About Elise
Hi. I’m Elise. And I Used to Dread Winter.
Then a Danish friend handed me a candle — and a word that changed me, my lifestyle, and my home.
More About Me
I live in Minneapolis with my husband, Henrik, our two daughters, Maja (10) and Freya (7), and Björn, a rescue cat.
I have been turning my house into a hygge home for four winters now. My Danish friend, Astrid, got me started on this journey.
The Hugged Home is my attempt to share the best things Astrid told me, peppered with my own experiences and research.
The Story
The winter my second daughter was born, my world seemed to be falling apart. Work was stressful. Managing two kids seemed impossible. Henrik tried his best to help out, but our house always seemed to be in a mess. I was thirty-four years old, and I was close to a meltdown.
Then one afternoon, my Danish friend Astrid came to visit me. I still remember; it was a gray Tuesday in January, the kind of day that feels like it never quite gets light. And it was bitterly cold.
She found me working on my laptop while Freya was bawling for milk. She didn’t say a word. She just walked over, closed my laptop, and then lit a candle on the table.
“You need hoo-gah,” she said. “What’s that?” I asked. She laughed and said, “The Danes don’t fight winter. They build a home inside it.”
It is spelled hygge. Close enough to “hug.” I immediately understood what she meant — even before I looked it up.
Astrid told me about Danish winters — months of darkness that the Danes have turned into the coziest time of the year. Not despite the cold. Because of it.
I have been a different kind of homemaker ever since. Thankfully, Astrid took me under her wings and taught me everything worth knowing about Danish Hygge.
Four winters later, this site exists because of that Tuesday in January. Because of Astrid. Because of a candle.
