Our Christmas trees covered with love note ornaments, picture ornaments and drawings from our dear family. This is the highlight of our Christmas and apartment this year!
Christmas table ready for our Senior Couples Christmas Dinner.
Rex walking toward the marknad (market) where all the tents are set up selling everything imaginable for Christmas. This is in the center of Downtown Stockholm.
The NK Store that has lights all around on the front of it. It is the most exclusive store in Stockholm and is decorated beautifully, inside and out.
Sorry, the tree is sideways. This tree is suspended from the ceiling as you walk into the NK Store in downtown Stockholm. It is just magnificently decorated.
One of the windows decorated for Christmas at the NK Store.
Another window at the NK Store decorated for Christmas. There are about 10 of them, but I have included only two.
Vicky and Rex in front of one of the booths in Gamla Stan (Old Town Stockholm). This is a small marknad. I talked to this darling girl in the booth in the background and wanted her picture.
Rex and Vicky in Gamla Stan on one of the narrow busy shopping streets.
This is the Lucia Princess at the Lucia Concert which we attended on Dec. 13th, Lucia Day. She wears a crown of lit candles on her head and a group is following her as they sing. We saw this in the Storkyrkan (King's Church) in Gamla Stan.
Vicky and Rex as we are preparing to leave for the play "My Fair Lady" with our senior couples group.
Some of the group learning the Lucia Dance taught to us by the Swedish couple who are serving in our mission now.
Our group in the lobby of the Oscarteatern where we saw the play "My Fair Lady". It is one of the oldest theatres in Stockholm.We spent the past three days in a Senior Couples Conference. It began Thursday morning with lunch, scripture study, testimonies, a great presentation on Swedish Traditions, and then we went by train into Stockholm to see the Swedish version of “My Fair Lady”. What a GREAT day! It was interesting to see the play in Swedish, not be able to understand a single work, but loved the music and had a fantastic evening together. Our seats weren’t very good, but we enjoyed this cultural evening together.
Because of the presentation on Swedish Tradition yesterday, Rex and I got up at 5:30 .m. Friday morning to attend a Lucia Concert. One of the biggest holidays of the year here is December 13th, that is called Lucia. They celebrate by honoring a girl as the Lucia or princess. She wears a crown with lit candles on her head as she parades around. There is a song about it and this fantastic youth choir sang in the Storkyrkan, which is the King’s church by the palace. They sang some wonderful songs and it is one of the events to bring in Christmas or “Jul” as they call it. It was raining hard all day, so we stood in the rain to get into the concert, but it was so worth going. After arriving at the Mission Home, we had scripture study and more testimonies as there are 20 of us all together. The testimonies have touched all our hearts and helped us fell great love for each other and for our Savior and our families.
Elder and Sister Hanson, who serve in the Stockholm Temple gave a presentation on “Coming Together as One”. One thing that I felt was the most important, is that he said as couples we need to have “pillow talk”, as it is where true communication takes place, where hearts are bound together, and where we come to truly love and understand each other. He said women are better at this than men, but it is one of the greatest blessings in a marriage. We need to listen and understand how our companion feels, and this will help bind us eternally. While the husband is the patriarch and priesthood holder, the wife is entitled to inspiration and both need to be listened to with love, understanding, and compassion.
The group had free time for a few hours to go shopping in Gamla Stan (Old Town), and to see the beautiful windows in Stockholm. There are hundreds of tents set up in marknad, city markets where people can buy about anything for Christmas, or other occasions. However, Christmas is when they are out in full force. There are little Santas called “tomtes” that are so cute. Everyone has candles and the tiered 7 candle light in their windows. I even have one. It rained on us the entire day we were walking around but it didn’t dampen our spirits or our determination to see Stockholm.
We returned to the Mission Home and had a marvelous Christmas Dinner of salmon, ham, potatoes, salads, rolls, shrimp cups, deviled eggs, relish tray, cheesecake dessert, etc. They have this drink called Julmust that is only available during the Christmas Holiday. It tastes a bit like Coke without caffeine. I am not really fond of it, but it is the drink of choice during the holidays here. We each brought a 100 kroner gift (about $13) for an exchange. One of the couples was in charge and we played a game to get our gift. I will have to share it with you when we return. We ended up with two Swedish CD’s with Christmas music. Some of the gifts were Swedish story books, candy, a tie tack with the temple on it, a vase from Visby, etc. It was really fun. Following the gift exchange, we had a Family Home Evening Fireside together. We played Christmas Carols on pipes and sang together. We played a nose blowing instrument, and read the Christmas story. It was fun and spiritual.
This morning we all went to the temple together. This was the highlight of the conference. We dearly love each other and KNOW the Lord is aware of us and our families. I can’t begin to tell you what a tender mercy and special day it has been. We all then went to lunch together and said good-bye until next time. Every couple in the church should go on a senior couples mission when they reach that age and time. It is definitely a highlight of our lives. While we miss family, they too are blessed in our absence. The Lord promises us that sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven, and it is so true.
WE SAW THE SUN TODAY, Monday, FOR ABOUT AN HOUR FOR THE FIRST TIME IN WEEKS! We could have used our sunglasses.
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