The rest of my mom's visit!

Hi all!

Wednesday my mom and I traveled up to Aalborg where Henriette met us at the train station and we went back to her and Tomas’ house for the day.  We made Aebleskiver, which are basically pancake balls that you dip in marmelade and confectioner sugar.  It was nice because we sat at the dinner table and had some Glogg (spiced red wine) and had the aebleskiver pan right there, so we were making fresh aebleskiver and eating them right when they came off the pan! 

We spent the day there just hanging out, and my mom and Tomas had a lot of catching up to do – it was fun hearing a lot of stories that I had never heard before, especially from both of their perspectives!  We had a very nice dinner, and Casper also joined us for this.  If there’s one thing I can say from meeting all these kids who are only in their early teens, it’s that they really know English so well, and it’s amazing how good of a conversation we can have with these kids in a language that definitely is nothing like Danish.  He and Emma are two of the nicest most polite kids I have met – Tomas and Jesper definitely did a great job with both of them so far.

That night I had to take an overnight train back to Copenhagen but my mom stayed up in Aalborg and was able to have breakfast with Tomas and Henriette before Tomas dropped her off in Dorup again where she spent the day helping get ready for Sofi Julemarked (Helle’s Christmas Shop).  I spent the day in class and had an exam in my class at the hospital, but Jesper went out of his way and picked me up from the hospital on his way home from work in Germany and we had a Danish version of a Thanksgiving dinner!  Basically, it ended up being the pork roast with red cabbage, brown potatoes (like candied potatoes), and boiled potatoes, the typical Christmas dinner for the Danes!  It was so wonderful being able to be with my mom and Danish family for Thanksgiving, even when they didn’t even know really what the holiday was about!  It was definitely a hyggelight night! 

Today we got on a morning train to head back to Copenhagen, where we met Soren for my mom’s last full day in Denmark. Here we had a really nice buffet lunch at Nyhavn with Soren and then went to the Navy Church with which he was very familiar!  We met Lone and her son there and Soren was able to give us a tour better than any tour guide ever could have given!  What was most impressive to both my mom and I was that after he retired from being the head of the Church Council, they give them a going away gift and instead of asking for something for himself, he asked to have a transparent safe installed to house a very special book that is a memorial to the Danes who died in WWII.  

The outside of the Navy Church

Inside the Navy Church

Soren explaining the baptismal font!

Admiral Niels Juel

The Special case that Soren got

After the church we did some shopping and went into the Royal Copenhagen Store, Georg Jensen, and Illum Bloghus, three extremely nice stores that go all out for Christmas.  It was in the Royal Copenhagen store that I decided I would like to start my own collection of nice Danish china for when I'm older.  After this we said goodbye to Soren and Lone and I took my mom to see my school!  We then decided to end the night (relatively) early and went out for a very nice dinner and then packed all the bags for her departure.  

Inside Royal Copenhagen

All the bikes- my mom loved it!  It's such a part of Copenhagen 

My mom, Lone, and Soren

Inside Illum Bloghus

Studenterhuset!

This morning I sent my mom off, which was extremely hard (it's always hard saying bye for a long time), but realized that I'll be coming home in less than three weeks, which is mind blowing to think about.  

During the day, my friend Rebecca and I explored some lesser known (to tourists) Christmas markets which was a lot of fun, and tonight I'm catching up on some much needed sleep!!

Til imorgen!