This year we will do this slightly differently. Wrapping the year 2020 up into a “best off” makes little sense, since the year has been so completely different from everything else. It feels like “nothing” has happened but then again that´s not true at all. Things are so overwhelmingly different I thing a little recap with focus on all the good things that actually did happen this year would do me and maybe some of you guys real good.
Let’s break this year up in months instead. Hop on for the ride, let’s wrap this year up.
January -
when I look back at New Years Eve it feels like a lifetime ago. True to tradition we spent it with ourselves. Cooked real nice, comfort food and enjoyed our little baby girl. We have been talking about how to do New Years this year and for us - sticking to traditions was never easier.
We will get a good bottle of wine that we will probably not even finish, a bottle of champagne is already in the fridge, find some tasty but simple recipes and order the traditional Danish: “kransekage” from Andersen and try to keep everything as low key as possible and hop into the new year with great excitement and a positive mind set. See the Danish Queens speech first and then the one from teh Norwegian King. We will play a lot of Aretha and Barry and enjoy each other’s company and dance away in our living room. Most years we fall a sleep before midnight, let’s see what happens this year.
January 2020 was spent in museums and libraries. We toured the libraries of Copenhagen, I would work on applications during the day and in the early afternoon the rest of the gang would come and meet me and we would play at the library or indoor playgrounds. My man was on paternity leave and I was on the lookout for a job, so we spent tons of time together. One of my best memories is when we spontaneously walked into a pizza place called Frankies. It is what I would call a pink explosion of a restaurant. We had walked for a few hours around the lakes and were hungry and cold and the place was completely empty because they had just opened for the night service, when we walked in and grabbed the next best table.
We had mini in a high chair and sat and enjoyed ourselves so much, she ate porridge and we had pizza and ice cream sundaes. We looked at each other and where so in awe that we could actually do this. Sit down as a family and have pizza together. Like what are people with kids always moaning about? This is great, life with kids is a freaking walk in the park , a piece of cake - little did we know, what was yet to come :) But hey this was a good day and it was pure pink magic.
We also turned our one bedroom apartment into a two bedroom apartment and the smallest member of our crew got her own room with a new bed. Felt like a huge transition but the result was more sleep for all of us - so a clear win, win.
I visited Louisiana twice this month - an exhibition that really stuck was James Marsden and this piece where I do not even remember who the artist behind it is. But there were bicycles and you could ride them inside the museum. What’s not too like?
February -
also called “fastelavensbolle” season - I tried so many. But in the end, the winner again, again was: JUNO - their Semla is freaking amazing. And they have the perfect size, you think it might be a bit to the small side - but when you finished it, you know that its actually perfect.
The best trip this month was our one day abroad in Malmö. We love these trips so much. Hop on the train, walk through the city and just browse around. This time we were on a mission, we were seeing a dance show an old colleague of mine had put on. A dance show for babies. It was pure magic and I am not sure who loved it more - me or Thomas, for not to mention mini. After 45 minutes we were exhausted and popped out for lunch and spontaneously saw an art exhibition at Konsthallen as well. Ragna Bley & Inger Ekdahl. A beautiful exhibition we were completely blown away. Maybe the best Art experience in 2020.
My dad paid us a quick visit this month too - those were the days when we could travel and come by and say hi.
We also got our brand new balcony - it feels like we just got an extra room and we are eagerly awaiting warmer weather to come so we can move our grill out there.
March -
Alex visits us from Hannover and brings us really nice coffee. I try Doughie Girls Doughnuts for the first time. Imagine me, completely exhausted after a night with very little sleep. Mini sleeping in the stroller and me sitting outside the doughnut shop in the pouring rain Inhaling this crazy meringue passionfruit doughnut in two bites. I was on a sugar high for a few hours, just what I needed. Still love checking out new places but realizing that I don’t quite have the same energy as I use to. But still very excited to try new places every forth night.
We get news that we have a kindergarten spot for mini. She is about to walk so we feel that she is ready now. We accept the spot and start to mentally prepare but then LOCKDOWN. Everything is postponed because all kindergartens and schools are shut down. Suits us fine. My man will not return to the office but work from home and we will be watching a lot of news for the next weeks. I have a teaching spot at the University - I teach through zoom and get sponge bob square pants eyes from all the zoom meetings I attend.
We have been following news from the rest of Europe and emailed friends in Italy and The States and have been worried for a while . It was to be expected that we would notice some of all the action here as well.
So we cook, enjoy time at home, make pizza, go for walks, have take away coffee. We open the balcony season and sit out there all the time with big sweaters and hot drinks. We love it so much.
4th floor makes sense - we can keep an eye out for all the action and talk to our neighbors from a good distance. Feeling so thankful that we live in a city with neighbors so even though we have zero social life we still chit chat here and there.
