Dinner at Lis Loeve and Helgi's

Lis Loeve (Steffensen) invited the temple missionaries to dinner tonight out in Roskilde.  It was a traditional Christmas Dinner with flaeskesteg, duke,  browned potatoes, white potatoes and sauce, red cabbage and ris a'lamand.  Many more dinners like this and we will be waddling.

 Helgi, Lis' husband, drove all the way into Copenhagen and picked up 4 of the missionaries and we took the other two.  It also meant he had to drive them back to Copenhagen at 10.30 pm and back the 30 miles to their home.  Such nice people.

Lis had so many cute Christmas decorations and lots of candles.  It was very cozy (hyggelig)

Sunday Delight

This morning Jim and I attended the CCM with Elder and Sister Pilz our Area Authority, Pres. Bernskov and President Kriberg, the two Stake Presidents,  and their wives and Mission President O'Bryant. (Sis. O'Bryant was ill).
  They covered lots of things including implementing the new Self-reliance program.  I feel we are really getting inspired leadership from the top to strengthen families and testimonies through better Sabbath Day Observance, this program, increasing temple worthiness and attendance and Family History Work.  We really are being taught and encourage to "Hasten the work."

Tonight was the annual stake Christmas Concert.  It was fantastic. There were some extraordinarily talented missionaries who sang and two elders did a piano/organ duet of "The Hallelujah Chorus"
 which was magnificent. (Elder Dickson, the organist is the son of one of our eldest son's best friends in college...It is such a small world.)
 

  The treats after were lovely, and our cute neighbor Jana, and Ruth Hammerlund went with us.

Frederiksberg Ward Christmas Party

We will be in the temple for the Gladsaxe 2 party, so went to our old ward's Christmas Party.  Actually, I would have gone even if we could go to the Gladsaxe 2 Party.  I just like to keep connected with the good people there.
   Juleman came and danced around the tree with the kids and passed out candy.

Th missionaries sang

 We made hearts and stars

And then lined up for the traditional flaeskesteg sandwiches.

and ris a la mand.

 A good crowd and lots of people who don't come to church often.
 

 A fun afternoon full of traditions.

International Week at the Temple

We have had wonderful saints from all over the world visit the temple this week.  There was a darling couple from Italy with their 2 year old daughter they kept switching off so they could each participate in various ordinances.  There were three sisters from the U.S. who were college classmates together at BYU but now two live in Germany and one in Washington DC so they connected ad came here for a couple days together leaving their husbands and kids at home.  There was a grandmother from Ontario, Canada.
 The sister on the left is from Park City, Utah. She has been studying in Sweden, and met her future husband there. They will be getting married in the Stockholm Temple the end of December.  The three Swedish sisters from her ward came to help and support.

This good bishop brought these YSA new members to do baptisms.  Three of them brought their own family cards.  They are all from Nigeria.

The temple blessings are  for everyone, everywhere who qualifies.

Decorations for the Departed

The grocery stores and flower shops are full of Christmas decorations for graves.

And speaking of graves, I came across these last month on one of my bike adventures.  I don't know how I feel about the pictures, but it was interesting.

More New Foods

Denmark has so many fruits and vegetables available. They cater to the European taste as well as the Middle-East.
Pres. Nilsson bought these Jerusalem Artichokes by mistake, thinking they were potatoes. I baked them in hopes of peeling their nobby skin easier.  Not sure it worked, but I can at least taste them now.  They look like a little potato, but taste like a vegetable, maybe a parsnip.  They taste much better than they look...

Christmas Apples

These little apples, just a couple inches big, are only available this time of year..hence the name.  They are delicious.

Tuesday's Adventures

The sun was out and the sky was blue, so I biked downtown to INCO to get a turkey for Pres. Nilsson to take home to Sweden.  The adventure went like this:
  First, I had to stop at the mission office to borrow their INCO card.  The Johnansens were their waiting to meet their  missionary son on his transfer from the MTC in Provo to Iceland.  Most of us send cookies, they brought this eel they had caught and smoked themselves.

 They claim eels have ears.  I didn't bother looking close enough to see them. However it did smell good.

INCO is very close to the big Fisketorvet Mall, so I stopped and looked around.  This mall has it's own bike garage.

The picture I didn't take, was when I went to leave, my bike bumped the bike next to me, which fell, as did the one next to that one and the one next to that one and the one next to that one.  The fifth and sixth bikes managed to hook together and stay standing.  Thank goodness, I could visualize the whole place going down like dominoes