Hygge

Have you heard of the word hygge? It is a Danish word that is one of those words that cannot really be translated into a single word. It means cosy, comfort, soothing things, creating intimacy and warmth.

I know summer seems like the wrong time of year to write about hygge. The days are long with the sun rising at 5:00 and setting after 9:00. The sun is shining and the sky is blue. The reason that this is on my mind is I just finished reading, The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking. My reserved copy finally came in for me at the library. I think I must have reserved it months ago.

I think I heard the term about a year ago. About the same time I read an article online about Norwegian winter and the attitude that helps to fight winter blues. My summary of this is it is the attitude and instead of dreading winter, embrace what you can do at that time of the year and enjoy it.

I was interested in hygge as our winter is grey with short days. I wanted to read about this and see if I could get some ideas to help during the short days of winter. The book was easy to read with lots of pictures. A bit of a picture book for big people. The photos were warm and cozy, candles, fire in the fire place, hot drinks.

So what did I take away from the book. Hygge in Denmark is about comfort and creating it together. Some of this can take time but it is about the atmosphere.

What can I do to help during our short days?

Enjoy candles -- tea lights -- when is Ikea opening? I have a nice tea light holder that was a wedding gift and it is nice to light that in the evening. Twinkle lights are also nice touches. Those can be battery operated so it doesn't depend on finding a main.

Hot drinks. In my book coffee is to be hot. Iced coffee is not coffee. Coffee might not always be the best choice for the evening but hot Ribena or herbal tea would be fine.

Warm blankets and throws - I have a nice fuzzy blanket that is my hygge blanket. It had a soft warm feel. I might need to find a few others.

I am almost looking forward to winter but first I would enjoy a few more summer days. Today is in the 60's so I am sitting with my hygge blanket.

Have you heard of the term higgle? How do you enjoy winter?

Beth

S'more Fun

The days are getting longer. The weather is a bit warmer. It is time to enjoy bits of summer. I found a grill marked down this week and decided it would be fun to be able to grill a bit in the summer. Having a grill meant we needed to make some S'mores. That sounds so easy. S'mores are just three ingredients but finding the right substitutes was the challenge. We were attempting to anglicise the American campfire treat.

I found imported marshmallows at Costco. The bag says they are Mega and it means mega. There was a comment about American food being big and how these marshmallows followed that tradition. We decided that these worked best if we cut the marshmallow in half before we toasted it. 

The back of the bag tells how to make a S'more, calling it a tradition campfire treat very popular in the United States and Canada.

I had my marshmallows now to get the graham crackers or something that would work. I have to say that the whole cracker section of the supermarket is missing. The best there is here are water crackers but we are missing things like Cheez-its, Triscuits, Wheat Things, and even saltines. You can buy some of these things on amazon.co.uk and a few other American food websites but you pay quite a bit and I didn't have time to wait for an order to come. I bought Digestives and Biscoff hoping that one of them would work.

In the end given the fact that we had Mega marshmallows we ended up using the Digestives.

I also had to find the right chocolate. That doesn't should that hard as we have lots of delicious chocolate here but I didn't want it too thick because the chocolate needs to melt a bit. I bought about four different chocolates. In the end we decided that the Cadbury Dairy Milk Kids was the best chocolate.

We toasted the marshmallows over the grill. We had invited our neighbours to join us. Our back gardens are next to each other and Helen is in my small group. Their son had S'mores at camp but it was a new treat for the rest of the family.

Here is one ready to eat.

Miss K is enjoying her S'more.

These were a fun treat and we enjoyed sharing them with our neighbour. We sat around the grill/fire for a bit staying warm. We have enough marshmallows, chocolate, and Digestives to have these again.

Beth

Mothering Sunday

 Today is Mothering Sunday, a day to remember mothers and all they do for us. I am so thankful for my mother.

This is my mother and her mother. That was taken about eight or nine years go.

I am thankful that my mother was able to come visit us this autumn and spend some time with us enjoying our life here.

