Er Nisse

In Denmark, instead of Santa's elves, etc. - they have Nisse (pronounced Knee - saw) - little Christmas Pixies.  These little elves live in your attic or basement and are pretty laid back all year until about this time of year.  Then they come out and cause mischief or sometimes bring little gifts.  They can cause mayhem or just have fun with you.  They move things, and even misplace them so you have to frantically look for something important.  They leave a gift for you to forgive them periodically.  We drew names in the office on Friday to see who would be the nisse to whom until December 20.  It would be a lot  more fun if we  just knew who our person was.  We will have to talk to Jeppe (pronounced Yep-ay) to see who it is even though we are to keep it to ourselves.  It is kind of  like secret Santa but with a teasing twist.  I am actually looking forward to this, but next year will be more fun when we know personalities better.  We will reveal all on the morning of December 20 and then we are off until Jan 2.  No one comes into the office during that time.

I cannot remember if I said anything about children in our office or not.  When one of the parents cannot take a child or they are too sick to go to the state funded daycare, then we have a child or two in the office quietly playing.  The first week we were there, Mateas came and then last week we had Maia.  Very well behaved and sweet children.  No one batted an eye.  Starting next week, one of the young men in the office will go on 'Maternity Leave' for 2 months to help his wife.  Family is everything to the Danish.

We took a little trip on the train and then walked home with our groceries - about 1/3 Km.  I of course forgot the essentials we were shopping for in the first place - so we had to run to the corner and the bakery in order to be read for Sunday.  The meat here is so wonderful.  No fillers in the sausage or ground meat.  The Pork has an amazing flavor.  Maybe it is because we are so hungry because of all of the walking and working we do - food just tastes better.  Their butter is almost the texture of cream cheese.  Very rich and satisfying.  We bought 3 kinds of cheese today, Havarti, Danish Gouda and baby Swiss.  All are amazing.  Plus, since it is Christmas, Clyde's favorite ginger cookies are everywhere.  We are discovering which brand we like best.  I haven't tried the Danish world famous Licorice yet, but plan to soon.   The only down side to all of this is that milk only comes in 1 liter containers.  And it is so good, we have to get milk every few days.

We are attending a very small branch of about 30 people.  I am looking forward to tomorrow.  I was too sick to go last week.  I like riding the bus and train.  It brings back such happy memories.  It was the only way I got around in Frankfurt a/M.  I hope everyone has a great day today and a wonderful Sabbath tomorrow.