It has been quite a while now since I last wrote. But it's time to write about Christmas. Christmas in Denmark was very different from home for a few key reasons: 1. It was winter 2. I was in another country 3. I wasn't with my family 4. They celebrate on the 24th. However, that's not to say it wasn't interesting or fun or exciting. I woke around 9:00 on the 24th, and eventually made my way out of bed. We had fresh bread rolls from the bakery for breakfast. Once breakfast was over my host mother set to preparing Christmas dinner. Ducks went in the oven and many pots went on the stove, Natacia and I put some little elf cutouts around the house, hanging off pictures and hiding in pot plants. Then my Host Mother's Parents and Grandmother arrived, and her father gave us lollies from the bridge between the Zealand (section i'm on) and Funen (Section her parents live on). Natacia's Grandfather worked on the bridge before he retired. We spoke for a short while, and had some Christmas nibblies with them, but seeing as we had to leave for church just before 2, and none of us were showered or ready yet, we had to start getting ready. I went first, and while Natacia was in the shower I started straightening my hair. Once I had finally finished with my hair, trust me I have alot of it, I started to do my make up, but before I was finished the Grandparents were leaving to go to Susanne's Brothers place for Christmas. We said goodbye and wished them a Merry Christmas, then continued to get ready. I finished my makeup, Natacia straightened her hair, we put on our dresses and stockings. Once we were finally ready we went out to see what we could help with. Oliver was setting the table for dinner, but didn't want our help, my Host Mum was still cooking. So we just stayed out of the way, not causing any trouble. Before long it was time to leave, so we all put on our jackets and shoes and piled into the car and set off for the church. We were nice and early, to make sure we got seats... we were the first people there but that gave me time to take photo's. The church was quite small, but very pretty, the grounds were beautiful, but it didn't feel appropriate because the gardens were actually a working cemetery. Although I didn't understand what was being said, but I knew the tunes to some of the hymns, so I sung the English versions in my head. Fun fact: of the two church services I've been to in Denmark both have been female priests, and the priest who lead the Christmas service had run a service before coming to ours. Once church was over we came home again to finish off dinner preparations. At six O'Clock everyone started arriving. Christmas this year was with Kurt's side of the family, so there was Farmor (Dad's Mum), Ann-Sofie, Josefine and their parents. The women finished off dinner preparations, the men did their own thing and us kids played a few hands of 'Go Fish', or 'Fisk' in Danish, before moving to the table, that Oliver had so nicely set, to eat. We had roast duck and roast pork, with crackling, duck gravy, pork gravy, red cabbage (I didn't eat that), apples with jam, caramelised potatoes or 'brown potatoes' as they're called, normal potatoes, it was a real feast. Once everyone had finished their first servings the serving tray was refilled and we went for round two, which was just as delicious as the first! Once we were done with that and we had had a rest from eating to let our stomachs settle we went back for dessert. Risalamande. Dessert comes with a tradition. Risalamande is a cold rice pudding filled with chopped nuts, it's really quite delicious, but mixed in to the pudding is a single whole almond. The tradition goes that the person to find the whole almond wins a gift, but you don't tell anyone you've found it until all the pudding is gone, and everyone's left questioning who has it. Everyone was raring and ready to go, they all act like children at dessert time as they all want to be the one to find it. I took a very modest portion, as I'd never had this rice pudding before, and what do you know, I wasn't even halfway through my portion and i'd found it. I kept it hidden in my mouth, acting like normal, still drinking and talking. Eventually I was allowed to reveal myself as the winner and received my gift of Toffifee and Ferraro rocher. Once we were finished with dessert it was time to sing. Everyone stands in a circle around the Christmas tree, holding hands and song books, and you sing carols as you go round the tree, changing direction with every new song. My family likes to let every person choose a song, so we started with one we could sing in English and Danish, then there were a few Danish, some of which I knew the tune, then I chose and English one, then the rest were Danish. Once you've finished with the carols they have another song they sing, and you run around the tree singing it, before the circle breaks and you run in a chain around the house, before finishing by going around the tree again, it was so much fun. When the tree singing is over it was gift time. Everyone sits down and gets to have one gift from under the tree, and you go around watching everyone else open their gifts, you repeat this until all the gifts are open, it was quite nice as this is what my family at home do. We all then sat around talking and eating nibblies until it got really late and everyone left. The rest of us then cleaned up the wrapping paper and headed off to bed.
