Finally, our Christmas pics

This was one of my favorite parts of Christmas--"dancing" around the Christmas tree. We held hands and walked around the tree singing carols. This is definitely something I would like to incorporate into our own family traditions.

We called Denmark "Mordor" while we were there because it was always gray and cold. This is about as light as it would get during the day (except the two days the sun temporarily peeked out from behind the clouds). This is us walking on the road Adam's family lives on.

These are the "nisse" or fairies/pixies that are part of Danish Christmas tradition. The Birks had a cute display of them in their house.
Fireworks are a huge deal for New Year's. Adam's brothers spent hundreds of dollars on them. I was picturing little sparklers, but no. These are serious fireworks! (The illegal ones in America.) We had to wear goggles to observe (for some reason I just couldn't smile and try to look cute wearing them). We did some before midnight then drove into town right after midnight to see all the fireworks there. It was so fun to see the horizon light up as hundreds of fireworks were set off by everyone in the community.
Marian loved Patton, the Birks' golden retriever. Right as she woke up in the morning, Marian would say "dah-ee" (doggie) and wriggle out of our arms to go find her. Patton really won me over because although Marian did every annoying thing a toddler can do to a dog, Patton never so much as growled. She took it like a champ! Maybe it had to do with Marian's habit of giving whatever food we gave her directly to Patton. Patton always followed Marian to her high chair because she knew she'd be well fed!
We had fun swimming at a community pool. As most of the trip was movies, treats, and sleeping in, it was nice to do something active. (I was thrown off by the lack of privacy in the changing room. Everyone just walked around naked. Three cheers for America's societal norms!)
This says it all for the trip home! It was so long and tiring. Our plane left Copenhagen three hours late so we missed our flight to New York. The airline provided hotel and food, which was nice. But when we arrived in SLC 40 hours after leaving Adam's house, we were so tired! We lost our luggage in the process so one by one our suitcases made it home (usually somewhere between midnight and 5 am--whatever.) We eventually got them all back in 4 or 5 days.

Overall it was a great trip! It was great to be with Adam's family--they always show us a great time. One final highlight was that there was a Chinese investigator at church, a student studying in Denmark. Adam taught her a first discussion the first Sunday, then taught Sunday School in Chinese the second Sunday. We found out yesterday that she was baptized on Saturday! The Lord knows His sheep--I don't think it's a coincidence that she started coming right in time to have some gospel basics taught to her in her native language.