Looking back at 2022

What a year! In so many good ways. I have often used this last blog post of the year (or the first and last blogpost of the year recently....) to remind myself that good things did actually happen, but 2022 has been different with quite a few significant events of the best kind. Here we go:

January

One of the things I promised myself after the pandemic, was to be way better at going out for events like concerts and theater, and with a Broadway show in January we got a head-start. Kristian and I went to see Moulin Rouge in a frigid NYC and it was absolutely awesome!

I also got to eat my way through Chinatown in Philly again. Teresa was heading back to Oregon and had some time to kill between trains. Quite conveniently Philly's Chinatown is right next to the big train station and what better way to end a Christmas break than loads of dim sum? 

February

Speaking of Oregon..... Kristian went out to visit Teresa and the slopes on Mount Bachelor in February. 

Luca and I joined him on the west coast a few days later, albeit a bit further south. We were back in our old hood in the Bay Area. Every time I am there it always surprises me that we actually used to live there. Kristian got to show us one of his favorite spots on Treasure Island: Mersea, where the tacos are great and the view is even greater:

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit with a friend in Sausalito, where we went kayaking from her houseboat on a beautiful sunny day:

March

As soon as we were back on the East Coast it was time for some serious house hunting. We had been saving up for while and we were sick and tired of renting, but we were also not sure if we could even manage to get on the market with a house we could afford. Until we found this (half) house waiting for us right in the center of Doylestown. It took one week from a mortgage pre-approval to a signed contract, and we are quite certain that God had this house waiting for us.

It was also the spring of 2022 that Luca's many many hours of practicing on the flute started to pay off. He auditioned for BCMEA (Bucks County Music Educator's Assembly) and we got to sit in on the efforts with a big concert in March. We are beyond grateful to live in a corner of the US where music is so highly prioritized and accessible.

April

We barely had the ink dry on the final sale documents for our new home before we had to hop in the car and go to Michigan to watch Ulrik graduate from Umich. To see the field of the Big House filled with graduates and know that Ulrik was down there somewhere, was a big moment for us. 

As soon as we were back the chaos of getting the house ready for move-in began with many weekends and evenings spent painting, wallpapering, carpet cleaning, porch repairing etc. Here's a snapshot of the mess as we were right in the middle of everything:

May

We moved into our new home in mid-May and almost immediately began to feel the benefits of living right in the middle of Doylestown such as just walking up the street to watch Luca's first performance with the Marching Band in the Memorial Day Parade:

or to be able to just go to the end of our little street and cross the road to watch movies in the park:

Every day still I wake up feeling grateful that we are right here in the middle of everything.

June

The biggest highlight in the month of June was by far the Coldplay concert in Philadelphia. I was supposed to go with Teresa, but as she was still in Oregon I brought Kristian instead and now have him turned into a huge Coldplay fan as well!

July

At this point it has almost become a tradition that we spend 4th of July with our best friends in Michigan. Escaping the muggy heat on the east coast and spending some days close to a lake is the best. Luca also get to spend time with his 2-person fanclub, who will try their very best to make sure he stays just a little bit longer........

Later on in July we were the ones hugging Luca hard before he went across the Atlantic to spend some weeks with my sister. His first flight by himself was a nerve-wracking wait as Scandinavian Airlines were on full blown strike at that time, and we were not sure if there would even be a flight for him. But here he is on his way through security towards the gate:

August

One of the things I had looked forward to since getting our house was showing it to my sister. She brought Luca back in August, and besides walking around Doylestown, where we - among other things - paid Ulrik a visit at the Tileworks, where he works as a ceramicist and tourguide:

we also made sure to visit the big apple (I still have to get used to NYC only being a few hours away). It was hot and it was crowded but also a lot of fun.

September

We started September with yet another NYC trip. This time to the flute center of New York as Luca is now playing at a level, where his old flute can no longer keep up. 

September was also the month where we learned that we may live in the center of Doylestown, but wildlife is still present. We had a hunch that a local fish thief was paying a lot of interest in our little goldfish pond. And one morning we almost caught said thief (or rather Daisy almost did) as there were still very wet racoon footprints by the pond when we got out!

