Our First REAL Danish Christmas

While this was actually our second Christmas to spend in Denmark, it was actually our first real Danish Christmas. We left on Saturday to head to the other side of Denmark. We met Klaus at the Central Copenhagen train station in the morning. We went a little early to make seat reservations for the way back home and for some coffee. We hopped on a train at 11:00. Since we didn't have seat reservations and the train was packed we had to stand for the first 3 hours of the trip!! The last 2 hours, seats cleared up and we finally got to sit down.

The town Klaus is from is cute and little and surrounded by "country". It was nice to get out of the hustle and bustle of big Copenhagen. Klaus's parents were so nice (we had met his mom once before in Dallas) and made us feel right at home. They fed us non stop and it was all really wonderful food.

Christmas Eve Klaus took us to a wooden tower for a really cool view of the area.

The Tower

View from the top of the tower. It was REALLY windy and REALLY cold up there.

We went to church on Christmas eve at a really old and really small church. It was built in 1773!!! Michael and I were squished into the pew. Thankfully the service was not long at all and we were out pretty fast.Klaus sat a few rows ahead of us and his parents on the other side of the church. We got there pretty early, but it was still filled up. Again, like I said, it was a small small church.

The Church

After Church and before dinner on Christmas Eve

Here in Denmark, they celebrate Christmas Eve. Christmas Day is just kinda put on the back burner for a day to eat leftovers and recuperate from the night before. So we got home and had a big ol feast of pork and duck, potatoes and I don't remember what else because I was too busy stuffing my face. For desert we had "Ris ala mande" Almond/Rice Pudding basically. It is a tradition that an almond is hidden in it and whoever gets the Almond, gets a present. Guess who found it? MICHAEL! He got a game which was put into good use! :)

Ris Ala Mande with cherry sauce on top

So after dessert, we played the game, and then...you ready for this? We sung Christmas carols while walking around the Christmas tree!!! This is a very very popular Danish tradition and it appears most families do it. I had read about it, but never done it. It was actually pretty fun. They had some English songs, and Danish songs, and we had to sing both. Then it was gift opening time. I had never opened presents like this before. One person would take a present and give it to the person it was for, then that person would go get a gift and take it to that person and so on and so forth. We got some really nice things and thought that was really nice of them.

The Christmas Tree

hristmas Day we went for a little walk in the town and did..literally nothing. Kinda funny to do nothing on Christmas Day.

Klaus's hometown. That is Michael and Klaus walking

The 26th Klaus's parents took us on a little tour of the area. It was about 3 hours and we drove up along the coast and back down the other side and saw lots of cool stuff. It was fun. Then we came back that evening. We left at 6pm and got back to Copenhagen a little after 11pm.

One of the places we stopped on our little tour. The North Sea. It was also really windy and really cold here!

I have a lot more pictures, but thought this was enough for right now.

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!!

PS as a side note: We get our keys to our flat tomorrow! Yea!!!