Happy New Year

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Click on the link for Christmas by Sister Clark and see pictures of our week. Look for someone you know.
http://www.photoshow.com/watch/aX8Rm8aK

The Christmas season in Denmark is very festive. They begin their celebration on Lille Jule Dag (Little Christmas Day) which is the day before Christmas Eve and the last day that the stores are opened. They close most stores on Christmas Eve all day through the 26th which is called "Anden Jule Dag" or the second Christmas day. So that is 3 full days that you can not shop except for 7-11 stores. In our case it was 4 days in a row that we could not shop because Lille Jule Dag was on Sunday.

Last night on Lille Jul Dag we were invited along with seven Elders to a traditional peasant dinner that dates back to before the Declaration of Independence was signed, and the same time that the hospital where Sister Peterson stayed in a short time ago was founded. We ate "Risen Grode" which is rice pudding sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and a teaspoon of butter in the middle. That was the whole meal.

Each batch of risen grode also has chopped almonds and one whole almond. The person who is able to show that they have the whole almond wins the present that is placed on the table at the beginning of the meal. Of course Sister Peterson won. Christmas Eve is when the extended family gets together for a big Thanksgiving type meal. The meal we had included "stegte gaes" stuffed and roasted goose as well as "flaeskesteg" pork roast with a crisp and course salted 1/4" layer of fat on the top side. They are both very delicious and different than anything we have tasted in the U.S. In addition to the meat they also serve two kinds of "kartofler" potatoes and wonderful "brunsaus" gravy made with whipping cream, and "rodkal and Agurkesalat" pickled red cabbage and cucumber", and many other fun things. They usually top this dinner off with "aeblekage" applecake, but tonight we had risalamang, rice pudding and a wonderful Kirsebaer saus, cherry sauce.

Our host tonight, Brother Knudsen, is a gourmet cook. Everything we have had at his home is spectacular. Then after dinner we light the candles on the Christmas tree and dance around it and sing Danish Christmas Carols and exchange gifts. We are giving homemade fudge and pecan logs this year. One of the differences about the way they celebrate Christmas here is that they use red hearts to decorate the tree similar to the ones we use for Valentines Day. At one of the events we attended they also had a man and woman dressed up as the King and Queen of Hearts to give out the gifts to the children. Don't get me wrong, they also have a "Julemand" Santa Clause and his helpers "Nissemaend", elves.

The one part of Christmas that is not very prominent in their holiday celebrations, except for at church, is Christ. It is seldom that you see a Nativity scene, but we have a life size one on our Temple grounds. Most presents are given out on Christmas Eve. There are presents received by the children from the Julemand on Christmas Day. There is also a lot of alcohol consumed during the three or four days of the holiday. I was at the grocery store a couple of days ago and most of the shoppers had at least four bottles of wine etc. and lots of beer. I don't know how they afford it at over $20 per bottle.

They do a lot of beautiful hand made decorations here. Paper cutting is very popular. We sang carols with the other missionaries at the temple grounds during the Christmas season. We also set up a small display at "Radhus Plads" Town Square in Copenhagen at the beginning of the "Stroget" walking street. We had fourteen missionaries singing with one of them on the keyboard. While they sang we were going through the crowd wishing them a Merry Christmas and handing out pamphlets and Christmas videos.

But even though they do a lot of things with their families and have some fun traditions most of them seem to forget the real meaning of Christmas. The gifts are given in the tradition of the wise men from the east who gave to the Christ child. We should also remember at this time the gifts that were given by our Savior, even Jesus the Christ. He gave us the most sterling example of life and said simply "Come, follow me". He gave his life for us that through his Atonement we would be able to have Eternal Life and and the blessing of being together as Eternal Families. He restored his true church in these latter days through his prophet Joseph Smith so that all mankind would have the opportunity to accept or reject his gifts. He commanded us to share the reality of his gifts with others and at the same time gave us the freedom to choose whether to accept or reject his gifts and his will. We owe every thing we have and ever will have to Him.

We love our Savior Jesus Christ and hope that our service here in Denmark will be acceptable to him. We pray for his children here and at home every day and hope that we may all be strong in the faith and follow him.

