Christian and I received a *gækkebrev (the orange one above) in the mail last Saturday. It looked like it was made by a child and was sent from Copenhagen City. We didn't know who would send us one. The name had six characters and we really couldn't guess who sent it, so we just put it aside. While eating lunch on Sunday we brought it out again and were trying to figure out who sent it. Then Julian yells, "It was me!". We had such a good laugh at that. We never considered that it could be from Julian. Then I remember one of his teachers saying that they were going to take a walk in the woods to pick snowdrops and press them. His poem says,
My name in suns below
Now it is spring
*gækkebreve English translation "snowdrop letter"
This is a letter that you send to someone in the springtime before Easter. It can be decorated by cutting paper with scissors or a nail, snowdrops, coloured paper, and poetry as seen above. The poem is normally about springtime and a hint of the name of the sender. If the receiver of the snowdrop letter does not guess who sent it to them by Easter, they have the give the sender an Eater egg containing chocolate.
This tradition started in the 1600's. H. C. Andersen was famous for his paper cutting, link above. Children began sending these to adults in the 1930's in hopes of getting Easter eggs and chocolate.
Today, they are mainly sent by children who make them at school. You can also buy readymade snowdrop letters at the postoffice and bookstores. The handmade ones are really the best though. This is a wonderful tradition in Denmark.
I should add that the other gækkebreve images from above were photgraphed from the book Årets Traditioner, Politikens Forlag.
Julian finding his Easter basket on Easter morning and us going to church. Vedbaek kirke (church) is where Julian was christened. We sat through most of the service, but had to leave at communion because the pipe organ and choir was too loud for Julian.
Julian sleeping at the wheel while we were mega grocery shopping. I guess the car ride, the ferry, the indoor playground and lunch at MAX (Swedish fast food :-( ) wore him out! Notise he has his seat belt on. We couldn't push the cart until he fastened it. If only he knew that mom and dad never used a seat belt until they were 16 years old!
Julian enjoying some serious playtime time at Capella Play in Hyllinge, Sweden. While Denmark was closed down for Maunday Thursday, we went to Sweden to have some fun family time and shop.
Julian loves to put puzzles together. He is a master at his simple ones with 8 or 10 pieces and the patience to complete the more difficult ones.
Here is Julian on his first ride at Bakken. It looked totally innocent and little kid friendly, but once it got going Julian grabbed the banana water guns at the side of the boat and said he was finished! The other kids were also holding on tight for their lives :-) I think the rides need a bit of tuning. He did enjoy some other rides, but riding his bike in the woods was probably the most memorable.
Julian had a lot of fun last week playing with his Funny Felt Faces from Early Learning Centre. These are just a few.
Last Thursday Julian took a day off of Barnehave (Kindergarten) to meet Amber (and her two kids), Liliana and Nikolai at Louisiana to see the new exhibit and to play in the kids area. The new exhibit is Cézanne & Giacometti. During breakfast we looked at the catalogue of the exhibit, so Julian could look forward to seeing some of the art when we got there. He seemed to be drawn to the still life paintings by Cézanne and a few of the sculptures by Giacometti. We went quickly through the exhibit pretending to eat the fruit in the painting and having a good laugh at some of the sculptures. Then we moved on the children's art area in the museum. It's three floors of activities and they change with the exhibits. Our kids wanted to play in the lego area and made flags.
