VW Day (cont'd again):

The Party...

After everyone had left Lindholm Høje, we went down to our car. Next to the parking lot, there was a fenced in area for goats that live there. I tried my goat-vocalization skills to communicate with them and was somewhat successful. Got a few responses from the crowd. Ann-Britt went into the pen to feed them some carrots.

Off to the party! We drove back to Vadum and parked at Farmor's house, then we headed over to Kulturhuset where we were met by all of the viking partiers with their branches. They made another gateway to the door of the festival hall and I had to carry Kristen across the threshhold. Good thing she's light and I'm a strapping young lad! Then all the guests came through the door, congratulating us one by one as they came in. It was a bit overwhelming at first because the ones I knew I hadn't seen in many years, others I was meeting for the first time and poor Kristen was meeting ALL of these people for the first time ever!

When everyone was inside, the slaves (Hans and Niklas) walked around the room with trays of roasted pork rib chops that everyone could eat by hand (like chicken drumsticks) as hors d'oeuvres. My father made a quick speech to welcome everyone and invited them to dig into the cornucopia set out before them. The Pig was not ready yet, so everyone was asked to enjoy the first courses in the meantime.

On the buffet table: Danish herring, pan-fried flounder filets, fresh veggies, assorted types of bread, cold cuts, fruit, sauces, smoked beef and sausage. To drink was the beer from Thisted Bryghus, soft drinks, wine, mead, and beer that I had brought from Belgium (Hoegaarden and a few Duvels).

The large room at Kulturhuset was set up with long row of tables (reminiscent of what you might have seen in a viking feast). At the head of this long-table was another table set up perpendicular to it. This was our table, the guests of honor. Not wanting to be snobbish, we invited Stephie, Henrry, and Hans to sit there as well becuase many of the places at the long-table had already been taken. Everyone was thoroughly digging into the preliminary feast, but since it was one of the hottest days of the summer, many people ate and drank more lightly than we had hoped they would. To get people's spirits up, Niklas poured up a tray full of shots of mead to pass around. We had to get these people loose and spirited.

By this time, the pig was ready and everyone was invited outside to get as much fire-roasted pork as they could handle. It was phenomenally delicious and succulently tender. Served with flat bread and a tzatziki-like sauce made with Greek yoghurt. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you love leftovers), everyone was so full from the "smorgasbord" that they couldn't eat much of the pork. I'm guilty of that myself.

When everyone was back inside, I stood up to make a little speech of my own. A little trick I had up my sleeve because it is Pappa's birthday tomorrow. First I thanked everyone for coming to party and so on. Then I brought their attention to an old man who would be officially one year older the next day. At first, he didn't realize I was talking about him, but as it dawned on him I had everyone belt out a rendition of the Danish "Happy Birthday" song.

After we had all eaten more than "all we can eat", people started trickling into the reception room and outside. There was a table filled with wedding gifts that people had brought and they were requesting that we sit down to open them while everyone was still around. But before that, it was time for cake. Since my favorite Danish "cake" is one called Brunsviger (a slightly sweet bread that is dripping with a brown sugar and butter mixture), they of course had to present us with this kind of cake instead of a traditional wedding cake. These are usually made in the shape of a gingerbread man (or woman), decorated with candy and whipped cream, and given to someone on their birthday. The lucky recipient then makes the first cut in the cake by slicing the head of the cake-man off while all the guests scream. We upheld this tradition today as well. Then we passed out cake to everyone.

Then it was time to open the gifts which was a bit unnerving because everyone was gathered around, watching us. I was dreading the scenario where we got some odd-ball gift and we had to pretend like we really loved it. Fortunately, that only happened once (when someone gave us a purple copy of the New Testament). We're not religious people. Other than that, we got a lot of really special and useful gifts. Pretty much all things that we will need when we move to the UK. We were completely touched that people even brought gifts. Many of them were people that I haven't seen in who knows how long.

When we were done with this "chore", Christian and Niklas came over to the table and grabbed me by my arms to make me come out to the middle of the floor. Suddenly, I was up in the air and my shoes were being pulled off. Christian brandished a scissor, pulled the tips of each of my socks away from my toes and cut them off. Then they put me back down and I was left standing with ruined socks and bare toes. This is a Danish wedding tradition that I was not aware of. I'm glad I wore clean socks that day! What they normally do to the bride is that all the women at the wedding tear off pieces of her veil. Since Kristen wasn't wearing anything remotely close to a veil, they left her alone.

While my toes aired out, I took the opportunity to thank everyone for coming and told them that it was not the idea that they should have brought gifts. I thanked them for doing so anyway and said that they were all gifts that we really needed and they will help us set up our little home in Norwich.

At this point, the party was pretty much over and most people said their goodbyes and left. A few stayed behind to help clean up (a big job... especially the dishes). With all the hands we had, we finished within two hours. Pappa even had some time to give a few people chiropractic adjustments! I took the massive amount of pig leftovers to Farmor's house and carved all the meat off the bones so we could disperse it to several people's refrigerators and freezers. Then I headed back over to Faster Alice's house and chilled out for the rest of the evening.

Post-script...
It was great to have Kristen meet the overwhelming amount of extended family and friends. She was well received. They all really adored her and several even said she reminded them of the Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, both in looks and in the positive energy that she exudes.

Princess Info

A long, but fantastic day. It was a memorable ceremony (our second marriage of the year!) and a great feast. Thanks to everyone who put it together, especially my father who masterminded the whole thing!

-RP-