Merry Christmas/Glædelig Jul and the Rest of Break

Lots to report here so grab a cup of coffee or take a nap you might need a little extra boost to get through this post. Ok, wake up, lets go...

My birthday wish for a win over Middelfart in the Pokal semifinal came true. We won 3-0 at home to advance to the final versus Gentofte at the end of January. The game went smoothly we took control early in set one and built a solid lead. This is nothing new against Middelfart. The two previous matches we had big leads in set one but managed to miraculously lose that lead right back and eventually lose the set all together. This time, however, we just kept the pedal down and sprinted straight to 25. Set two was a bit closer, but we had the lead the whole way. Taking set one and getting another early lead made them back off on thier serves and that really helped us sideout at a high percentage. We won set two and three largely due to this. And you also can't forget that we don't lose in the black jerseys. That might have been the most important variable of all.

After the game we had our usual post game beers in the sauna to unwind and regenerate any bones sacrificed in the "bone yard." Our home court is the "bone yard" because the court is concrete with the thinest layer of rubber ever, if you can call paint rubber. So whenever you play in there the floor claims one random bone in your body. You won't know which one and you won't know when you will get it back. So yes, the sauna helps to speed up this recovery process. The first round of cold pool from the sauna was substituted with a run outside into the snow where we did snow angels on the soccer field. It was classic!

The next day was our team Christmas party. We got to the gym and played a few rounds of hagabow. No idea how to spell it but it's a combination of soccer and volleyball. Got a good run in while sipping on a few beverages to set up the feast that was to come. Grabbed a quick shower, cleaned up, and then sat down at the table for an epic feast and a lengthy snaps session. All the Danish dishes that I have come to know were present. There was at least 5 rounds of food. And there was no shortage of snaps. We went through 4 bottles and there was only 15 people there at the most. Not only was the snaps flowing at a ridiculous rate the julebyrgs were practically jumping out of the box. Whoa...Let's just say getting up at noon to go to Norway with Joakim was interesting.

Morning came quicker than I'd like. And Joakim, who I had just seen in my place 4 hours earlier, was at my door and ready to roll. We were pretty banged up to say the least. Joakim's dad came down for the match and stayed for the Christmas party so he could drive us back to thier home for the holidays. Joakim invited me to come a while back and I thought it would be a great opportunity to get some skiing in and see another country that I had not been to. The weather was a little sketchy so it took somewhere around 8 hours to get from Odense to Joakim's home town of Sarpsborg, Norway. We unpacked and sat down in the kitchen for a nice dinner with Joakim's mom and dad. It was a nice dinner and they were really nice people they made me feel right at home. After dinner we went upstairs to get settled in and prepare the guest bed room. I layed down at 8pm. No intentions of sleeping but did...for 14 hours!

We got up had some breakfast and Joakim said we had a mission to do. His brother was admitted to the hospital the night before with some sort of flu and was unable to get a Christmas tree. So we put on the warmest gear we could find, grabbed an ax and a hand saw and headed out into the forest to get him one. It seemed like an easy enough task, but to find a tree that was just right proved to be pretty tough. After probably an hour of searching we found a winner. Joak took a few hacks and tiiiiiiiiiimber...ok it was only 8 ft tall so it was more of a slow fall and roll, but still we conquered the forest. I had a flannel on under my jacket so I looked the part at least! We carried the prize to the street where it could be transported to his brothers house later.

After we won gold at the outdoor games we took the car into the towns center area. Joakim's younger brother was in from Oslo and he came along as well. It was so cold out that we didn't get much walking done, but we did more of a pub crawl. Made it into some old taverns right on the water and had a few Borgs which was the local favorite beer there. After getting a few beers in a few different places we stopped for pizza. Had a really good taco pizza and another beer, and continued the mini pub crawl. We had made arrangements to see Avatar later so we were just burning some time until then. We hit up one pub that had a pool table but it was ridiculously expensive to play so we only played two games. It was 20kr a game which is $4. Pretty bold at a pub on a coin taking bar table. Anyway, we bounced to one more place then made it to the movie. Avatar was a pretty incredible movie. The only problem I had was when the Na'Vi spoke in their native language the subtitles were also in Norweign! It was funny because I asked Jaokim what did they just say and he looked at me oddly. I was like dude the subs are in Norweign!! Oh yea...But it was fine I got the gist of what was going on none of the dialog was that far out there. We got home around 1 am and Joakim's mom was still up. She had some Gløk out on the stove. It's a Christmas beverage that you add raisins and almond bits to as well as alcohol if you wanted to. We wanted to get up early to go skiing so the virgin blend did just fine. Really nice either way. Bed by 2 am.

After Joakim hit snooze literally 9 times we finally got up. I wasn't arguing I was so comfortable I couldn't get up either. So we got out of the house an hour later than we wanted to but our goal of to be on the top of the Kongsberg mountain at noon was only off by a half an hour. It was -12 degrees Celcius at noon. It was quite a site riding up the lift for the first time all the trees were heavily covered in snow. The top of the lift was 1600m and you could see down to the city below when standing at the top. The mountain was an old silver mining site. Joakim was on a snowboard and I had skis. My first run was a little shaky took me a while to get to the bottom. But by the third time down I was pretty much settled in. I didn't fall all day! We could have stayed and skiied all day but it came to a point where our hands, feet, and faces were just too cold to continue. We made at least 16 runs over a 6 hour period so it was a good day. Walked away with no injuries we were just so cold it was unreal. We left the ski resort and headed into Oslo.

