Christmas Eve

What a wonderful Christmas Eve we had....

It started with a bit of a lie in, then up to a wonderful breakfast of toast, bacon and eggs. It was then time to get ready for the days activities. We had to be down at Kristians brothers house for 12 midday.

We made it - but not quite for 12 o´clock!! When we arrived there was a hive of activity. There were family members everywhere!! Some were in the kitchen starting the preperation for dinner - others making sweets from marcipan and others were arriving just like us. The idea was that we all came early so we could help with the preperations...like decorating the Christmas tree, making the food and sweets, setting the table etc.

Going into the living room, the first thing to greet us was the Christmas tree....

Ehhhhh.....not quite what we were expecting!!! This is what happens when a finanical crisis hits Denmark!!!

At first we thought it was a joke, but then Sara and her cousins were given the job of decorating the tree. They got going and Kristian´s brother Anders, didnt stop them. He just let them hang balls and hearts and tinsel on the tree. When the kids were allowed to decorate the tree I was sure that this was our real tree for the evening....and since Anders is crazy (in the best possible way!) - it was just like something he would do.

Even with the decorations,- it just didnt seem to help, the tree didnt look any better. The kids asked if they could have an axe so they could go out into the forest and chop a tree down!! Finally Anders let us in on the joke and went and got the proper tree, which had been sitting outside the window the whole time but none of us had seen it!!!

What a relief - now we could all help get the proper tree decorated.

Late afternoon it was off to church, then home to a delicious dinner of duck and pork served with boiled potatoes, small caramelised potatoes, red cabbage and warldorff salad. We ate too much (as usual!!)

After dinner we played some silly fun games!

Then it was the time that I always look forward too. Singing carols while walking around the tree. It is a really special tradition that the Danes have and I just love it. It is so cosy and it puts focus on what Christmas is really all about - the birth of Jesus.

After singing, Anders read the Christmas story for us. Then we ended off with one more carol. It was really special.

Then it was time for one more tradition, - dancing through the house singing one of the silly Christmas songs. We started off by going around the tree - then out through the house, around the garden and over into the barns to visit the animals....all the while singing "Now its Christmas again!" It was sooo much fun. Well why not take a look for yourself, we made a small video, the video starts just as we enter the barn.....

Then it was into the house to exchange gifts. We had agreed that each person should only buy one present. A man bought a present for another man, a woman for another woman and a child for another child. It worked out really well.

We finally left for home around midnight. It really was a wonderful Christmas eve.

If you want to see more photos from Christmas eve just click on the album below:

Christmas Eve 2008