Leap Year

In honor of Leap Year....
    Fotex had bananas for 1 Kroner each.  We have a week's supply.

 We enjoyed Family Night at Manwarings,  Bodil Furbo joined us as she is here for a month in the sisters' apartment. She understand English, but responds in Danish.  It should help us all learn a little more Danish......

CCM

Today we had Coordinating Council Meeting with the Stake Presidents, Mission President and Area Seventy.  I forgot to take a picture of the people, but here is the agenda.

We spent a lot of time talking about the YSA as Brother and Sister Mattson who have been over the YSA in the Area were here.  They have been released to oversee the Church's humanitarian work among the many refugees in Sweden.
       As a side note along this area,  I talked to three young men from Syria on the bus yesterday.  They were very nice.  Denmark has given them places to live, right now in a hotel, but they are moving to more permanent places next month.  They are in Danish Class 5 days a week.  Two of them had to leave wives behind.

Bella Center Loppemarked

The Bella Center is a huge hotel/conference center out toward the airport,  It is an amazing building and looks different from every direction .  It is a real landmark.

Connecting buildings also house one of the largest Loppemarkeds of the year.  Which of course we (Manwarings, Mordues and I) went out to.  Larsens have gone to Alborg for the weekend.  This is only a small part of it.

 These old iron traffic lights were some of the most unusual things I saw,  Whatever would you do with them?

I had a great day and I am getting better at wheeling and dealing....

Good-bye to Inge Østrup

Inge Østrup and her husband, John Thomsen  have been coming to the temple ever Friday morning since we arrived.  She has been fighting cancer for 10 years and finally they ran out of new treatments.  We will miss her.  She was an amazing help at the Family History Center, always upbeat and fun, a real inspiration.
  Jim stayed at the temple and I went out to the funeral with the Buurs.

 Funerals seem to be a bit more casual here.  Maybe people don't have Sunday clothes anymore.

She and John loved bird watching.  John has made many of us wonderful little wooden birds.  Just before the funeral he placed this little bird on the coffin. 

Frokost

Lunch here is called frokost.  It mainly consists of beautiful open faced sandwiches.  Really they are pieces of art.

All the workers come in and buy a couple.  I don't think McDonalds can take their place.

 Really an eye feast.

Jekyll and Hyde

Thomas Kofod, (Think Church's Two Testaments movie) is staring in Jekyll and Hyde for the next two months.  We got a group of 13 organized and we are going on March 19.  We are so excited.

http://www.detnyteater.dk/jekyll-and-hyde/       Hopefully you can check out the site.

Peeling Potatoes

Potatoes are a main stay of many Danish meals.  Tonight the missionaries were invited to Kochs' for dinner and received a great demonstation on how they peel all the little potatoes they serve.
1. Boil the potatoes in the skins

 2. work under cold water to cool your hands from the hot potatoes, make a slice around the potato

3. Then slip off the skins.        I'm afraid my solution is usually to just serve them with the skins on.

 Guess which group knew the picture was being taken....

FHE with Kirsten

Kirsten Mielsoe invited Buurs and Eika and Venner Olsen and us for Family Night tonight.  It was so huggelig. Kirsten and her husband Per (now deceased) were some of our missionaries when we were here ten years ago.  She shared some family history stories and pictures and we all shared family history stories. (They shared, I tried to understand. I can at least get the idea most of the time.)

We played a great game: When you roll 6 on a die, you put on the hat, scarf, gloves and have to cut a chocolate bar in pieces with a knife and fork and get it on the fork before you can eat it. If someone gets a 6 they take everything away and start their try.

 Jim got his share of 6s and had enjoyed a mouthful of chocolate,

Music Aften

The Frederiksberg Ward sponsored an Evening of Music tonight and really pulled talent out of those not ordinarily participating.  It was lovely and nice to see how much talent there is and that people were willing to practice and stretch a little.
Jim sang with the missionaries: temple and regular and a few other good men, "For The Strength of Ten"

 These were all the participants.  A very nice evening thanks to Anne-Grethe Stewart

Aldi Shopping

I am constantly amazed at what the Aldi store just around the corner offers.  I realize this is probably one of the smallest since it it only two and a half aisles.  But really the variety, even for a bigger "grocery" store is amazing.

Bakery goods.....normal

 Lotions and cosmetics, okay.  It's when it got to the toilet, I was amazed.  However, it is really only the toilet seat.

 Plants, clothes and bedding and..electronics ofcourse.  The TV takes up most of the aisle....

I have actually bought some of my favorite things at Aldi.  It is always worth a look for the treasure.

Temple LIghts

The lights on the temple are now off when we go to work at 8 on Fridays , but when we come home they are on.    They are unique shaped lights and are a great asset to the neighborhood.  Remind you a little of a swan.