I am thankful for all my mother has done for me, taught me, shared with me, spent my money (she loves to find things that I need to buy and often does a good job of finding things that she knows I will like), and so much more.

My son said we will celebrate the American Mother's Day.

Beth

Christmas Day

I thought I would share a few photos from our Christmas day. Miss K was the first child up. The sun comes up around 8:00. Miss K ran up to her brother's room and woke him up probably the only day a year that she can do that. The pjs that Miss K is wearing are the Christmas pj's from a few years ago. 

Christmas Eve we did something different. We called it our Iceland Christmas Eve. Everyone was given a book and some chocolate to take to bed. 

Our tree this year. Earlier in the year a friend gave us the tree that had been her mum's. I have memories from my childhood of going to a friend's house that had a small tree farm and walking out to the field and selecting and then cutting our tree. I love the smell of a real tree but decided the fake tree is a better price.

Here are both children in front of the tree. I think this have to have photo. It is fun to see the changes from year to year.

The one thing that Miss K wanted was a Peppa Pig bundle. I didn't really know what that was but a few of the Peppa Pig figures was considered a Peppa Pig bundle.

Aunt Bea got Miss K a collection of miniature Swiss buildings.

We opened our stockings, then our other gifts. We had breakfast and got ready for church. We went to church for a 10:30 service. Then came home to lunch and an quiet afternoon at home. 

Someone and it wasn't me asked for dark chocolate. I purchased almost every dark chocolate that they sold at the supermarket. He also got a bit from Switzerland.

Christmas crackers was a fun Christmas lunch activity. Pulling them, hearing the pop, and then seeing who had the end with the toy, crown, and joke.

How do you communicate with fish?

You drop them a line

What did one eye say to the other?

Between you and me something smells

What did the sea say to the sand?

Nothing, it just waved

What lies at the bottom of the sea and shivers?

A nervous wreck

A traditional English Christmas meal is turkey with brussel sprouts. We weren't traditional and had leg of lamb, roasted potatoes which I did in goose fat, salad, carrots, and turnips. We were too full for dessert/pudding -- apple pie bars and pecan pie bars.

Here they are wearing their Christmas cracker crowns.

It was a fun day together as a family.

Beth

Along the Way

As we drove to Stoke-on-Trent, we went through a number of little villages or towns. There was one in particular that we decided to go back and visit. The last day that mom was here we did just that. First we went out for breakfast. I enjoy going out for breakfast and that is not something we do often. I wanted my mom to have an English Cooked Breakfast for the cultural experience. She had fish and chips, pasty, and so we added cooked breakfast to the list.

After that we drove to Bakewell. This is a large car park there. I liked that so I didn't have to worry about finding a parking space.

The first place we stopped was a sweet shop. Shelves and shelves of sweets. All different kinds many things I have never heard of. Miss K bought two lollies. 

We wandered through the town. Stopping at the Visitors Centre where Miss K picked up a children's guide of animals to look for in the town. We did about half of that.

Bakewell is famous for the Bakewell Pudding. It seems that three shops sell the original Bakewell Pudding which is a jam pastry with egg and almond filling. I probably should have bought one. There are Bakewell Tarts sold in the supermarket but they are not the same.

We wandered to the church and enjoyed looking around. The church was open so we could go inside.

Miss K is looking at the baptism font.

We then went to the Bakewell Old House Museum. It is an old Tudor House that is a museum. There were a number of interesting things there from various time periods. Again I have to say that I think museums and various other places really make it a place that children enjoy visiting from the dress-up clothing to the doll house or just the explore or search and find sheets. Miss K had three pages just in Bakewell.

We walked down the hill from the museum, past the church and back into the town. This row of houses just seems to be what you think you should see in an English village.

We enjoyed pausing and looking at the ducks and geese in the river.

Miss K and I together.

My mom said the visit was just what she would think an English town would look like. I think we were able to show her bits of our life, the area where we live, and even London. It was a great trip. We miss her.