And last but not least we finally had Teresa become an American Citizen. The immigration services put her application on hold for close to a year longer than the rest of us, and as all she wants is to go back to Copenhagen to go to University it was quite frankly becoming a bit nerve-wrecking not to hear back for so long. When her oath ceremony was over we decided to go celebrate in the exact same spot where the rest of us all celebrated last year (and where we all got Covid......). This time around we did not get any virus though

October

With the purchase of a home with a porch, Halloween instantly became more fun this year. I made sure to get e couple of skeletons and this year the theme was shark:

2022 also became the year where I finally got invited to an epic Halloween party with some of my colleagues (I have been lobbying for this for years). It was nothing short of the best Halloween party ever with hosts that go all out. Here we are, Kristian and I. Kristian went full on vampire whereas I (unsuccessfully..) tried to win the prize for best costume by dressing up as that colleague who always end up winning. No such luck, but still a lot of fun:

November

We embraced being American full-on by deepf-rying a turkey for Thanksgiving. A 15lb bird only took about 45 minutes of cooking time but turned out delicious. Only downside is that it has to be watched at all times, but Kristian and Teresa did not seem like they minded at all

December

And here we are at the end of 2022. I writing this post from my favorite room in the house - our sun room.

Last year around the same time I remember thinking to myself that I just couldn't bear setting up the Christmas tree in our rented house one more year - and we didn't have to!

We have also spent December exploring a few of the local Christmas markets and Betlehem exceeded our expectations with an old abandoned steel processing plant towering over a big cozy market place:

Merry Christmas from all of us here on the East Coast

2021 and done

Despite absolutely ZERO motivation to produce even a single tiny blogpost in 2021, I still highly enjoy looking back at the year that just went by. It helps me see all the highlights as the "downlights" more often than not are the ones I remember unless I make an effort. So here we go:

January:

The absolutely very first thing we got accomplished in 2021 was to submit our citizenship applications and start this final dance with the US immigration authorities. A dance partner that will not be missed once everything is over and we all have our US passports.

We had barely clicked "submit" before we watched in horror how the Danish borders closed shut - even for Danish citizens - unless they could show a fresh negative COVID test upon arrival. Said COVID test was unfortunately impossible to get our hands on in this corner of the US, so with Teresa attending Danish high school, there were a few weeks of 2AM online schooling in store for her to make up for the 6 hours time difference to Denmark. Eventually she made it back to Denmark though.

Otherwise January was quite uneventful with the first snowstorm of the year coming on the very last day

February:

This was all about Bailey. He had stomach issues for a while and after quite a few vet visits the culprit revealed itself on a late night walk where a solid tumor made it's appearance (I will spare you from the gory details of how and where it showed up.....). We were quite frankly shocked and with our very first decision that night being whether we wanted to put him down immediately or take him to the hospital, we chose the latter. Everything went well, and after some days with a very tired and doped doggo (and a hefty vet bill) he recovered quite nicely and we ended up having another good 6 months with him. 

Do we regret coughing up the money for the surgery? absolutely not! But would we do it again - absolutely also not! 

March:

As the weather started to be nicer we also started exploring our local area a bit more. Here is the very first time we got to visit Font Hill Castle. For this visit we stayed outside in the park, but later in 2021 we got to actually go inside and get our minds blown by what you can accomplish in a lifetime if you are a local castle-obsessed weirdo, who happens to have inherited a bunch of money.

Also it was the month where I got to wear an N-100 face mask. In these pandemic times N-95s were certainly hot stuff, but I got to up my game. 

April:

One of our big wishes for 2021 was to get a new couch. We even went out to take a look at some handmade Italian ones to get the couch of a lifetime. The we paid the vet bill...... and then we kind of shrugged and decided that life was better after all if we got to hug our dog still in our ugly old couch. But lo and behold! Kristian and I paid a visit to IKEA, and look what we found in the as-is section:

This picture was taken as I was guarding our new (and fully assembled) couch from other IKEA goers, who thought the couch was there for their convenience. I really got to practice my death stare on a 5 year old with a giant melting ice cream cone, as I was waiting for Kristian to drive home and swap cars so we could bring the couch home.

