Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye is hard to do. I cannot believe the end is already here. It's weird to have such mixed emotions. I am so very excited to go home and yet I am incredibly sad to leave Denmark. I have had such an amazing experience. I've loved it all, the people, the food, the environment, it's all so wonderful. I definitely feel like I have learned a lot about life and myself. And I am so grateful for that. In a few short hours I will be on my way home. It still seems somewhat surreal. Just like saying goodbye is hard to do, trying to finish this post is hard. So I will say goodbye to all my lovely friends in Denmark, I will miss you and try to visit when I can. Love you!

Julepynt

As per tradition, on December 1 we all went over to Klaus' mom's house to make Christmas decorations. It is such a cute, fun thing. The women go in a room and work on the decorations all day. The men make food and, if there are children that do not want to or cannot make decorations, they take care of them. We had a delicious traditional jul frokost, Christmas lunch, and then tea and cakes and then dinner. It was all very good food. I took a lot of pictures of our decoration experience, which was so fun. I think I might have to do this tradition from now on... =) We used clay and things we found in nature. His mom does this for a living so she had a ton of stuff!

Advent candles - you light one on the first Sunday of December, then two on the second and so forth.

From left to right - Emma, Klaus' mom Ingrid, the former aupair Aylin, Nicoleta, Victoria, and me =)

Starting the candle

Ovesen Home

This is the wooded area surrounding the home

I love this. I always wanted a forest to run through when I was little...and maybe still a bit now. =)

The drive way. I just love how old-fashioned it is.

This is the house that is there now. It was not there when Lars Peter Oveson lived here.

This barn was built where the old barn most likely was.

That's a lake in the background and the trees surrounding the lake are so old that they're the same ones from 1852, when he was born.

This barn is also built where the old one was, however it was built/rebuilt in 1930

This lake wasn't quite here, it was much smaller. Just a pond when he was here.

It was quite cold.

It was so peaceful and beautiful.

The couple that lives here now came home and told us that this is where the original house was located. Also that there is someone is related to the Mormons that used to live here! I might have living relatives in Denmark. The couple is going to talk to him again and get in touch to let us know if we're family or not. It's possible another Mormon family bought the house after the Oveson's left.

The man says he can remember his grandmother standing in this doorway. It was the entrance through the laundry room to the house.

This is the stream where he was baptized.

It was somewhere along here, his property is the left where the trees are.

There is a story that Lars or Ove, his brother, were having troubles walking and once he was baptized he crawled out and was able to walk just fine!

This church has records of the Oveson family births. Unfortunately there was a baptism going on so we couldn't talk to the priest or anyone.

There is also a book about the family and what the house used to look like. We're going to try to get a hold of it and if it's for sale, I will definitely buy it.