We meet the Danish relatives!

When I was 21 I went on a cruise with my grandfather, aunt, cousin and sisters in the Baltic.  The highlight of the trip was a reunion in Arhus Denmark where I was able to meet some distant relatives from Denmark.  My great grandfather was born in Denmark and immigrated to the new world when he was 19 or 20 years old.  Thankfully my mom's side of the family kept in touch through the years with our Danish relatives and my grandfather planned a reunion so the next generation could meet and hopefully continue the connection.  It was great to have that chance to meet and spend some time together but unfortunately I did not keep in touch.  Thankfully my cousin Stephanie did keep in touch with one family.  When Ray and decided to move to Sweden we got in touch with this family and started to get to know them.  We decided to "meet" on skype and we had so much fun!  I was literally laughing so hard I was crying a few times!  After another awesome skype call they invited us to visit them in Denmark!  We decided to go to a Christmas market at Christiania. 

I copied the following from Wikipedia to describe what Christiania is because I don't totally understand myself.  Christiania, also known as Freetown Christiania (Danish: Fristaden Christiania) is a self-proclaimed autonomous neighbourhood of about 850 residents, covering 34 hectares (85 acres) in the borough of Christianshavn in the Danish capital Copenhagen. Civic authorities in Copenhagen regard Christiania as a large commune, but the area has a unique status in that it is regulated by a special law, the Christiania Law of 1989 which transfers parts of the supervision of the area from the municipality of Copenhagen to the state.

Christiania has been a source of controversy since its creation in a squatted military area in 1971. Its cannabis trade was tolerated by authorities until 2004. Since then, measures for normalising the legal status of the community have led to conflicts, and negotiations are ongoing.

 After we left Christiania we walked around the canals and then a large shopping area.

 This is Morten, my Danish cousin!

 This is an amazing tower that Morton says we can climb some day that we don't have the stroller and see great views of Copenhagen.

 I had no idea that Copenhagen had canals!!

 Lucas enjoying the ride!

 They are selling Christmas trees on a boat!

Here is the sign Trine wanted me to take a picture of.

 Here are Trine, Morten and their daughter Rikke.

After we walked around downtown for awhile we took the train to Trine and Morten's house.  They live about 20 minutes north of Copenhagen.  We stopped at the store to go shopping and then Morten made us the most wonderful dinner! We got to meet their other daughter Signe and spend some real time getting to know each other.  Before we put Annalise and Lucas to bed we played some fun new games, pancake and find the banana peel.  Annalise loved pancake! Morten, thanks for reminding us to take time out and play everyday.

 Here she is giving Morten her ticket!

Lucas liked to watch and got a turn to play pancake too!

After the kids were in bed we drank wine, ate chocolate and relaxed!  It was nice to meet relatives that were strangers to us a month ago and realize that not only we got along very well but we were very like-minded.  The weekend was just what we needed because we had all gotten a little down with the darkness and having no family around for the holidays.  It was so nice to really relax and not feel "on" all the time and just breathe.  That weekend was a bright light in a dark December.  We are so glad that they opened their house to us and look forward to many other shared good times in the future.

Sending love and hugs from Sweden,

Angela, Ray, Annalise, and Lucas

Tivoli at Christmas TIme

So we headed back to Tivoli because we had heard that it was a great place to celebrate the holidays.  We couldn't make it happen before Christmas but we figured the day before new year's eve was a good time to go.  Actually I went on the internet the night before and found out that December 30th was the last day so I asked Ray if he could work half day on Friday so we could take the train to Copenhagen and go and my wonderful husband said, "yes!"

 Here we are waiting for the train.

 Lucas doing his fish face!

 Annalise catching up on her reading on the train!

 Annalise and Ray decided to go on some big rides together!  Annalise loved flying in the plane!

 The theme was Russian Christmas and this is the Tivoli version of St. Basil's Cathedral known from the Red Square in the Kremlin, featuring a 21 m tower with onion domes and a carillon. Inside was a cool ride, a teddy bear Christmas tree that Annalise loved, and a place to drink hot chocolate and eat yummy snacks!

 Here is Annalise and Ray on another ride.  This one was a huge octopus and Annalise was really excited to fly in the air!

 This was by far my daughter's favorite part of Tivoli.  What is it you may ask.  Well it is a stable with sleeping reindeer of course!  There is also a sign that (I think) said that the reindeers worked very hard on Christmas and now they need a big nap.  The reindeers were snoring very loudly and you could even see their chests going up and down.  Let me tell you it was very convincing.  Annalise watched these reindeer forever!  And she wanted to come back and watch them again before we left.  She said, "can we stay here and watch them until they wake up?" She also told lots of people about the reindeer at the Tivoli after we came home.

 We stayed until pretty late and there was so many beautiful lights!  We tried to capture them in the next few pictures but we did not do them justice at all.

 We even caught a neat water and light show set to music (similar to ones I had seen in Vegas at the Bellagio)!  Annalise asked me how the water did that!

 These flower and light sculptures were one of my favorite things!  But very difficult to capture with a picture.  Take my word for it, they were really awesome!

We had a great time but next year we will try to make it before Christmas so Annalise and Lucas can meet Father Christmas and see the real reindeer!

Sending love and hugs from Sweden,
Angela. Ray, Annalise, and Lucas