Back from Denmark

I’m back from a week in Denmark.

Before Christmas I found out that my mom’s husband (sort of my step dad?-they got married after I did, but still) was dying from cancer!

Lung cancer, stomach cancer, kidneys, bone marrow or spine and a cyst in his brain.

I honestly didn’t think he’d make it thru Christmas, but he DID and at Christmas time I ordered a ticket for me to go visit them and say goodbye!

It’s ROUGH traveling there!

3 planes each way- RDU  Raleigh to ORD Chicago, to CPH Copenhagen then to AAL Aalborg which is a small airport about 30 min plane ride, but it would be 6hrs or more by car/train.

The last flight was almost 3hrs delayed, it was so frustrating as they didn’t tell us much except to check back every half hour!

Anyways, I made it there, and one of my mom’s former AA friends picked me up at the airport and drove me to their house.

My mom and Egon looked terrible, I could have cried! It was so sad.. I won’t go into details, both of them looked bad and I didn’t realize my mom was that bad too.

Thursday we hung out and I drove them to the grocery store (first time in a long time I drove a stick shift again, so took me a little while to get used to) Egon was in bad shape

Friday we went out for lunch and the plan was to get a chest freezer but we didn’t make it, as my mom got sick. so we went home

Saturday early morning I borrowed their car and drove 2hrs to my home town to visit friends and family over the weekend.

Friday I went with my friend Dorthe’s family to her mom’s house for Christmas lunch- her mom has known me since I was little as Dorthe and I danced Danish folk dance, so the moms would sit and watch us.

Her mom collects tea pots and has more than 500, so I have NOTHING on her with my pincushion collection! ha ha

Once she heard about my pincushion collection she gave me this little round one on the right that she made years ago with I think a piece of fabric from her own confirmation. Dorthe’s husband gave me the “hard candy” one when we got back to their house later

This is Herring, I had a piece of a curry Herring, I never liked it as a kid, so tried a tiny piece now as an adult

this is a curry salad, not sure what else is in it- no herring in this one

then these tartlets with asparagus and shrimp, they were so yummy!

and Danishes for dessert as well

This is Dorthe and I

Her daughter Anna

and two boys Lukas and Oskar

Then I drove to another friend’s house for the night. Camilla I played with as a kid too, she went to my school too but was a year older than me (Dorthe was a grade below me at the same school too) but I lost contact with Camilla and finally we found each other on FB and her daughter Nanna and my daughter Solveig are emailing each other and Nanna is going to come visit this summer and stay with us for a week or so. She just won Danish championship in Latin Dance! very talented girl!!

For breakfast Sunday we had more danishes and these round buns!

Even though I was SO stuffed, I had requested Danish hotdogs for lunch and they delivered!! it was all delicious!!

Then early afternoon I went to my cousin Soren’s house, he’s married with 2 kids, haven’t seen him either since we were kids, we’re the same age and grew up in the same town, but there’s all sorts of family issues, so well, we lost contact as well, so it was great to catch up on things and see each other as ADULTS!

his mom (My aunt) Alice was also there, it was a total surprise, it was great to see her too!

Sunday night I drove the 2hrs back to my mom’s house, then Monday during the day Egon and I went out to look for a freezer and ordered one while my mom stayed home as she was sick. Monday night was rough to say the least, then Tuesday morning I took the bus to the airport and said goodbye to Denmark once again

Found this Lego tourist at the airport in CPH

My flight from Chicago to NC got cancelled because snow was coming! but I was VERY lucky and went to a counter right away and got a ticket for a later flight- the LAST flight out and made it to NC at midnight Tuesday.

it started snowing at 8am Wednesday

and it quickly accumulated

so of course no school for the kids today nor tomorrow, I’m betting none on Friday too!

so it’s nice to be home and hang out with the kids

I have lots of projects I need to work on!

There’s the round Robin I’m hosting, then lots of batiks for 4 projects for Accuquilt, then some moda GRUNGE fabrics for a project for a magazine and the last box was threads

Did you know that Coats and Clarks have started making these Quilt+ threads?!! They sent me a starter box to play with, the threads look really nice, so can’t wait to try them

They are Egyptian cotton

New and experienced quilters love the quality of Quilt+.

• It is silky smooth because we used 100% Extra Long Staple Egyptian Cotton thread
• It’s strong- 30 wt, 3 ply thread- and we double mercerized for strength and luster
• The no-wobble mini-king! Go ahead and run your machine fast! It won’t wobble or jump off the spool pin even on midarm machines
• And speaking of the spool- the bottom snaps open for securing your thread- how cool is that?
• 600 yards and 48 colors! Colors match FreeSpirit Fabrics Designer Essential Solids