All posts tagged: happy

Getting in the Mood for the Holidays

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  What do you do if Christmas is just around the corner and you are too tired to even think of baking cookies, wrapping, shopping and decorating? You take a break. Christmas is about hygge, love and having a good time so why don’t you start with giving yourself a hygge break before you spread the hygge to those you love? Just like the oxygen mask on the airplane: put it on yourself before you help others. Love and hygge is very hard to spread if you cannot feel it. So give yourself a little love with a hygge break in the middle of all the to-do-lists. Like me right now. Nothing has been baked, lots of presents to wrap, there are two big baskets of laundry to fold right in front of me and the Christmas tree hasn’t even been decorated. Guests are coming Thursday. Yet, here I am. Enjoying a hot cup of chocolate out of my favorite hygge cup… After a little hygge break I will be ready to enjoy preparing for …

Bringing Hygge into January

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Leaving the festive and “hyggelige” (cozy) month of December behind and entering January is for me always followed by a certain sadness. Gone are all the Christmas decorations, parties, comfort foods and “hygge” (coziness/togetherness). Instead we get New Year’s resolutions of eating healthy, working harder and all the demands of starting a new year in the cold Winter months. This year I am determined to keep the “hygge” from December going. Maybe not with Christmas gnomes and ornaments but the comforting “hygge” part. The photo above from “Bakery by Hermann” in Lyngby, Denmark, captures what my January “hygge” will be like – soft and cozy lambs wool throws and hearty baking the Danish way. I love how this bakery brought the lamb skins outside on a bench. That is exactly how I envision myself in these cold winter months ahead of us: sitting on my porch on a warm lamb skin with a steamy hot drink – be it hot spiced wine, coffee or hot chocolate. This way January can be the month of relaxation …

How to Hygge

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  Danish hygge is becoming a world-wide term. It has even been nominated word of the year by the Oxford dictionary! Especially in England people are so eager to learn about hygge that a college has started teaching about it and a large number of books on hygge are successful on the international market right now. So what is this hygge? And is it what makes Danes the happiest people in the world? I think it is part of Danish happiness – the relatively good welfare system helps a lot too of course. We prioritize to take a break where we slow down and appreciate some simple pleasures of life. I know it is really hard to do it in the busy lives most of us live today but I think it could be the key to more happiness/contentment to stop and enjoy life a little every day if possible. My daughter was for the longest time asking me for more “mom-time”. I thought mom time just meant being alone with me. Not until recently did …

Danish Bakery and Restaurant in NYC

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I am so excited about the new Danish bakery at Grand Central Station in NYC! It is called Meyers Bageri and is run by one of the best and most famous Danish chefs, Claus Meyer. He recently received nothing less than three Michelin stars for two of his newly opened restaurants in Manhattan and Brooklyn! As you can see on the photos the bakery is full of charm and atmosphere in the Great Northern Food Hall, Grand Central. My food loving husband was able to go there and had froesnapper and tebirkes – some delicious flaky pastries with just the right amount of sweet cream and poppy seeds on top. He bought a half dozen each for a  wonderful customer of his and reports back they tasted excellent and were just like in Denmark. When I go there within the next month I will definitely try those, plus the cinnamon buns and rye bread and probably much more… Maybe I will just try everything 😉