I expected Christmastime in Europe to be just about the most snowy, charming, adorable, perfect thing imaginable. Aside from the snow, our pre-Christmas experience in Germany was just that.
In Copenhagen, Strøget had lights and garlands, the department stores had festive window displays, and Tivoli looked gorgeous decked out in a Russian Christmas theme.
There were definitely wonderful things. But overall, Christmastime in Copenhagen was just kind of... fine. We were just lonely and bored.
Mom and Dad visited right before Christmas, which was just perfect timing.
I kept our big news to myself until Todd joined us a few hours after they arrived. I told them we had a present for them and had Mom open a little bag with a baby outfit and a pregnancy test in it. Both she and Dad were surprised and happy and congratulatory, but Mom was like... beyond. Never will I give her a better gift.
We took a canal tour, walked Strøget and Nyhavn, saw the lights at Tivoli, caught a Christmas recital at Copenhagen Cathedral and took day trips out to the Louisiana Museum and Frederiksborg Castle. It was lovely!
Danes celebrate on Christmas Eve with a traditional dinner, gift exchange, and singing around the tree. We were invited to spend the evening with the Stewart family in our ward. They made all the traditional foods (pork with skin, sugared potatoes, fermented cabbage, rice pudding), taught us some Danish songs to sing while dancing around the tree, and even got us a bunch of gifts! They were just beyond kind and it was fun to experience an authentic Danish Christmas.
Christmas Day was pretty uneventful. We had opened our presents to each other the day before, in keeping with Danish tradition (Todd got me a bracelet and prints of Corot paintings, I got him a few movies and an IOU for a BBQ smoker), so there was really not a lot to do on Christmas Day. We watched movies, played games, and read.
In the evening, when our families in America were finally awake, we chatted with them online. We watched Cait and Shelbey open presents, then surprised them with the news of Baby W. I held a little baby outfit up to the computer screen and told them we had another gift coming in August. They freaked out, it was funny! Todd's family was equally surprised and happy-- we told them in the same way as my sisters, but I put a little #11 tag on the baby outfit since ours will be Jim and Cheri's 11th grandbaby. Surprise, everybody!
No comments:
Post a Comment