Exactly half a year ago, we spent the first night in our new Brooklyn home. Before leaving Copenhagen I remember feeling anxious and excited. We spent several months thinking, talking and visiting what could become our new home. And then one day, we decided to stop talking and dreaming and make it a reality.

Six months in, I’d like to share a few thoughts about my new found reality of moving to New York as a family.

– Our life has slowed down; I get to spend much more time with my kids. The morning rush and stress of getting kids ready for school and nursery is non existent. Our pace of life has changed.

– We’re focussing on creating great memories and enjoying time together and much less on materialistic object. We have realized, that we can live without our designer furniture, huge wardrobe and creature comforts.

– We are more curious than before. We’re open to new ways to live life, enjoy our surroundings, simple pleasures like a great cup of coffee, a pretty flower amongst other things that we meet along the way.

– People are extremely polite and well mannered and my daughters have been influenced by this.

– We are more creative. In the US, homemade, home-grown and handmade outranks mass production. This makes me happy.

– We eat more kale.

– We have a bathtub. Back in Denmark we had a tiny shower. When you have kids, a bathtub changes bath time, it’s much more fun for kids and parents.

– My kids are experiencing incredible diversity and brand new culture, which I believe will make them more open minded and free thinking individuals.

– People are friendly. I like chit chat. I know the name of one store owners pet hamster.

– We miss our family and friends and our Christiania bike (but we are member’s of the same gym as Ethan Hawke)

Next week my eldest daughter turns six. And while the realization of having such a big girl probably isn’t going to hit me until the night before, I have started preparing a bit for the party and picking out a few birthday presents. i have decided that this year it’s not going to be about quantity but about quality and personality.

For a long time, I have wanted to make Eleanor a birthday present that she can keep for years and maybe even pass onto her own child one day. But for the last few years I haven’t been able to find the time to realize my project. This year I finally did. It is going to be a personal present with a lot of love put into it, and hopefully she’ll like it just as much as I do. It’s a handmade rag doll with a small wardrobe of dresses, tops, skirts and accessories. The clothes are all kept in a timeless style inspired by some of my favorite designers like Raf Simons, Magareth Howell and Dries Van Noten (ok, that part she’s probably not going to care that much about, but it makes me enjoy making it even more).

Apart from the doll (I’ll show you more next week) I’m trying to find some presents which reflect Eleanor’s personalty and our life as a family. And I’m sure that some of these beautiful things will bring a lot of joy to my little girl, even though they might not be found on her hand written wish list.

1. House pillow / Camomile London  2. squirrel soft mask / Sara Lowes Studio  3. Flower press / Acorn shop 4. Necklace / Little Titlee  5. Swimsuit / Christina Rohde  6. Garden Kit / Acme 7. Play tent / Such Great Hights 8. Tool box / Acorn shop 9. Dress / Atsuyo et Akiko 10. kids apron / Odette Williams 

  Back when we lived in Copenhagen, the kids and I started a tradition of baking holiday themed cookies whenever we could find an excuse for it and Easter calls for an egg and bunny shaped version. We made the cookies together, but since we made them for a surprise Easter kids party, this time I did the decoration.

When I’m baking with kids I like to get all ingredients ready and measured out, so they can just pour it all in the bowl and stir. Watch out for small sneaky fingers though,  sometimes ingredients can disappear in the most mysterious way. (in this case all our dries raspberries happened to disappear before we ever got to use them) 

Here is my recipe. It is very simple, and you can easily add spices, chocolate, nuts, dried fruit or berries or fruit juice to make your own version.

11.4 oz flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

4 oz soft butter

8 oz sugar

1 large egg

30 freeze dried raspberries

1 tablespoon of acorn syrup

Icing:

Icing mix

food color

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Use your hands to bring it all together and put it in the fridge for 5 – 10 minutes. Roll out the dough and make it into whatever shape you wish. Bake the cookies in the oven 360 F for about 6 minutes. Make sure they don’t get to dark. Let them cool down and decorate with your favorite icing. Let the icing dry (it can take a while if you end up using a thick layer). Serve, eat and enjoy.

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Mens vi stadig boede i Danmark startede mine døtre og jeg en hyggelig tradition med, at lave tema småkager til hver eneste hellidag eller ferie. Og selvfølgelig kalder påske på kager formede som kaniner og påskeæg og pyntede i fine farver. I denne omgang bagte vi kagerne sammen, men da de skulle bruges til en lille overraskelses påskefest, stod jeg for at dekorere og pynte.

Når jeg bager med mine børn, kan jeg godt lide, at starte med at måle alting ud, og så tage alle ingredienser med hen til spisebordet. Så kan børnene sidde på knæ på deres stole og dermed bedre komme til at hælde og røre. Pas dog på med listige fingere, og skåle fyldt med lækre ingredienser. Vores skål med de tørrede hindbær måtte fyldes op mere end en gang.

Her er opskriften. Den er simpel, og kan let tilføjes hakket chokolade, nødder, tørrede frugt eller bær efter smag.

325 g hvedemel

1 tsk. bagepulver

115 g blødt smør

225 g sukker

1 stort æg

30 frysedetørrede hindbær

Glasur:

250 gram sigtet flormelis

frugtfarve

Evt 2 spsk pasturiseret æggehvide

Miks alle ingredienser i en skål med dine (eller dine børns) hænder. Er dejen meget klisteret, så lad den stå i køleskabet  i 5 – 10 minutter. Rul dejen flad og stik den ud med forme eller et glas. Bag kagerne i ca 6 minutter ved 180 grader varmluft. Pas på de ikke tager for meget farve. Lad kagerne køle ned, dekorer dem med glasur. Det gøres lettest med små plastikflasker med en lille tud eller lignende og lad så glasuren tørre. Server, spis, nyd og hyg.

