Holiday season - finally

Juleferien er liiiiige om hjørnet. I skrivende stund sidder jeg i bussen for at køre på arbejde og fodre og veje mine nok små men alligevel særdeles hidsige mus. Det tager heldigvis kun en formiddag og derefter sætter vi kursen sydpå. Første stop bliver en overnatning i Carleston, West Virginia, og næste  stop bliver jul i Indian Trails, North Carolina. Glæder vi os? Oh yeah!

The holidays are riiiiiight around the corner. As of right now I am in the bus going to work to feed and weigh my tiny yet very aggressive mice. Luckily that only takes a few hours and then we head south. First stop is Charleston in West Virginia. Next stop is Christmas in Indian Trail, North Carolina. Are we excited? Oh yeah!

Jeg har ikke fået skrevet så skide meget herinde i løbet af december pga den der Green Card ansøgning. Selvom vi har købt os til advokat hjælp i dyre domme så skal de jo stadigt have noget baggrundsinformation at arbejde ud fra (små 20 siders forskningsresume!) og da de jo kun kan lave anbefalingsbrevene lige så gode som den info, de får fra mig, ja så tog det altså lige hver eneste hverdagsaften de sidste 3 uger. Hold op hvor har jeg været træt altså. Oveni al det her skrivning har julen også været vores mentale deadline for at "selvfølgeligt har Kristian skrevet under på en kontrakt inden da"..... Nope! Det skete så ikke. Men hey! Vi er her stadig og hver dag viser, at det lykkedes at vinde over "tyngdekraften" lidt endnu :-)

I haven't written a lot in here during December because of that friggin green card application. Even though we pay the attorneys a significant sum of money to help with the application they still need a lot of background info from me (20 pages or so). The recommendation letters, that they will draft, can only be as good as the  info I provide, and in the past weeks I have been writing away every single afternoon/evening during the week days. I am SO tired now. On top of all this writing Christmas has also been our mental deadline for "of course Kristian will have a signed contract by then". Nope! Watching ones goal line always slipping out of reach is tiresome - but hey! We are still here defying "gravity" every day :-)

Jeg synes heldigvis stadigt at mit arbejde er verdens bedste. I fredags måtte jeg dog knibe en tåre da den ene af kirurgerne listede forbi med at gavekort, så jeg kunne tage familien med ud at spise i juleferien. Fredag aften var der desuden Holiday Party oppe i professorens hus med rigtigt gammeldaws dansk pakkeleg med terninger, hæslige gaver i smukt papir, stopur, stjælerier og snyd (ja, det var mig, der havde arrangeret festen, hvis nogen skulle være i tvivl.....). Teresa fik gaflet den gave hun allerhelst ville ha: en "død opereret rotte" komplet med obduktions forespørgsel og en lille skalpel (og en gave i maven):

I still think I got the worlds best job, but Friday made me cry a little when one if the surgeons came over with a gift card so I could take my family out for dinner during the Holidays.  Also Friday there was a Holiday Party at the Professors house  with the real old fashioned Danish dice-rolling gift exchange game with plenty of hideous presents in beautiful wrappings, a stopwatch, stealing and cheating (yep - I arranged that party if anyone should be in doubt...). Teresa got the gift she worked the hardest for: a "dead operated rat" with an autopsy request, a scalpel included and tiny gift inside the stomach:

Lørdag brugte vi paa at bruge et par af vores julegaver lidt før tid. Vi var paa Buffalo Wild Wings for at spise tadaaaaah - buffalo wild wings eller en burger med bøf, pulled pork og bacon Ulrik style.....:

Saturday we spent a few of our Christmas gifts a little early. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings to eat - tadaaaaaah - buffalo wild wings or a burger with beef, pulled pork and bacon Ulrik style.......:

Man sidder ikke så'n og hygge snakker derinde da der er fladskærme over det hele der kun viser sport:

You don't get to chat a lot in there as there are flat screen TVs all over only displaying sports:

Efter at have bøvset færdig koerte vi mod Dearborn med vores biograf gavekort for at se Hobbitten 3 (undertegnede, Ulrik og Teresa) eller Pingvinerne fra Madagascar (Kristian og Luca). Ifølge kortet skulle biografen ligge inde i et indkøbscenter og vi vadede rundt uden held. På et tidspunkt bliver Ulrik lidt for kæk i sine spydige kommentarer og jeg smækker ham derfor lidt med min håndtaske. Ups. Pludseligt står der en Security Guard og spørger Ulrik "Is that lady bothering you?". Heldigvis var han med på at det jo altså bare var for sjov og jeg tror også selv han syntes at han var ret skæg (og måske kedede han sig ogsaa bare en lille smule....) men det amerikanske autoritets pis KAN jeg altså aldrig vende mig til!

After a bit of burping we continued to Dearborn to spendt the movie gift card to watch the Hobbit (yours truly, Ulrik, and Teresa) or the penguins from Madagascar (Kristian and Luca). According to the map the cinema complex should be within a giant mall but we couldn't find it and was walking quite a bit. At some point Ulrik starts making some really cynical comments and I whack him a little with my handbag. Oops. Suddenly a security guard shows up addressing Ulrik "is that lady bothering you?" Luckily he only did it for fun and I think he was very proud of his little prank (and just maybe he was also slightly bored....) but that American authority crab I just never ever get used to!