Today is Christmas Eve. Happy Birthday to my dear mother. This is the first Christmas without her. It is hard to imagine that we won't be celebrating her birthday. But she is in our hearts today and we think of her often. I love to think of the reunion Mom and Dad are having as their first Christmas together after so many years. What a celebration. She waited a long time for this. Have a great time Mom. We love you and we won't forget you or Dad.

I just found these pictures we took when Mary and Chris came to visit in Denmark. Also Anna and Elise.























Here we are at our church with the Kristus statue.















Sister Warnsdorf invitied us for tea.





Look at that pretty table.









And that yummy food. Yes we felt like we were eating at the Queens table.

Welcome home Natalie. You have a great family that missed you and are glad you are home. Your sweet spirit has helped the Spanish people in New York feel of God's love for them. Cut and paste link for Becky's slideshow of homecoming.

Click below to see our family Christmas slide show. This is the greatest Christmas gift a grandma could ask for when she can't be there. Even if I was there I may not have seen what is pictured here. Thanks everyone for sharing your pictures. If you have more, feel free to make another slide show for me to show off my kids.  

Thanks Julie for making the slide show so I could link to it.  Thanks Amber and Steve for teaching me how to be so smart to figure out the link.

http://www.slide.com/r/9gVAUHsu3j_Wxt57o4_6s07QTMlJVKGh?current_view=TICKER&previous_view=TICKER_MENU_SHARE&previous_action=SHARE&cid=936748722504478773

In November we had an all area conference where the Iceland Elders and couple came down to Copenhagen. Here we all are. Do you recognize anyone?

Here are the ectapars or Senior Couples below. Aren't we good looking?










And we were feed very well. Flæskesteg (their special pork with crisp skin on top), kartofler (potatoes), sauce (gravy with cream) and of course rødkål (red cabbage which is pretty good). Do you like my Danish? Also we had the small potatoes fried in sugar (brøn kartofler). How would you like to peel all those little potatoes. Most of the time they buy them in a bottle already peeled. You pour the gravey over the potatoes and eat them like that. No mashing potatoes. This is the traditional dinner and we have had a lot of it and each time we love it.

Well, it has been awhile. So I am going to go back a couple of weeks.

Michael Cromar came to visit us one Friday afternoon and we went sight seeing. We went to see where Great Grandfather Frederik Peterson lived in Birkerød, which is close by and then stopped by the Church of our Lady where the Kristus is.


We also stopped by one of our favorite tourist attractions where there is a brick on the walkway with Grandpa Peterson name on it at the foot of the Christine statue by the port where he left to go to Utah.

We loved going out to dinner with him and he loved our apartment. Thanks Michael for a nice time.

It has been a busy week and I haven't taken the time to write or share pictures. I sure enjoy reading my family's blogs. I would rather do that then write. We had the Clark's and Else Knudsen over for hot chocolate and home made toffee and cookies. We burned our advent candle for this week. Can't wait till Chris Ray comes and brings me a wreath for my candles. Also some lights for my tree. They won't let me burn the candle ornaments so I need lights. We burned up the ones that came on the tree from American by just plugging them in. We have been here too long, we forgot that we needed a transformer or whatever they are called.

Each year the missionaries sing at the temple and it is a lot of fun. Tonight they decided to have us sing at the church. Not a good idea. We are great outside but inside we weren't very good and some people came to hear the First Presidents' broadcast with the tabernacle choir. Some non members left after we sang and missed the best part. Wasn't the broadcast great? I cried when we sang Silent Night. We sang in Danish for our program but I really didn't know what I was singing but in English I did. Didn't take any pictures like last year. I didn't wear my fur coat either. I will have to get out the old pictures and post.

Chris comes in the morning for a few days to help me learn to love my Mac. Hope I have time. This week we have two conferences, one in Horsens, across the bridge about 3 hrs away and then Friday here at the church. I am also getting a service missionary to help in the office. This will be good as she is from Denmark and knows their way of doing business. So good night. Have fun in the snow Utah.

I love Christmas pictures and so here are last year's pictures in our old apartment.

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This was our house or apartment or flat. We lived on the second floor and that is our car out in front.






Yes it snowed last year but not for Christmas. Most of the time it just rained.

