April -
April comes with April weather, spring vibes are in the air and I remember it as fresh and breezy with a lot of light. We get a kids seat for our bike and spend so much time outside, in parks on playgrounds, avoid big crowds and have red, dry, sandpaper hands after all the hand sanitizer and keep to ourselves a lot but life feels good. It´s like someone gave us another month of parental leave. So we enjoy time for ourselves and our new balcony a lot. We bike round the city to support our favourites bakeries and cafés and “to go” and “take away” gets a whole new meaning ...
Buy new sneaks on sale - feeling ready for Spring
I have a list or more like a long mantra on my phone - it gives a bit of perspective of what was on my mind this month.
READ / CALL / COOK / WATCH MOVIES / LISTEN TO PODCAST / STAY SAFE / STAY HOME
May -
Things open up slightly and mini has her first day at Kindergarten, it feels like a huge step. Very small step for mankind but huge for us I guess. Because she just learned to walk we feel that´s a good sign. We have spent so much time preparing ourselves, we feel ready and look forward to a little normality. I also feel a need to focus even more on getting settled professionally and find a new job. My patience is running out and I need a new load of energy. Maybe time for myself on my hands will make things easier. Corona Lockdown and being unemployed is shitty. I feel so helpless and do a lot of yoga. It helps a little but my head is way to heavy and I am frustrated.
If feels like we have the hang of being parents and try to embrace what ever obstacle come our way as a team. Some days are better than others. And just as we have a feeling of being on top, it gets more challenging. It is like a rollercoaster and even though I only remember the good stuff, I know there were really tough days as well. This month was Mother’s Day and it was so nice to receive a much needed little pad on the shoulder: “you ´re doing good”. So the pink explosion made me very happy.
May was also a month of birthdays, which was a challenge since my family live a broad. Well: hello zoom - it´s like many of these months were taking place through a screen. It was nice and we said hi to everyone and it was a good alternative now that things were so different because of this pandemic we were in the middle off. But my family in law came by and celebrated with us wich was really nice and we made the best of it.
The 17th of may that I normally spend in Norway and look so much forward to was different as well. But it was really nice even though it was different. We had ice cream and bubbles with friends and we both got to wear our “Bunad” and stirring things up a bit is good for you every once in a while. At least that is what I have heard.
June -
A month of iced coffee. A great season if I may say so myself. My mum came around - we hung out and it felt so good to be able to see her face to face again. I remember picking her up at the airport was surreal. I love the atmosphere at the airport and really enjoy the energy but it was completely empty and it was so quiet.
When having family who live in other countries - this pandemic situation gave that a new dimension.
June was also a month were I checked out April Coffee for the first time. (Wrong month, I know ...) I knew their coffee beans and was really excited when I heard that they had opened a place where they also served coffee. New places always excite me. It´s a very nicely designed place and the staff are super sweet. The filter coffee: very well balanced and it´s a great location because Lekerbaer is just down the street so you can always get a pastry from there to pair with. Even though I have visited it a few times afterwards and it’s a beautiful place it’s not an all time favorite of mine.
It’s probably because I am in a different place in my life but I do prefer Darcy here in Copenhagen. Much more down to earth with really nice coffee. We buy a lot of our coffee beans from them, because they open our minds and have so much interesting on their shelves. They have evolved so much and their menu is constantly changing. Now that we are not traveling much going there for breakfast feels like a weekend get away.
I also read a great book this month - Tine Höeg: Tour de Chambre. It was so hyped and the book cover looked so nice. Expectations were high from my side and I loved it. I was completely surprised and mesmerized by how short and simple it was written. It caught me off guard and I both laughed out loud and cried, which was a pleasant.
July -
We actually traveled in July, we went to Norway for our summer holiday. Enjoyed Norwegian Summer at it´s best. Tried the fluffiest doughnuts at Talormade since Peter Pan Doughnuts in New York and my heart skipped at beat when I had the one topped with non-stop, it´s like a dream come true. We fan crush so hard on Taylor, ever since we met her in the bar at Tim Wendelnboe and she did a coffee cupping with us and had so much interesting to tell we have been following her work on instagram. Her beautiful little gems of doughnut shops and coffee places makes Oslo even more worth a visit and we very so eager to finally try one of the places.
July was one long summer holiday because we also went to the south of Denmark to visit family. Took the ferry and visited the Island of Ærø for the first time too.
I remember only the good weather in July and have an idea that we swam in the ocean every day, or at least almost every day.
We biked around in our favourite city as well and this years BEST ice cream - was again, again eaten at: Isotheket. This Mango lassi explosion with roasted sesame ginger sprinkle. It´s will stay with me as the taste of this July summer kissed month. It was the bomb - best ice cream nothing else came even close to this.
August -
Best date in August was our breakfast bagel at Depanneur, a few hours just the two of us made so much sense. We also had my parents visit from Munich and spent a really nice day at the beach. Perks of having parents come by with cars and a good sense of direction which I both lack.
