New Year's Eve!

I will have to make this short.  I really don't know where the day went but we need to be ready to go in less than an hour.  We are going to the Madsen's for our Second Annual New Years celebration.  Our last one in Denmark.  I hope everyone stays safe tonight and has a wonderful celebration - no matter how you do it.  I will write more next year!

New Years Eve Eve!

Yesterday we went to Tivoli and found this peacock and peahen busy eating seed from the snow.  It took quite a while to get this picture.  They kept their backs to us most of the time.

I think most everyone knows that I collect 'Santa Claus'.  I have quite a collection going of everything from pillows to salt shakers.  Clyde usually adds one or two for me each year.  This is my addition this year.  They are made from the same composite as Willow Tree Figures. 

I have just few examples of Mrs. Santa.  This is so typically Danish with the bike and their expressions.  Very pleased with it.

Today we went to the 'Blue Planet'.  This is Copenhagen's new aquarium.  It is just 2 years old.  It has the 'tube' that surrounds you with ocean life (and makes you very dizzy).  It was so much fun.  Not sure if we will go back again or not but it was a wonderful afternoon there.  The thing that surprised me is that they had a whole wing of tropical household fish AND that was how it was labeled.  I do have to say, I kept thinking about my Nordell family as we walked through.  This is supposed to be second to the one in Okinawa.

 

Tomorrow evening we will spend time with the Senior Missionaries in the area and watch the incredible firework display over Copenhagen.

Happy Birthday Carlye! Happy 42nd anniversary to us!

Happy Birthday, our sweet Carlye.  Hope you have a wonderful day and an incredible year!

We woke up to snow again this morning.  I love how the 'gold' glints from the bushes and trees as the sun comes up.

Another scene from our backyard.

Another with the 'gold'. 

Elder Thorne let us into Tivoli today.  We had a good time wandering around and looking in the little shops.  This is the main concert hall of Tivoli.  Mads once told me that if Denmark had a national bird - it is the swan.  Then he paused and said, "Maybe it is!"  They use swans a lot and there are a lot of them around.  I think I notice because swans have always been my favorite bird.  A bit of trivia.  Victor Borge was the act for the opening week of Tivoli - in this concert hall - from 1950-1999.  He died in 2000.

Right is in the center of Tivoli is this beautiful Christmas tree with Nisse and the Christmas heart tree.  This is what Christmas looks like here.  We had a wonderful day and got hot chocolate with a Danish Pancake (with raw sugar in the center).  Tasted just like ours do.  It will be a day we will remember for a long time.  More pictures tomorrow.

The Last Sunday of 2014

As I write this, fireworks are going off outside our window.  From the middle of December until January 2 - people shoot off fireworks - and not like we have in the States.  It is a full fledged fireworks display - like professionals.  It is a very big deal here.

Today in Church, I was so relaxed and filled with such peace.  It has been a long time since I have felt that calm.  Sebastian spoke about setting goals.  He said that there are 3 "P's" for setting goals.

Prioritize: Decide what your wants are and then decide which are most important to you.

Plan: Set up a plan to follow to help you gain the success you want, whether it is to say your prayers everyday or lose weight.  Without a plan, you will have no success

Put into Practice:  The final way to be successful is to simply 'do it'.  When you start saying your prayers or working out - you will feel good about moving forward.  That should keep you motivated to continue.

I don't set my goals in January.  For the last 10 or 15 years, I have been setting my goals in April and October, when General Conference occurs.  From those inspirational messages, I choose my goals.  One of my current goals is to make the Sacrament a more meaningful experience.  It is becoming a very special part of my Sabbath.

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer!

For some reason, all day long, I have felt off.  I don't really have any pain (other than arthritis) but I don't feel good.  I am so sleepy that I could sleep all day.  I think the problem is that I am not under the lights at work and a bit of S.A.D. is creeping into my life.  We were outside for a while but it wasn't enough.  Maybe taking so much time off is not such a good idea.  Oh well, there is not a thing we can do about it.

Typical Saturday.  We shopped and got bread.  Nothing earth shattering.  We are going to the Madsen's again on Wednesday to celebrate New Years just like last year.

Hope everyone has a joyous Sabbath.

Second Chrstmas

This is for my sister more than anything else.  These are the billboards they have used in Europe forever.  This is actually an old fashioned one.  The new ones are lit up and the pictures change out every few seconds.  They are quite amazing.

Last week we did a book that took us the longest of any book we have ever done.  Here are a few pictures.  We are not sure if any information can be extracted from this or not.

Multiple little pieces of paper were attached into the binding that had to be photographed as well as the original pages with nothing attached to them.  It was a long and tedious.

Hopefully we will never have another book like it again.

Today is what is known as Second Christmas in Denmark.  It is a holiday and very few businesses are open today.  I guess it is to recuperate from the last 2 days.

 

We have had quiet day of reading.  We did run to the corner store and get some milk but other than that is has been a true day off.

 

 

Christmas Offering:

 

You little children, in whose eyes

Undimmed the light of heaven glows,

Whose dreams are bright with paradise,

Whose souls are whiter than the snows,

From holy lips and undefiled,

Breathe your soft prayer to Christ, the Child!

And you whose thinning locks are sprent
With unreturning Autumns rime,
Whose heads, like wind-worn trees are bent,
Beneath the savage storms of time -
Pray Christ, the Child, to be your guide
Past the dim shoal, where shadows bide,
O saving hands! O Christ, that hears
A mortal mother's lullabies;
That feels our agony and tears,
Whose bosom trembles with our sighs,
Give us pure hearts and undefiled,
Make us like Thee, O Christ, the Child.
~ Unknown ~

Merry Christmas 2014

Scripture of the day:  Mosiah 4:16

It has been a wonderful day.  We woke up to snow

This is taken from the kitchen window

This picture is taken from our bedroom window.

Taken from the front window.  It is now pretty much all white.  We got over an inch of snow.

Our completed Lego Advent village.  It was a fun treat to put together this season.

We had no presents to open today.  That was planned somewhat.  We told the children not to mail us anything because we would just have to mail it back home in April.  We had some store bought aebleskivers for breakfast.  I have decided we just don't enjoy the flavor of cardamom.  It is a very common spice used here in Denmark.  For our Christmas dinner we had roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy with broccoli and a vegetable plate.  It was very good.  We have watched Toy story 2 and 3 - one in Danish and the other in German.  It has been a fun and relaxing day filled with Christmas videos on the internet and reading Christmas stories.

 

My Christmas Offering today:

 

I love Charles Dickens Christmas Carol  - it is one of my favorite things to read at Christmas time.  I also watch any Christmas Carol offering on video or TV.  This year the spiel from the nephew has been running through my head.  I would like to share the printed version today.

 

"There are so many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited.  Christmas among the rest.  But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round - apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that - as a good time; a kind forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by common consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really are fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.  And therefore, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God Bless It!"

 

May you all have a joyous day.