much less in the same section! Now, if my children were teenagers...I can see them being happy to lose their mother for 8 or so hours...but with three 10 and under...NO WAY! :) So after some discussion in Billund, we were able to arrange seats for the first leg of our journey, but not the second from Frankfurt to Detroit. But again...we were not to worry...they would never seat us apart for such a long flight...or so they said... I'm sure you know where this is going... We arrive in Frankfurt, walk up to the ticket counter and they tell us there is nothing they can do for us...if we would like to go to Detroit it will have to be in seperate areas of the plane! Apparently it is perfectly normal to Lufthansa to allow a 5 year old, 8 year old and 10 year old traveling with their mother to be separated! Let me tell you...this 5ft 3in(maybe) woman was soooooo mad! I announced that we would simply wait until they would find us a flight where we would all be seated together! Funny enough, they somehow managed to seat us together on our original plane! We found it hilarious that as we were boarding our plane to Detroit...we saw a little mouse running along the floor! I wish I had had my camera ready!

Fortunately, the kids seemed to be unaffected by their mothers temper tantrum, and after they were reassured that we were all seated together, we were able to spend the rest of our layover playing uno, coloring and people watching!

Bailey, the most squeemish (sp) flyer, was seated, headphones on and chewing gum! Max and Sophie who seem to be less freaked by flying (evidenced by the fight over who gets to sit in the window seat for our connecting flights), got into the normal groove of watching the safety videos and playing with the inflight radio!

The pretzels in the airport were literally almost as big as Sophie's head!

Thank goodness for ipods!