CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas from Copenhagen.  Here is a run-down of our Christmas Season:

Holidaze. First of all, we spent many days and a good number of nights helping  put together Christmas for the missionaries.  Someone had the bright idea to do a picture slide show of all the missionaries when they were younger.  Every family was asked to send 3 or 4 pictures by October 30th, to be included.  Our Christmas Conference was scheduled for December 9th.  Plenty of time.  Well, these pictures trickled in until The. Last. Minute.  Besides the last minute rush, we found that all pictures do not open the same when sent from different computers and servers.  ARGHHHH.   And, many pictures tried to get lost in the deluge of e-mails we received each day.  Oh it was fun.  Elder Buxton stayed up  one whole night working on it and was happy to report that people do walk along the lake path right by our apartment.  The entire night.    Just as we suspected.  But, in the end, it was worth it to watch the missionaries so enjoy seeing each other as kids.

UPS  (unwrapped present storage)  Contrast the two pictures  of packages/mail.  The first picture is a normal month's worth of packages which show up here.   We cannot forward packages, so they all have to stay until monthly conferences.  The second picture is the December Christmas packages. Stacks.  Piles. Walls of packages.  Ready to topple at the smallest nudge.  The president's office, where we stored all these,  smelled suspiciously of chocolate mint.  What you can't see is the hundreds of cards and letters, tucked into boxes.  NOT exaggerating.  You figure 100 missionaries and every missionary got a minimum of 6 or 7 letters.  You do the math.  More fun:  we had to divide the heaps into zones, and we had to keep track of who didn't get a package so we could provide one.  Oh well, it was hard to be Scroogy when the missionaries were so tickled at zone conference with anything from home.

Celebration.  We scouted out a score of Christmas markets, spent a few nights at Tivoli and ended up with a Christmas Eve dinner at our apartment with the couples in Copenhagen.  It wasn't quite the same as having family around, but it was very nice.

Christmas Eve.  Meet the couples:  clockwise from my left.  The Brookes (he is a train nut and she is our Christmas Market tour guide);  the Ottleys (he's a physicist and a walking encyclopedia and she is the mother of nine); the Parkers (our neighbors in the building and retired managers of  Aspen Grove, the big church family camp ground near Provo).  Super people.

Tivoli, all decked out for Christmas.  The lights really are white, not yellow.  We actually ate sandwiches in this park.  In a sleigh.  Outside.  Could see our breath.  Hey, that is what you do here.

The Reason for the Season.  Between our various conferences and branch celebrations, we also found  time to get to Vor Frue Kirke (The Church of our Lady) to see the original Kristus and the statues of the twelve apostles.  Located on a narrow side street, this church is very Greek looking with Roman columns and lintels.   Huge, carved wooden doors stand open so you can walk directly into the small foyer then into  the cavernous chapel with a wide, tiled avenue running straight between the high-back pews to the dais with the Kristus,  glowing in a golden alcove. This alcove is flanked by marble columns and huge antique candelabras.  The lighting draws your eye directly to the statue.  This famous statue was carved by a Dane, Bertel Thorvaldsen, and has become a symbol of the Mormon Church because of the copy on Temple Square.  Pedestals along the sides of the chapel hold the statues of the 12 apostles, each separated by alcoves with fenced seating on two levels.  The 12  were also carved by Thorvaldsen when he was in Rome. (He brought them to Denmark and it has been a bit of a sore spot for the Italians.  Our church has commissioned replicas of the 12  statues to be made and displayed in the Rome Temple Visitors center as a gift to the Italians.)  This marvelous church holds regular services and is available for weddings and christenings.  Bells ring out over the rooftops celebrating every event.

It was good to end the week by focusing on the Savior and The Gift of His life and sacrifice for us. What a blessing it was to reflect on all we have as we chatted and skyped with our loved ones at home. Closing that distance between us just a little, brought great joy to our hearts, and made me realize how much Heavenly Father and the Savior desire us to do the same with them.