I blew our mind how our old couch got in the house in the first place as we literally had to saw it apart to get it out. RIP trusty old couch (BTW: here's the link to how the old couch joined the family):

Last but not least we went outside as much as possible to enjoy the awakening of nature

May:

Kristian and I got to spend a weekend in Philly, which was a good reminder that there is certainly stuff to explore not too far away. This cocktail was by far the fanciest I got to try in 2021!

June:

If a month in 2021 got to win the prize for being the very best - June it is!

I started out flying to Copenhagen early in the month to visit my sister and attend a European online conference:

It felt SO good to finally be back in Denmark for a bit. Kristian ad the boys joined a week later and we got to celebrate Teresa as she graduated the Danish high school with a lot more fun than graduating high school in the US in 2020 when the pandemic made everything super hard:

I could post SO many pictures and remember SO many good times from this visit, but I will throw in just one more, which is the tradition of lighting bonfires on the beach to celebrate summer solstice.

July:

We arrived in Newark in style as the Danish soccer team qualified for the semi finals of the European tournaments

And otherwise we promised ourselves that we would be out and explore at least one new place every weekend for the summer. Here we are in the rhododendron forest of Hickory state park on the "valley of death trail". Worth a visit on a hot summer day as there is a refreshing water fall at the end of the trail.

August:

As mentioned under the February comments, we had another 6 months with Bailey and if you do the math, August was the month where we had to put him down. Here he is - all ready to volunteer at the local park run. Unfortunately he missed it by a week. Never ever in our time as a family have all of us been crying this intensely at the same time, when we had to take him to the hospital on a late Sunday evening. 

September:

As much as I felt like I was done having dogs as no-one would ever replace our beloved Bailey - just as much I changed my mind in a matter of a few weeks, as it was just too miserable coming home to the dogless house every day. So we went to the shelter, and brought this little stinky girl with heartworm home. Daisy is a very different animal from her predecessor and we were frankly not too sure if we made the right decision early on. But now we love her to pieces.

October:

We started out strong by getting our citizenship - well some of us did. Here we are out celebrating with drinks and burgers:

Little did we know that we also celebrated with a local super-spreader inside the restaurant. So we all came down with COVID. One by one we succumbed to the virus and watched a LOT of Netflix.

But even virus infections end, and Kristian and I took another trip to Philly to watch Hamilton. Probably as the last Americans to do so! We can highly recommend

November:

The highlight of November was escaping to Michigan for Thanksgiving. I have had the busiest months of my career this Fall and getting away from Pennsylvania a bit, was just what I needed. Tammy and Walker are our family here in the US and Luca certainly got to spend a LOT of time with one toddler (or both) glued to him at all times - LOL

We have also been spending an increasing amount of time with Luca behind the wheel. It feels a bit more safe when these magnets are slapped on the car.

December:

And here we are. The very last month of the year. Where we FINALLY had my sister visiting again for the first time in close to 2 years!

It took a while (and quite a bit of leverpostej) to convince Daisy that she was not a dangerous intruder. But once we got there, Daisy would make sure to keep her company at all times. Especially if there is yummy wool yarn involved.

We got to be local tourists for the day by going inside Font Hill castle. Wow! Ceramic tiles embedded in ceilings, walls, floors, and stairs. And many rooms inside decorated with amazing themed Christmas trees.

We also got to attend an actual concert at Luca's high school where he plays in both symphonic and jazz band. And it feels SO great as a parent to finally go to a school concert where all you can do is lean back and enjoy the music, as the kids playing finally know and enjoy what they are doing.

Last but not least we got reminded of the true meaning of Christmas as we attended the live nativity at living hope church. With actual real camels! And yelling soldiers. And sheep. And goats. And an angel choir that sent chills down my spine.

Tonight we will celebrate New Years with 2 out of 3 kids home as Luca has his own party to attend. Teresa had her wisdom teeth removed yesterday so it will be a quiet night, but we look forward to entering 2022, which will hopefully bring a house (we have saved up like crazy during 2021 to be able to get there), a college graduation for Ulrik, a US citizenship to Teresa, and enjoying that Doylestown PA finally has started to feel like a home for us.