There is no place like home for the holidays! Though not the winter wonderland that Copenhagen is, Sarasota contains my family, making it a superb Christmas destination! This fall semester I had never been home sick (probably a result of staying with an Amazing host family), but I still missed my family in Florida.
My voyage to Florida was full of its ups and downs, both physically and emotionally. I was flagged for additional security in Copenhagen and had to watch every item in each piece of luggage carefully examined. Thankfully the security guards approved of all the gifts I had gotten for my family, including nisser, and I was deemed to not be a security risk. To make up for having everything swabbed for bomb material and all electronics turned on, the airline upgraded my ticket to.... FIRST CLASS! Needless to say my flight from Copenhagen to Newark was amazing, complete with a three course meal, a chair that converts to a bed, videos on demand, a huge bathroom as well as personal service that included a coat check, and limitless food. Despite the obvious differences between me and the other first class passengers (I was the only one carrying a backpack and wearing a non fur coat) the experience was amazing. Unfortunately, by the time I got to Newark and went through customs I had missed my flight to Florida. The service agents wanted to put me in a hotel, but prepared with flight information given to me by my Dad at 5 am U.S. time (sorry Dad), I kept insisting on taking two flights more that evening and eventually the agents told me to run to the flight which was leaving in 15 minutes. Those last two flights were really a blur, the most important part being that I arrived in Tampa at 12:30 am December 20.
The rest of my Christmas holiday was quite relaxing. I spent time with my family, got caught up on Big Bang episodes, went shopping with my Mom, went to the gym with my Dad and sufficiently annoyed my brother (‘tis a sister’s job you know). Before Christmas my cousin Paige came over to make Christmas cookies. We took over the kitchen for about 5 hours, making everything from Danish Pebernødder to American cut out sugar cookies.
We kind of unintentionally Americanized the Pebernødder cookies. Guess which is the Danish cookie!
Here are our finished sugar cookies, minus some eaten by the bakers.
This year my Mom had Christmas off from work so we were able to have a wonderful Christmas by being together all day. From stocking to presents under the tree, Christmas was as it is supposed to be. The real difference was that this year the presents I got for others were from Europe. After presents, we went to my Grandparents’ house for Christmas dinner with the Levantis. As always, I quite enjoyed the whole family getting together. Being so far away from those you love makes you appreciate them that much more.
Michael and I on Christmas morning
As is probably apparent from what is above, my favorite thing about my winter vacation was spending time with my family, specifically my brother Michael, as well as my Mom and Dad. I have now recharged and am ready to go back to Copenhagen for another semester!
Vi Ses!