Swan Convention

Wonder what swans do during the winter?  Apparently they get together and hygge just like people.

 It was a beautiful day to go "visiting " down on the lakes earlier this week.  Today we woke up to a skiff of snow.

Hvide Bussen Exhibit

The Danish National Museum currently has a special exhibit about the White buses that convoyed into Germany to pick up the Danish prisoners of war from the concentration camps. The entire police force of Denmark was arrested and sent to the concentration camps. The Danes had negotiated to send Red Cross Packages to their prisoners which saved many of their lives and gave them a special status in the camps as they actually had something to eat and trade.

  They were also able to rescue women from France and Poland that were in the same camp.

Feeding the Masses

There were 18 at the missionary couples dinner at Knudsen's tonight. Next week they will feed the young missionaries.
   We had ham, which is a favorite.  It is boiled here and then can be baked to warm up again.  It is always so moist.

 Erling, Else and daughter, Lene, put it all together.  I always learn something new about cooking in Denmark from them.  For instance, you can buy your potatoes prepeeled and then cook them yourself or buy them partially cooked and they just need to be warmed up.  It is a good thing as it would take a long time to peel all these potatoes and Danes like their potatoes whole served with sauce/gravy.  We don't see many mashed potatoes here.

Lene took a week's vacation to Egypt.  There are a lot of package, all-inclusive vacations offers here,  sort of like a cruise, but in a resort.

Bollers and Other Danish Specialties

Else and Jan Ladehoff are our three month missionaries from Aalborg.  They were in charge of Family Night.  They brought two wonderful family history books they have put together and published for their posterity.
 They also brought three delicious traditional Danish treats:
Citron Frommage:

Festelavn Bollers: These home-made, were the best I've ever tasted, filled with marzipan

Rebild Bollers - lemon  flavored icing. Rebild is the hill site where they celebrate the American 4th of July.

Danes have special bakery items for every holiday.

Happy Valentine's Day

It is interesting to see how you feel about holidays when the commercial establishment isn't involved.  Since there were no big ads or commercials for Valentine's Day, it has almost passed unnoticed.  However, I did remember these lovely Royal Copenhagen mugs I bought on sale.  A great gift for each of us. They are nice for hot chocolate, decorations or even as planters. Saved by sales! The colored part is a silicone sleeve that can come off and insulates against the heat.

February High Priest Party

The Temple Missionaries hosted the February Frederiksberg High Priest Party at our apartment even though half  of us are in different wards.  It turned out to be a fun night.
  We started with the game where you find 15 things on a list which are in plain sight.  I is always a good mixer and gets people involved and talking.
   Trudy and Bob Larsen were the program and told us about their mission to India ten years ago.  They were the office couple and had some great stories and insights.

For dessert we had Valentine cookies and a crepe buffet.  They use the dessert pandekage (crepes) here a lot with powdered sugar and jam.  We introduced ice cream, bananas, whipped cream, cherry sauce, and hot fudge sauce.  Delicious!

Holidays

Valentine's Day is marginally celebrated in Denmark.  You see flowers and chocolates advertised but I think they have an identity crisis with  hearts as they are such a big part of their Christmas decor.
However, they have just celebrated Fastelavn which is a sort of Halloween with costumes, Fastelavn rolls and major barrels full of candy the kids hit to break open.

We are now getting primed for Easter with bunnies and eggs, mostly some form of marzipan.

Visiting Sis. Victor

I biked out to Visit Diana Victor, fortunately missing the rain that came and went all day.  She is a very spry 83 and interested in everything..but coming to church. Though she does keep up on what is happening in Salt Lake.  We have such a good time visiting.

 She sleeps out on her unheated deck with the windows slightly opened,,,under two comforters and loves the fresh air, a true Dane, though she was born in America and married a Dane.

Sh explained that you always serve something when someone comes to visit.  This was a carrot, beet, apple, celery, ginger drink she juiced as I watched, plus an amazing gluten-free ball covered with seeds from her favorite bakery.

Temple Adventure

Ever wonder what happens if the audio visual doesn't work during a temple session?  You read it.
And if the veil won't go up?  You hold it up.  It all actually turned out to be a very special temple experience.

Second Tuesday Night

The second Tuesday of every month we hold a special session for the Frederiksberg and Roskilde Wards.  Tonight the Relief Society from Amager joined so we had a nice crowd.  Jim and I open the temple and do the organization,  but the wards bring their own temple workers.  We love it when people come that we haven't seen in the temple before or at least not for a long time.
  Afterward, we went to the church for treats and visiting.

 Three super sisters.  The cake had whole bananas and nuts, lovely.