Beth

London for a Day

When you think of visiting England one of the things that you think of it London. We debated about where do we take mom/grandma for one special outing. We were debating between the Lake District and London. The Lake District is beautiful with hills to hike and beauty all around plus it has been two years since we were there. London, well that is all the famous sights that everyone knows and loves. In the end we decided to take the train to London for the day.

We took a relatively early train. There is a direct train that has just a few stops and in about two hours you are in London.

Seeing the telephone booths as we came up from the Underground, we just had to get a photo.

We started our day at Trafalgar Square. Here is one of the lions at the base of Nelson's Column. (History lesson coming son and we will meet Nelson and understand this a bit more.)

From Trafalgar Square you can look and see Big Ben. If you are in London, you need to see Big Ben.

We introduced my mom to Pret. We first discovered Pret when we lived in Taiwan and visited Hong Kong. Then we enjoyed it when we lived in Hong Kong. J liked it so much he had it again for dinner.

We started walking towards Big Ben/Westminster Abbey.

We toured Westminster Abbey. There is so much in there to see. I am thankful for my homeschool teaching as I am a bit more knowledgable of the people buried there or the memorials.

Miss K did a children's page and then received a chocolate coin at the end.

We then began walking towards Buckingham Palace. We had gotten tickets for a tour of the State Rooms. This is open for a few months in the summer. We had time until the tour so we walked around the front of Buckingham Palace.

Miss K was excited to see the Palace and where the Queen lives.

My mom and I did get a few photos of us together. I am so glad that she was able to come and visit us.

This is the back of the Palace. We couldn't take photos inside. My mom was smart and bought a guide book so she has all the photo there. There was a special display as Queen Elizabeth is now the longest reigning monarch. That was a series of photos of her life. We walked through the different rooms. I enjoyed the portrait gallery and seeing two Benjamin West paintings. To think that we used to drive past the meeting house where he went each week on our way to Target and then to be in London looking at paintings he did.

We walked through the ballroom which was set up for a state dinner. There were displays which showed all the work that went into a state dinner. We wash our dishes the same as Buckingham Palace -- by hand. Of course, they have dishes from Queen Victoria's time and we just have some dishes from Ikea.

The tour is definitely worth it. Since then I have talked to people that didn't know you could tour it. I am glad that we did it. We had a late in the day tour and it was nice as we didn't feel that it was crowded.

I enjoyed walking through the gift shop and seeing all the things that you could buy. I bought a "Royal Maid" and "Royal Chef".

We made our way back to the train station and got dinner in the station before our train home. It was a long day but I am glad that we were able to show mom/grandma bits of London.

Beth

York

I know we have been there before, and another time, and once in the winter. I guess we need to go in the spring. It is one of my son's favourite cities and so we had to take mom/grandma there.

We took the train as that is really the easiest way to get to York, just one stop and then it is York, if we get a direct train. The York train station is in the city that you can easily walk from there.

We started our day by walking to Micklegate Bar which is one of the four main medieval gateways. It is impressive to see and walk through.

Then we walked along the city walls. It is an easy way to get some history and see bits of the city.

We enjoyed being about to show mom/grandma the city that we enjoy visiting.

My mom wanted to see a castle. I think this is the first castle that we took her to see.  There really isn't much of it remaining but considering it was built in 1068.

You can walk around the top of the castle. You can see both the city and inside the castle. I might just get over my dislike of heights.

Here is the view from the top of the castle of the York Minster.

The flowers are so beautiful. I don't think photos can really capture the beauty that we see around us but it is the best that we can do.

We wandered through the Shambles. The kids and I were excited to find an art store and bought some paint for our Greek Urns we are working on.

We made it to the York Minster. This was completed in 1472.

We wandered through. Miss K enjoyed our Explorer backpack with all kids of things inside. J was happy to see and draw some of what he saw in his new sketch book.

We then wandered back to the train station, ate a Cornish Pasty and then took the train home. It was a fun day out and fun to show mom/grandma a city we love to visit.

Beth