pleasant valley sunday, written on monday.

If we're going to bring anything more into this house it has to fit into the second shelf to the right, third row down. okay, we're not really lacking for space. it's incredible actually, how much space we still have. there are shelves and cabinets tucked away all over this house and they are nowhere near filled up by us. thankfully.

so yesterday our pallet arrived:

greg and i had each taken a guess at what might be the danish way of delivering goods-- that is to say, how far the delivery guy would go to help us get the things inside. greg guessed we might wake up to a bunch of containers sitting out in the parking lot. i guessed that they'd bring them in and ask us where we wanted things. and i was right (except it was sort of understood that it would all go in a pile on the floor in the main room)

and the man even shook my hand and introduced himself. i wouldn't have guessed that one. but i'm coming to realize that although they shudder at the idea of making eye contact with you on the street, danes are friendly and helpful to a fault once they have committed themselves to helping you. not that he was going to stay and help us unpack.

so yesterday afternoon was spent rifling the contents of our boxes and containers, and most things did seem to have a purpose, though i will say i packed an awful lot of children's books. maybe it just feels that way now because we don't have a two year old asking us to read "grover sleeps over" for the fortieth time-- ah the joys of reaching the chapter book stage. i cannot say enough about chapter books. but alas, grover will be packing his overnight bag for his rendezvous at betty lou's house soon enough.

here is william's room and some books...

one lovely thing that came in a box was a pair of real shoes for henry. the same pair that william started out in, the spring after his first year.

henry was like a little baby animal at first, trying out his new legs, but, as with all little baby animals, he quickly got the hang of it.

enjoying the great wet outdoors, with dry feet.

yesterday too, i had the brilliant idea that we should bake some cookies for greg to bring into Birgitte, the secretary at his lab who miraculously arranged for our belongings to appear at our door, and it seems like so many other little things we've needed done and been clueless about how to do ourselves.

the way the cards fell last night, the task of making this token of our gratitude happen, became my responsibility. which means you can go ahead and pity Birgitte.

the leftover nuggets of our gratitude...

the plan had been to make chocolate chip cookies because that seemed very american. and it seems like if you are going to be newly in another country baking for someone, you should do a traditional ethnic treat. but apparently chocolate chip cookies are so foreign to denmark that they don't sell chocolate chips in the grocery store. at least not the super best down the street. so, we switched course and decided on a chewy chocolate cranberry cookie, based on a chewy chocolate cherry and chocolate chip cookie recipe we have (and we now have our cookbooks). i'm sure as you look at that picture your mouth is watering as much as william's was. it in fact took him all day to finish his one and only (by choice) cookie, which he nibbled at throughout the day, seen here in the foreground.

last night and this morning i coached greg on how to present these to birgitte--

tell her we ran out of sugar (not a lie).

tell her we couldn't find chocolate chips at the store.

tell her we're still trying to figure out our convection oven.

tell her we only had rye flour.

tell her maybe she should just throw them out.

she told greg to tell me that she liked the cakes. i'm guessing that's not a translation issue.

well, anyhow, it's late now. i'll leave you with a picture of fluffy, who made it safely across the ocean...

goodnight.