Ever since I was a young child, March has been one of my favorite months. Maybe it’s because March is the month of my birthday and the first glimpse of spring. Today I am looking back at another month gone by and for us March 2015 was the month where…

… we experienced both snowstorms and  warm spring sun which resulted in freezing fingers and sunburnt noses.

… I could add another year to my age.

… both my kids found joy in doing yoga, and Alma learned to say Mamaste (with an M instead of an N)

… Eleanor got her first report book at school. And it was nothing less than perfect.

… Alma learned to count to 20.

… I took up knitting again after a 20 year break.

… we began our Easter preparations.

… we had our first picnic of the year.

… we found out that Alma has allergies.

… Eleanor and I went to the cinema to see Cinderella.

… Alma decided that she only needs to nap every second day.

… we visited a snowy white Coney Island.

… Alma was given the most beautiful pair of moccasins from Hubble and Duke. 

… and we spent hours upon hours reading books, playing with dolls and drawing cookie monsters.

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Lige siden jeg var barn, har marts været en af mine yndlingsmåneder. Måske fordi den indeholdte min fødselsdag, måske fordi den bød på de første forårsdage. Idag siger vi farvel og kigger tilbage og for os blev marts 2015 måneden hvor …

… Vi oplevede både snestorm og de første forårsdage, hvilket resulterede i forfrosne fingre og solbrændte næser.

… jeg kunne tilføje endnu et år til aldersregnskabet.

… begge mine børn blev vilde med at dyrke yoga, og Alma lærte at sige Mamaste (med M i stedet for N)

… Eleanor fik sin første karakterbog i skolen og stolte forældre fik tårer i øjnene over fantastiske udtalelser.

… Alma lærte at tælle til 20.

… Jeg begyndte at strikke igen efter en pause på blot 20 år.

… Vi begyndte at forberede os til påske.

… Vi havde årets første picnic.

… Vi fandt ud af, at Alma er allergiker.

… Eleanor og jeg tog i biografen for at se Askepot.

… Alma besluttede at hun ikke længere behøvede at sove lur hver dag.

… Vi besøgte et snehvidt Coney Island.

… Alma fik de smukkeste mokkasiner fra Hubble and Duke.

… og vi brugte timer på at læse bøger, lege med dukker og tegne venlige monstre.

When you move to a new country, you’re not only leaving family and friends behind. You’re also saying goodbye to traditions and culture. You suddenly find yourself in a limbo of how traditions used to be kept alive and have you now choose to do it yourself.

My husband is English which means that I’m the only one to preserve the danish traditions in our family. And I’m a big fan of traditions, but not in the traditional way. Most of the traditions I grew up with, and still upheld when we lived in Denmark, were created by my parents and my grand parents. Now it is finally time I make my own version of the old traditions that will fit my family and our way of living. And I’m quiet sure it is going to end up in a great mix of danish and american. So far we have embraced a few new american traditions like halloween and Thanks Giving, that we didn’t celebrate while we lived in Denmark. While living in New York, we celebrated christmas danish style and today the kids and I started our easter preparations.

The easter letter is a very old and cute european tradition where you cut out a beautiful letter, write a poem on the letter and send it to a person dear to you, without writing who it is from. If the person can’t guess it is from you, they will have to give you an easter egg an vice versa. We also painted eggs with water colors, decorated spring branches and eat a pink marsh mellow easter bunny rabbit.  We will be doing an easter egg hunt next friday, when Eleanor will have a friend from Denmark visiting her for a sleep over and at the same day I will need to have some homemade bunny rabbit cookies ready as a surprise for the girls. And maybe, for the first time, we will try and make hot cross buns and have the easter bunny come with a easter basket  for the kids.

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Når du flytter til et nyt land, er det ikke kun familie og venner som du lader tilbage. Det er også både kultur og tradition, som du pludselig ser dig selv tage afsked med. Lige med et befinder du dig i en limbo af traditioner som de plejede at blive holdt i hævd, og hvordan det nu gøres i dine nye omgivelser.

Min mand er Englænder, og jeg er derfor den eneste der kan bestemme, hvilke danske traditioner vi skal holde fast i og hvordan det skal gøres. Selv er jeg kæmpe fan af traditioner, men ikke på den traditionelle facon. For mig bliver traditioner først rigtigt betydningsfulde, når de skabes omkring min egen lille familie, og tilpasses vores måde at leve på. De fleste af de traditioner jeg er vokset op med, er blevet skabt af mine forældre og bedsteforældre, men efter vi er flyttet til den anden side af jorden, er der nu blevet plads til at vi laver vores egne. Lige nu er der nye traditioner, der begynder at tage form. Traditioner som opstår udfra min lille familie og som indtil videre er et fint miks af amerikansk, dansk og engelsk. Vi har fejret halloween og thanks giving på amerikansk manér, med trick or treat og thanks giving optog, og vi holdt en næsten almindelig dansk juleaften i vores Brooklyn-hjem. Og i dag startede vi så på påskeforberedelserne. Vi klippede gækkebreve, malede påskeæg og spiste lyserøde marsh mellow bunnies. Påskeferien starter i New York først i næste uge, og hedder her forårsferie i stedet, men for vores vedkommende kommer den helt sikkert både til at indeholde æggejagt og påskefrokost og kanin cookies. Og så skal vi også afprøve lidt amerikanske traditioner som hot cross buns og et besøg af påskeharen, der bringer en påske kurv til børnene.