Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve started with a Gudstjeneste Service at the church.  A short religious service centered on Christ with Christmas Carols.  Jim was invited to give an 8 minute speech along with Willi Block Johansen.  They both took 5 minutes, plus 4 songs so it was a short service but very nice and good to stop  and remember the "reason for the season."  I ended up accompanying  and managed to not distract too much.

 There was actually a good crowd for the day.

Christmas Eve starts at 4 pm in Denmark as everyone turns on the TV to watch s Disney Show of all the best from movies through the years.  It is shown in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian, and actually very fun.
  We were supposed to have dinner at 5.30, but since the turkey wasn't done, we read The Natvity Story and sang the appropriate carols. Dinner turned out fine.  Pres. and Sis O'Bryant, mission president, Dorrit and Per Olsen, Trudy and Bob Larsen, Debbie and we made a very compatible group.

 W really celebrated with cranberry jello, thanks to Debbie bringing all the ingredients.

 Next, as is tradition in Denmark, we each opened a gift.  Here all gifts are opened on Christmas Eve.
 

We didn't have live candles and we weren't very good with the Danish songs, but we were great with "Jingle Bells" and "Rudolph" as we danced around the Christmas tree.

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 Dorrit Olsen brought the delicious Ris alamande.  For the second time, I found the whole almond!

 We finished the night with a great gift game.  We all brought five  $1-$2 gifts, We shook dice, 6 chose a gift, 1 you took from your neighbor.  When all the gifts were gone, we opened them and did it again for about 20 minutes.  By the end it was a riot and a very fun way to end the evening.

All in all a delightful Danish Christmas Eve.