I always ask myself: how did I spend my birthday. It is nice to think back and write it down so I don’t forget about it. This year we had breakfast at home and I was spoiled with pretty presents. Afterwards we took our bikes and my man suggested we go to Tilda's for a second round of breakfast which I never ever refuse. Breakfast is always a good idea. It turned out that he had arranged the sweetest breakfast surprise where a bunch of my girls where already there so we could say hello. They had even arranged a lovely birthday cake and the rest of the day we had iced coffee, pizza in our back yard and played at the playground. It was a great birthday.
September -
How did you spend your 1´st wedding anniversary? By combining the best restaurant and best hotel experience in 2020. A night out at 108 and falling a sleep at Villa Copenhagen. I recommend both very much. Unfortunately the restaurant has now closed but I am very happy we got to spend one last night there. One of my all time favorite restaurants in this city and this perfect meal was no exception. We talked about how much it reminded us of the menu we had at Mingles in Seoul years back and one of the waiters explained that they had been VERY inspired by how they dine in Korea and it all made so much sense to me.
I am so happy we took a day out of the calendar to do something special because one day takes the other and we have never been so bad at doing things for us as we are now. The hotel and it’s staff was lovely, we swam in the out door pool, sat for hours at the breakfast buffet. We were the first to enter in the morning because we woke up so ridiculously early and we even brought a croissant and a coffee back up to our room and enjoyed watching the news in crisp white sheets. Such a luxury when your are not used to have time on your hands to simply do nothing - this felt like a week away from home.
We biked through Copenhagen and browsed a few shops and bought flowers and the after being 24 hours away from our little favourite person we were very ready to go home again.
I can’t believe that we have been married for a whole year already. We still refer to each other’s as lovers - not husband and wife and agree that´s fine because the meaning of the word makes much more sense to what we mean to one another.
What else happened in September. Both my sister and brother visited us, not at the same time, which was a shame but still such a treat so be able to say hi to both of them face to face and give them a big hug.
I also visited Sophienholm for the first time and saw the Vibskov Exhibition which I enjoyed very much. Had the best company that day as well and even though it poured down like never before we had such a nice day. It´s a beautiful place and I will go back again and enjoy a walk around the pretty lake and the beautiful park surrounding the museum.
Even though we have lived here for so many years there are still so many museums we have not yet visited. Lovely when you feel the urge to go back and great fun when small museums team up with fun and energetic artists who just color explode their ideas through the small rooms of an historic building so you just feel like walking on cloud nine on the wettest day of the year.
October -
Amass is a restaurant that has been on my list for many, many years. When I have a steady income I will take my man out for a date night. Until then we are more than happy to settle for Amass fried chicken take out. This might be our best meal of the year.
The weather was getting colder but we were still biking around and take out on adventures as much as we can - they have a garden where they grow produce for their restaurant and we order it to eat outside. We got a table for ourselves and picked flowers and ran after butterflies while we waited. I have no idea how long the wait was, probably a little while because we really enjoyed seing the look on people's faces when they had their first bite. Fried Chicken can be so good, but good does this chicken little justice - freaking awesome, melting in your mouth want to order another one right away good is more like it. We had fun sides like coleslaw and butter milk biscuit with whipped butter. The hot sauce was out of this world as well - we were high on this meal for weeks. Worth the bike ride, the wait and I had FOMO about this for weeks beforehand and they got even worse after we enjoyed this sublime meal. Such a tip if you haven’t been all ready.
November -
December -
These two last months are blurry. Corona lockdown part two is on the verge and it is finally sinking in that this years Christmas will be spent without my family. The closer we get the more annoyed I get and I have tried to do a bunch of Christmas like things, but I still find it tricky. We FaceTime a lot with friends abroad and both my mum & dad has sent us a bunch of parcels with all sorts of fun things. My mum even sent us homemade krumkaker & kransekake for people who know what this is. It´s a fun fact. Krumkaker are very delicate and not too postal service friendly but they survived and every crumb was inhaled pretty rapidly. We had a bunch of plans but we also tried to tune in on a slow pace. Mini was kept home from Kindergarten a week extra and have kept to ourselves. We are the lucky ones in all this, we have each other. We can spend time with one another and even though it´s hard and exhausting, I am sure I will think back on the times we spent together and try to cherish that instead of focusing on how endless this situation has seemed for way too long.
My New Years resolution is PAUSE - it’s my mantra. When my yoga teacher asks us to find our focus point it’s a word that keeps popping into my mind. My head feels full and I feel constant guilt about not doing enough which is pretty exhausting so I want to work on becoming better at being in the moment, give myself a break and press PAUSE.
We are off to the South of Denmark tomorrow - I will not bring my iPad but bring magazines and books. Off Screen time is important to me for this holiday - I am such an addict a little PAUSE will do me good.
I hope you are all well - I hope 2021 will bring a new normal to these chaotic times and I hope we find ways to make it feel less tough.
Stay safe - Merry Christmas and a happy new year !
