Countdown to deep-freeze

A long time ago my sister decided to visit us at the end January. Once she told us, I was like: “well, she must really love us a lot because it will be COLD!” Turns out that I was not even close to predict what we are actually going to be up against in the next few days:

and just to make sure it is clear - these temperatures do not even represent the wind chill factor which is expected to reach around -40 (at this temperature level it doesn’t matter too much if you use Celsius or Fahrenheit......)🥶

But on a positive note - the cold brings closed schools. And neither Luca nor Teresa are complaining about closed schools when moster is visiting. In addition we should have enough candy to go into a sugar coma to survive if necessary

And I think we are ready to beat the cold. I am not too excited about going to work on Wednesday but since the busses never cancel I guess I’ll be fine as long as I wrap up appropriately.

Bailey is excited too. He can’t get enough of the snow and ice and even chooses to poop in the deep snow just because...🙄

Ice days

If you are a kid in the Midwest school closures are the schizzle. And even teenagers get super disappointed if there are no so-called snow days during the winter. This morning we had an “ice day”

The weather is mild today but yesterday the icy rain was falling to an extent where you could literally hear the drops of ice hit the ground and glaze everything. All the cars are covered in a thick layer, the snow looks like it had been candied and the sidewalks look just fine........ but they are NOT! And I am honestly quite happy that it so happens that we can all stay home today. Kristian already planned for working from home and I don’t have anything that requires my physical presence at the university either, so home day it is. Teresa already got told that school is cancelled and she happily turned to the other side and went back to sleep. We haven’t told Luca yet as that kid is just not capable of going back to sleep after being woken up early in the morning (he was a tough cookie as a toddler......). And I guess we’ll do some sort of raffle this morning to see who gets to walk the dog

Winter living

With the first real snow of the year falling outside the windows it does begin to feel very wintery. And there are activities that goes well with that. Being stuck indoors has benefited my cross stitching and I finished up this lovely little fly swatting trilogy:

and got started on the next project which is an outer space inspired picture I bought on Etsy

Teresa has already asked if she can have it in her room once it is done. Awwwwww. Mom’s favorite teenager❤️❤️❤️❤️

Luca also enjoys the cold weather as it allows him (and his friend) to channel some of those hormones into destruction AKA “ice smashing”. All you need is a frozen pond and some serious sticks:

And then you smash away! I really do believe that the youngsters of today get to smash way too little stuff in the real world and based on how popular this activity is when Luca has friends over, it seems like they agree. Here is some serious rock throwing going on:

Bailey loves it too. I often unleash him and let him run around checking out whatever interests him, and every single time the boys throw a rock he thinks it is maybe an animal he needs to chase #funforall

This winter we have tried some culinary novelties as well. I present you with - drum roll please - dessert hummus

Teresa spotted it in Aldi and was super excited. I must say that I was somewhat skeptical, but it is awesome. It tastes like brownie batter and you can eat it with pretzels or fruit or on bread.

So overall I think we are going to get through this winter with our sanity intact. Stay chill✌🏻

A visit to Chicago for new passports

We are on our way back from leaving a lot of money and 3 of our passports at the Danish consulate in Chicago. But in 4-5 weeks we will have new passports for the kids, that are not close to expire👍🏻I have been quite worried about this trip as it was hard to find a time where the consulate was open and we had the time to take the trip, with the kids being out of all their schools. And it was only really January that worked. And traveling in January in the Midwest can be treacherous depending on the weather. But check this out:

Yes - that is beach life in January on the shores of Lake Michigan. We had some extra time to kill as we had reserved a parking spot downtown, but were due to arrive too early. I suggested we made a stop by the Indiana sand dunes, and it was beautiful.

In addition it was great to get a break from Michigan and soak up a little city life. One of my favorites is the bean. It changes with the season and the time of day - but always pretty to see:

We also did a lot of walking up and down the magnificent mile. Primarily to get to NafNaf grill - the place where everyone in the family is happy with dinner. Including the person who gets to pay. Only disadvantage is that it is right next to the ehm Voldemort tower (our dear leader who I shall not name in this post).

We even found freshly made cotton candy

This morning we got up early to go to the Hancock center for our 9AM appointment. Here we are - the 3 of us, who volunteered to figure out where you actually get in to that darn tower

And 30 minutes later we were all done. Lucky for us the drive back is also in amazing sun shine, so we have planned accordingly and bought lunch at Whole Foods which we plan to eat by the water❤️

January 2nd

2018 is over and in contrast to yesterday it is no longer that part of January where you can get away with eating kransekage (marzipan cakes) for breakfast. Sigh! We are still on Christmas break schedule though, but made it out of bed before 11:30AM. Whoop whoop.

It was also the day where we went to Barnes and Nobles to use the gift cards from my sister. I think it is almost a tradition by now. She sends a large package with all sorts of Danish Christmas goodies - but no longer any presents. And who can blame her! We all know how much it sucks to find presents for teenagers, right? We really like those gift cards, and since we usually go to Barnes and Nobles whenever she visits, it does feel a bit like we have her with us. Today we decided - in her honor - to do a little browsing in the knitting book section. And look what we found:

So many pullovers

And a cute dog

A fishing dress (WTF?????)

Some cute birds

And a very lovely fairytale inspired scarf. Just as rosy and sweet and “everlasting-love” as I prefer

.......And then we actually bought something we liked afterwards.

I got the Michelle Obama biography with Teresa as a shared gift. I have already started and I look forward to reading the rest.

We have also filled out all the forms for Friday mornings where we will visit the Danish Consulate in the Hancock center downtown Chicago to renew the kids’ passports. So. Many. Forms. And documentation. Sigh. But I am glad we will get it over with. I really do not want anything like this to expire as it always means trouble down the line