Our table was decorated with nobby cork screw branches that is a traditional thing in Denmark. Usually they hang them up on the ceiling and hang ornaments from them. Notice we are eating soup and our guest haven't arrived. We just set the table in case someone came. It made it more homey. Notice the wreath with candles hanging from the ceiling. Gary and I finally figured out how to make it hang. We had fun lighting the candles every Sunday before Christmas.


























Rice pudding for dessert with cherry sauce called Risalamand. It is a special rice cooked in milk and whipped cream folded in. One almond would be in the pudding and who ever got it got a prize.















This was our tree. I spent a lot of time decorating it. It is an advent candle decoration. It is suppose to hang from the ceiling. I hadn't figured out how to do that. No, that is a cloth I got at a Gunbrough (second hand store) not a marble top. Just an old bookcase. Also, I hung our candle ornaments on the side. This year I have a tree to hang them on but sent them home already.






This is our bedroom. Pat, notice how your blanket we brought brings that Christmas feeling. I do have fern branches on the window seal and would light small candles among the branches.









Haruka, from Japan, came to visit us for New Years. This was her bedroom (our front room). Our bedroom was behind the brick archway.

Here is a picture from past Christmases. This is Grandma Kimball at her home on 3rd Avenue. If you look closely you will see my stocking hanging stuffed with hard candy, dish clothes and maybe a scarf. She did this for all her 34? grandchildren. I was so lucky. My mother started this tradition for us and even last year she had a present for all her grandchildren plus great grandchildren. This year she gave them a video of her life at a summer party before we left on our mission.

I tried to follow this tradition, but haven't done so while we have been here on our mission.

After reading Julie's Christmas Decorating blog, it brought back a lot of memories. So read hers first at http://thesmoddards.blogspot.com and then come back to my Christmas Memory Lane.

To Julie and the rest of the family,

You have to remember most of my decorations were not breakable. I guess they were already gone by the time you had an interest. My kids lost interest fast and we would finish the decorations. Well, that is what I remember. Correct me if I am wrong. Oh, Becky use to get the tree down and get us going on Friday the day after Thanksgiving.

Have fun this year Amber with all those old decorations of ours.

I loved the warm fuzzy feeling too. One year we had a real tree, flocked with red and white decorations. It was beautiful and elegant. That was when we competed with the Festival of Trees. hee hee Becky, do you remember when we got decoration from Accent Decor leftovers for their Festival of Trees donation. We did some very beautiful trees. One in the kitchen, one in the living room, one in the bathroom and one down stairs. Presents for extended family and friends were under the tree upstairs. The tree downstairs was our traditional family tree which I think was the one the kids decorated and we had all our family presents under it. A lot of years presents flowed out from under the tree on to the floor in front. Of course there were a lots of presents with so many in the family, 5 presents times 8 equals 40 presents including parents, You all would get under clothing, a Christmas outfit, pajamas and slippers, school clothes and one or two toys. We kind of saved up all the needs for Christmas.

Then we started to section off the family room with masking tape on the carpet so there was a section for each child. Those were some really big Christmases. But, one that we remember most was the time that we were really poor and didn't have any money for Christmas and Santa came with a big bag full of stuffed animals and other things. Something for each one in the family, and the next morning there was a roast beef on our windshield that said "Petersons, we love you".

All our Christmases I remember were White and loving and everyone was perfect including my grandchildren. Love Mom

Well, here we are at our Thanksgiving dinner prepared by the one and only, Elder Peterson. Elder Kjar and Jutte who is 83(our member who feeds the missionaries every month) are waiting patiently for the turkey to be done while eating vegetables and chip and salsa. Yes we found some and put it over cream cheese. The table cloth over our glass coffee table was given to me by Jutte along with the dishes last year for Christmas. I was glad she came to experience this with us. She wasn't feeling well as she is recovering from knee replacement surgery.

Notice our Christmas tree. President and Sister Williams left that with us when they went home in July. It is a American flag tree with red, white and blue decorations. It went well with my theme of American and Danish people joining together for a Thanksgiving dinner.



Yes, he is proud of this turkey. Isn't it beautiful. Our friends Andrea and Brain work at the US Embasy and they were able to get a 19# turkey so we invited people over to share. Andrea doesn't know how to cook turkey so we volunteered. Most of the turkeys here were only 9#. They eat pork instead.



