PiNG's Danish Adventures: Christmas comes in many parts... part 2

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Christmas comes in many parts... part 2

Let's see now - I've covered the doggy and kitty vacation, I've covered our flight day and I've covered our little junket in NYC. But alas, there is more to cover!!

On Christmas Eve we left NYC to head north to my parents and along the way we just had to make a stop at Woodbury Commons Outlets. The place is gigantic and I feared it would be extremely crowded but apparently the crowds were elsewhere as the outlet center was basically empty. The bargains were unreal and we stocked up on all kinds of new clothes, shoes, etc. There is something a bit 'off' in the world when one can purchase Ecco boots, from Denmark, at an outlet center in the US for approximately 1/3 of what you would pay for the same boot here in DK. I LOVE a good bargain!!

We went to my hometown church for the traditional Christmas Eve candlelight service. It's a tradition that I grew up with and one that I miss anytime I cannot attend. As a kid, we went to the 'early' service as we couldn't stay up until midnight for the candlelight ending to the 'late' service - the moment we were permitted to attend the late service for the first time was one of those .. "oh cool!" moments and I have loved it ever since.

I saw many friends at church and we had a chance to say hello to quite a few people - everyone, of course, wants to know how I'm doing in DK, have I learned Danish yet, etc. Our wedding and reception are a bit of church legend - I'm betting it's the one and only time that the minister will ever say "I know pronounce you husband and wife" in DANISH!

Funny story that I must share...
An old friend I grew up with, and someone known to cause trouble at any and all inappropriate moments, was at the service. We sat in front of he and his wife and kids and we'll just say that probably was not the best idea - knowing him as well as I do. The service began with a half hour of music in various forms (handbells, brass quintet, organ, choir, etc.). Most of the music was printed in the church bulletin but apparently the violinist must not have chosen her piece until late as the bulletin said only 'Violin Selection'. Just as she was about to begin, I hear a voice say.. "Devil went down to Georgia". Needless to say, I did everything possible to hold in the giggles. A few times during the remainder of the service I also had pieces of paper land in my lap, whispered comments here and there - you get the picture. Mind you, this is a 40-year old, with his children!! Gotta love him!

We crawled into bed after the service (Ole and I, not the old friend and I!) and managed to get a good night's sleep. Christmas morning we had a delightful breakfast with my mom and dad and then exchanged gifts.

We also spent a good part of the day attempting to get my dad's PC back in working order - something we were told had to be done during our visit.

Christmas evening we headed over to see my closest friend, my "BFF" so to speak (though I have to admit that I never in my life thought I would actually type BFF!).

Ruth and I go back to junior high school - she was and is the one person in the world that will never require explanation - no matter what she does, no matter what I do, we will always be friends. We don't get to speak as often as we should, and this was our first visit since November 2006, but none of that matters. All that matters is that we are the same as we ever were and the moment I saw her it felt like we had just seen one another the week before.

We hung out for a few hours with she and her husband, Mark, had some beer and wine, got caught up, and all that good stuff. We opened some New Year's poppers, a week early, which contained these simply delightful, totally fashionable, paper crowns...