1) Got my name on the mailbox! I'm officially a member of the Birkenfeldt household.
This here is my new host family! They're great :) Stig (11), me, Anette, Torben, and Lise (13)
2) Christmas/ Jul!
Christmas in Denmark is very exciting! In early December we all sat around the tabe and picked out which decorations we wanted in our room, and then we went around and decorated the rest of the house. Most of the decorations are homemade. We also made these candle holders that we set around the house. We also made a ton of Christmas candy and treats. Then on the 24th, after decorating the tree, setting the table decorations, and lighting all of the candles, we ate our dinner. This consisted of turkey, peeled and boiled potatoes, caramel potatoes,
red cabbage, and ris ala made for dessert. It's a tradition to put one whole almond in the dessert, and whoever finds it gets a present! There were accidentally 2 whole almonds, though, so Lise and I both found one, and both got little presents :) After eating, we lit the candles on the tree ( I thought this was a dangerous idea but none of them seemed too worried about it) and then we held hands and sang songs as we danced around the Christmas tree! The last song we sing is "Nu er det Jul igen" which means "now it is Christmas again" and we run around the entire house singing this song. It's quite exciting! Then we opened presents, drank coffee/tea and ate the treats we had baked, and sat around and talked for the rest of the evening! Stig completely forgot about waiting until the next day to open his presents, so he didn't get to try out the American way of holding Christmas, but maybe next year, he said! All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful Christmas :) 
3) SWEDEN! I finally got to travel outside of Denmark. Not that I want to leave this fantastic country, but a little traveling is always fun! I was in Copenhagen with some exchange students and we decided to take the train on over to Sweden for the day and get some lunch there! So we went some place very Swedish to eat.. Ikea :)
4) 2011- It's going to be a great year! New Years Eve was celebrated at my friend Frederikke's house. It was 6 of us girls, and we decided to have a fancy new years eve party with nice dresses, and elegant food (which was extremely delicious) as we watched the Queen give her New Years Eve speech on TV. New Years in Denmark is celebrated just about the same as we do it in the US; they get together with friends and family, they set off fireworks, they have noise makers and confetti. But it was a great night and it was very fun to come into the new year in Denmark!
I'll attempt to post a few more updates in the next couple of days, but I can't promise anything because it is actually a busy week for me. We've got 2 new exchange students coming to our school tomorrow, I've got volleyball, guitar lessons, and my half birthday to celebrate (since I don't get to spend my actual birthday in Denmark) and on Friday I'm heading to Copenhagen for the weekend! But I'll do my best to keep you all posted :)
Happy (very late) New Years!
-Heidi
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