Here you see the fruits of my labor at the Loppe Markets. I have my blue seagull Royal Copenhagen dinner dishes along with my Ikea white plates with traditional blue Mothers' Day plates by Bing and Grondahl for the role plate. Remember that when I came to Denmark, I had only a mixture of old odd dishes that would serve two missionaries. Now look at that table setting. Thank you Loppe (flea) markets for you good deals and for those who gave me other dishes.



The table clothes I have collected happened to be blue and red. Notice the heart on the wall. In Denmark they celebrate Christmas with hearts. We were asked to take a heart to the ward Christmas party last year. We found out later that it was to decorate the trees. They didn't want it because it was so big so here it is, hanging on our wall for this Christmas.



I hope you are having fun sharing this with me. I wish you all could have been here. If you look at the wall, you will see my pictures of my grandchildren. Some are last years because I haven't had an update yet. On the coffee table under the picture you will see my antique Singer sewing machine I got very cheap this summer at the Loppe Market. My nephew, Michael who visited us last week, wants me to find one just like it for him. He said if I could find one like it for him he would also pay the freight to get both of them home. It is very heavy, about 29#. It has a wooden case. It works also, very smooth by turning the wheel by hand.



President Olauson and his family came for dinner, bringing the pumpkin pie. (Furnished by Andrea as we don't have anything like canned pumkin here or Crisco). At the end on the blue table cloth is Andrea and Brian Wainscott and on the left Amy and Don Bennion, all from Utah.



Look at the glass coffee pitcher we found to use for the gravy. I had to run next door to the Clarks and borrow the container she bought last week at the Fea market. It didn't really match, but it worked. It was a challenge to find all the things we needed for serving etc. A special thanks to the Kjars for helping, our senior couple from down south in Nykobing, Denmark. They helped us create gravy out of the spices we had and mash the potatoes without a potato masher. They spent the night with us as they came up for our Zone activity. (Another turkey dinner they helped prepare for the missionaries.) They story later.






Can you see the Copenhagen lights through our window. Just imagine a lake with water fountains and birds flying around. Dinner was served around 5pm. Notice how dark it is.



Thanks for joining us. We all had a lot of fun. After everyone went home, the Kjars and us walked up to Tivoli Gardens and enjoyed the Christmas Season there. The next morning we made Ableskivers and then went back to missionary work.

I finally got a chance to put my pictures up. The following are pictures of turkey dinner at the Knudsens with apple pie.



Brother Knudsen always makes a fantastic dinner with his great gravy, dressing made with sausage, sugared potatoes and regular potatoes and all the extras. But Sister Knudsen made the apple pie and we were told that she wasn't feeling well so she only made we only one pie and that we would have to share it. It was huge and went a long way and there was some left over. It was very good.

Elder Duran cut the pie because it was his birthday.



We always pass by this tree on the way home from Knudsens. Today we decided to take a picture. Just an old tree that someone carved out people and things. Notice the small mouse on the trunk.

Hey, is anyone looking at my blog? I need comments or I don't think you have been here.

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner tonight at the Knudsons. Turkey, potatoes, rich creamy gravy, sugar potatoes, red cabbage and apple pie. I will put the pictures up tomorrow as I have to go fix our Thanksgiving dinner for 14. Leave me a comment now and then when I post the pictures I will be expecting a remark.

Here we are walking down Norde Fasnvej in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, to show the Olsen's our favorite park, May, 2007. The park is behind the fence, right in the middle of our drive to work each day from our apartment in Valby to the office on Borrups Ale, Frederiksberg.




Yes, Debbie loved her buggy and Grandpa loved pushing her through the park.

Yes, I think I will have a nap. So coozy.


I am ready now for more walking.


Yes, those are binky's hanging on the tree. Debbie didn't quite understand why her binky's were on the tree.


See the difference in Debbie's transportation. This picture is pre-buggy days. Dad had to carry her. It was fun for a while, but that buggy was so nice.


Hey, Grandpa, we are leaving you. Do't get lost.


Come on over to Frederiksberg and go for a walk with us in our park. Of course you have to come early as it gets dark around 4:30.