On the 25th I slept in, waking up around 10:00, my parents asked me to skype with them, as it was Christmas day in Australia. So once we both had our computers set up and ready we started the call. It was nice to finally see and hear my family, it looked nice and warm in Australia. When our call came to an end, it was time for breakfast. Once breakfast was over we all had to get ready to go down to Farmor's for Christmas round 2. This time it was with Kurt's Sister and her family as well. There was more food this time. We started with bread with sild, prawns, and other similar things. Once we were finished with that we had baked fillets of fish on bread. Then we moved on to the duck and roast pork, when we were finished with that we had chicken tarts, when we were done with that we had crackers and cheese. And finally when we were done with that there was lollies and chocolate and chocolate milk. I tasted some of the best chocolate I've eaten, it was delicious. I also had a nice, long conversation with Natacia's cousin Frederick about Denmark and Australia and the different cultural and social aspects of the country, also about the different education systems, it was really quite interesting. Eventually it was time to go home, Natacia and Oliver both brought some food with them home, but I was full enough I knew I wasn't going to be hungry before the next day, and I was right. At home we watched the TV for a while, then eventually went to bed.
On the 26th I woke around 9, and we all got ready to go to Nyborg to visit the Mother's side of the family. We left around 12:00 and drove over the big bridge. We had Christmas feast 3 with Mormor, Morfar, Susanne's brother's family and the daughter's friends, and us. It was a similar affair to the day before. We started with bread and toppings, followed by roast pork, sausages, meatballs, chicken legs, and some other delicious things. Then we went for a walk around Nyborg in the daylight, as I'd only seen in darkness. When we came back we watched a bit of television but then we had dessert. It was the rice pudding that we had on Christmas, but this time there was no whole almond... not that this stopped everyone acting like children and looking anyway. After dessert we cleared the table and got ready to play the present game. there were 30 gifts, and 11 people. We had two dice going, and I only rolled two sixes in the first round, but at the end of the round Natacia's Uncle, who was sitting next to me starts pulling all the presents out from behind his back and in his pockets that he'd somehow managed to sneak off the table. We then started a timer and went into round two, stealing from other people, I rolled a few more sixes this time, but not many, and discovered that the Uncle likes to cheat! he rolls picks up the dice, puts it back in the cup and goes "I got a six" and takes a present. When the timer went off, he shoved all his presents at his daughter, put one on my small pile, and walks over and sits in front of the TV while we unwrap our presents. I had received some pretty good things, and the adults liked to take our less interesting gifts and give us nicer ones. I also got given some pudding rice that had the recipe's on the back for the two different rice puddings. It was a lovely day, and we spent the evening sitting in the living room talking and eating peanut butter balls, rumballs, chocolate and lollies, and danish biscuits. Susanne's Brother's family left, and we had some leftover's for a small dinner. We all then sat back in the living room watching the TV, with Natacia sleeping on my legs with a blanket over her... It was rather hot having her body and the blanket on my legs. Around midnight, after we finished off watching 007 Casino Royal, we though it would be a good idea to go to bed.
When we were awake and ready, the next morning, we went upstairs to have breakfast. When we were finished breakfast Natacia and I packed up our gear downstairs, and brought it up, only to discover we hadn't needed to bring it up. We then left to go see the Hans Christian Andersen House Museum in Odense. This was a really interesting place, it was a museum built around where Hans Christian Andersen was believed to have been born and lived for a few years. I learned alot of things about his life, how he came from poverty, and he had a very sensitive disposition so the slightest criticism hurt him deeply, and many other interesting facts about him. When we were finished at the museum we went and saw the most beautiful church. However I was a little taken aback that they had open coffins in glass cases so you could see the bones of the dead people. In Australian Churches if there are tombs, they are closed, so that was a little off putting. Once we were done in the church we went to the scout shop, which was interesting, it looked like a normal camping store, but you could buy Scout uniforms in there for The DDS scouts. We then went to the bike shop, because Oliver wanted to look around, then we had some Chinese takeaway for lunch before heading back to the grandparents house for coffee before packing the car and heading home again.
Christmas in Denmark was different, but it certainly was fun!
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