Copenhagen-a family party
We slept in quite late, so pleased to not have a train to
catch (or to be on a train trying our best to catch some sleep.) After a lovely breakfast of home baked bread
with homemade jams and jellies from their own fruit trees, it was time to begin
getting ready for a party.
Willy and Karin’s children, Trina, and Ken, Ken’s wife
Christina, and three of the grandkids, Mille, Rebecca, and Simon were expected
for a barbeque feast. The threatening
weather that moved into a serious rain, did not detour Willy from smoking
salmon, and preparing some amazing pork tenderloin and sausages on the grill. And Karin was hard at work with a number of
other dishes. And the families also
brought food. There was enough
food!!! Probably for another 10 people
to join us. But it was great. Although we would have preferred a lovely day
to eat outside, Danes are not weather wimps like we can be in southern
California, so they just shifted the eating inside and kept grilling outside.
We were told that there is a Scandinavian saying, There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.
We were told that there is a Scandinavian saying, There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.
We enjoyed time talking with each of these additional family
members. Willy and I had collaborated on
a draft of the family tree to show exactly how we are all related, and the teens were great sports about taking it all in. They also enjoyed looking at one of the
photobooks that Dick and Patti did after our family gathering in Minnesota this
past Christmas. It was fun for them to
get a chance to see teens their own age in America. Patti also took the chance to tell them her
story How Baby Coyote Learned to Howl and then left autographed copies for
them. And we were able to give them
formal invitations to come to California for a visit. Rebecca, age 14, is ready
to go next week. It might be better at
least to let us get home first.
After Trina and Millie had to leave, the rest of us had some
amazing specialty made ice cream in wonderful flavors like mango,
apple/vanilla, and rhubarb. A lot of ice
cream was eaten and enjoyed.
Then it was finally nice enough that we went outside in the
yard to take some photos. The photos
were fun in themselves….but, the most fun happened when someone brought out some
tennis balls and started juggling. Patti
was amazed, because this is something that her dad does pretty much every
day-juggle tennis balls, for focus and balance.
He has also taught his grandkids how to juggle, and we have great photos
of grandpa and the grandsons juggling tennis balls. This is NOT something that every family does,
but apparently our family in Denmark loves juggling as much as ours in the
US. How funny is that?
After they all left, the four of us settled in for an easy
evening of watching some TV and chatting (and eating again…because, eating all
afternoon was not enough!) None of us
could stay up long enough to see the end of the world cup soccer game, but we
caught a bit of it.
Patti is overwhelmed at the joy of connecting with this
family. Wow, wow, wow!
“If
a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the
world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands but a continent
that joins to them.” – Francis Bacon
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