We were on the way when we figured out that Joakim's brother accidentally gave us the wrong keys to his apartment. So we luckily were able to get a hold of Joakim's uncle who lived in Oslo as well. Really nice and interesting guy. He made us some dinner, we had some wine and chatted for a bit. It was funny I just asked Joakim if it was wierd having to speak English to his family when I was around. Not a minute later Joakim's uncle came in and said you know it's wierd talking to my nephew in English, we have never done this before. It's strange for me because obviously they would never speak English when I am not there but it's really cool that they can so easily just go into either language so effortlessly. And since they don't use it all that often, them being so good at it is really impressive. Joakim and I agreed that we wouldn't set an alarm because we didn't need another 10 snooze morning. Bed by 1am.

The next morning we had breakfast and rolled out into Oslo city. The traffic was incredibly hectic. There were street cars whizzing up and down, cars everywhere, and pedestrians crawling everywhere. Coming from Chicago and knowing congestion I would even probably have to pass on trying to navigate Oslo by car. We made it to a parking garage and headed out by foot. Again it was super cold. And now I'm not dressed in 40 layers for skiing, so it's really really cold. We did a quick walk around the town and got some Christmas shopping done. Oh and there are Subway franchises in Norway! I had to eat there even though it was 3x the normal price. I asked them what the hell happened to the $5 foot long? The commercial in Norway must say $15 dollar foot long, geeez! After lunch and a bit more walking and shopping it was time for me to head to the airport. There was an express train that only took 25 minutes from the Oslo train station. I got to the airport in plenty of time to check out the duty free shops and sit down and have a $15 dollar Carlsberg .6L beer, man these prices make my head hurt! Flight was on time and I was back in Denmark an hour later.

Christa called me while I was in Norway and thought it was funny that the lamp and the table were in odd places when she stopped in to grab a few things before going home to Middelfart while I was away. She just thought we had a crazy time here after the team Christmas party. Not for a few hours after I talked to her did I have a weird feeling that something was off here. When I walked into the front door I saw the bowl on the table where I knew I left money and the bowl was on the couch. Now why would that be. I saw the coffee table drawer was out as well and we never use that. I said ok Christa we've been robbed. She said wait how do you know. Well apart from those two things I mentioned, one look in the bedroom and I saw two more drawers that we never used opened. I pulled up the blinds and saw the window clasps were busted. The only things that were taken, thank god, was the money I had left in the bowl and Christa's camera. We had all of our other belongings with us but still that was not fun to come home to. Just knowing someone was stalking this place looking in the windows is enough to make your skin crawl. Upon further inspection the dude tried three other windows before he was able to bust the bedroom one. He actually tried to get into the bathroom window which is less than 2ftx2ft and that made me laugh a little bit. I already mentioned this in my Thanksgiving post but I have the greatest grandparents in the world but this just confirms how great they really are. After my mom told them what happened they wrote her a check to replace the money that was stolen because they felt bad for me during Christmas. It doesn't get any better than that. I love you guys absolutely amazing!

And now we are on to 3 more Christmas parties in a row...Is anyone still there??? Here are a few pictures from the Middelfart game on December 18th for a brief intermission. These pictures appeared in the Odense newspaper.

Jordan dishing to a middle who is going to crush

Celebratory dive for the fans!

I like Lots of line...

Thanks for coming, yea we are pretty happy!

Ok so you made it this far just 3 more Christmas parties to go! December 24th is the day that is celebrated as THE day. I went to Svendbog to Christa's grandparents on her mothers side. It was a nice party lots and lots of food and I absolutely love the duck that they serve on Christmas Eve. So good. The wine also spectacular. After dinner we got up lit the candles on the tree and did the traditional walking and singing around the tree. All the songs were in Danish so I couldn't sing them but I had heard them before. After all this is my third Danish Christmas. I was even allowed to pick a song so I just went with Jingle bells and we got through the first verse, but two times. All in all, a great nite. I got a juicer, a diesel belt, a long sleeve shirt, and some Dior cologne. Christa and I went in together to get all the presents for her family, but the one I did have to get all on my own was a present for Christa. I got her a purple Ipod nano and she has practically had those ear buds glued into her ear canal since then. So I think I did well.

Party 2 on the 25th was back in Middelfart where we went to Christa's parents friends to do it all over again. Another great time. Great food great people, and pretty much everyone made an effort to try and talk to me at some point. I need to learn Danish because these long dinner parties are tough when 95% is in Danish. After a nice dinner they busted out the Wii dance game not sure what it's called but it was pretty funny. Some of the dances are hilarious to watch as an outsider and even funnier to be a participant. After this we headed to Buddy Holly the bar where there is an annual Christmas party. Bo who was a teammate of mine when I played in Middelfart came to the end of the house party so it was nice to catch up a little bit with him and once he came I knew I then had to go out. I also had to beat him in Wii bowling!

Party 3 - Whoa, tough to wake up again, oh man, lots of refreshments at these Danish parties. On the 26th this party started a bit earlier but it was just as long if not longer and this time we were near the German border at Christa's fathers sisters house in Aabenraa. This one is more of a lunch/dinner. Starts off pretty light with breads and meats and slowly builds up to sausages and ends with tons of cheeses. I mean round after round of food just kept coming. We must have been seated at the table from 2-7. Just the list of food from these parties would probably be longer than this blog in itself! Three parties so much food so many cocktails, but really all great people which made for really nice and unique parties. I had a really nice holiday this year.

So now what? I leave for Copenhagen tomorrow for a few days. Going to stay with a friend of mine as well as Christa's. Definitely making a stop in Tivoli it's supposed to be really nice this time of year. New Years we don't have any plans but I'm sure something will pop up when it gets closer. All for now. Congratulations you made it all the way through this blog, well done! I promise none will be longer than this again! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!