Nattefrost

It's been a long, dark, not-so-cold November in Copenhagen. Things improved marginally after the first half of the month with only 3 hours of sunshine. One piece of trivia is that this will likely be the first November since 1860 without a frost (nattefrost). There are still a few days left, but the weather pattern seems to be set.

Alexa's off at a rehearsal with Nordiske Stemmer (Nordic Voices). Their first concert is Sunday afternoon. It's a newly formed chamber choir of professional singers (mostly church musicians). Here's the concert invitation.

I put Anya to bed tonight and thought I would share some of the lullabies we sing for her. While we speak English with her, we've resorted to both English and Danish lullabyes at bedtime - usually the same ones (Now the Day is Over and Sov Sødt Barnlille). I even made up my own, since many of the English lullabies I know involve either criminal negligence (Rock-a-bye Baby) or bribery (Hush little baby, don't say a word...):

Sweet dreams, little Anya, sweet dreams

Good night, little Anya, good night

You've had a big day, but now it's time

To say, "Sweet dreams, good night."

Sweet dreams, little Anya, sweet dreams

Good night, little Anya, good night

The cow's in the barn, the bird's in the nest.

So say, "Sweet dreams, good night."

Sov sødt, lille Anya, Sov sødt

God nat, lille Anya, God nat

Dagen var stor, men nu er det tid

At sige "Sov sødt, god nat."

If you have any other recommendations for good English (or Danish) lullabyes, please include them in the blog comments.

In food news, we've been making weekly visits to a new shop down the street. It's a smørrebrød takeout/catering place run by a Thai proprietor. They make a very good "Thai gryde" at a reasonable price. We've been going there for takeout instead of Mo's pizza. On the topic of food, we hope it was a good Thanksgiving for all of our friends in the U.S. We roasted a chicken because our oven is too small to fit a proper turkey inside it. There's also some pumpkin pie in the refrigerator calling me.... The closest thing here to Thanksgiving is Mortensaften which is celebrated with a family dinner featuring goose, or more commonly duck.

I mentioned the televised Danish talent competitions in previous posts. Recently we saw some musicians that were truly talented on DR's show "Spil for livet" (play for your life).

In other news, we're taking Danish lessons again for a little while. We're hoping to get a boost that will help further with our conversational skills. Wish us luck!