I know that you are good at reading. May be there are some words which can be not so easy to read for you. So ask Thøger or Mellow to read them for you.

 Now I will tell you a story about your Danish family.
   Your daddy, Thøger, was the first person in our family to settle in a country different from Denmark. To tell the truth he wasn't the first to dream about it. Your grandfather, Elias (it is me) had the idea to move to another country, but it never happened, because I was so lucky to meet Birthe, your grandmother.

Birthe when she was 13 years old

   I grew up in a city close to Copenhagen. We were sitting together around til dining table: My father, Mogens, my mother, Elisa, and my two brothers, Julius and Carsten. I was the youngest of us. My name was Ole - now I am Elias, but I have still Ole as my name. When I was ten years old Julius moved to Copenhagen to study, and a year later Carsten went away to be an organ-builder in another town. So I was suddenly alone with my parents.

   Something happened. I had a long way to school, and there were only few children living in the neighborhood. But I visited our neighbors in number 16, a Jewish family. There I learned a lot about the world outside Denmark.

    I was not that lucky about the school, but in the afternoons I had plenty of time to build dens. So I was a cave-dweller in my spare time. Sitting in the class-room at school I was dreaming about what I was going to build after school. I was an expert in nails and how to hit the nail with a hammer.

   There was one special boy in the neighborhood. His father and mother were so seldom at home, and he longed a lot for them. Together we borrowed a tiny rowing boat from his uncle, and we were rowing at  Mølleåen. It is a river with a lot of water in it all the year. ( It is quite different from the wash running through Tucson.) We had good days for a short while.

   The boy - his name was Peter - didn't get much guidance from his parents how to behave, and what would be foolish to do. One day he made a spear out of a rod and a blade from a knife. Then he threw the spear and I was not at all prepared, so it hit me in my head close to the left ear. It was quite a bloodshed. I ran home bleeding and I fainted. Julius called a neighbor who was a vet. He brought his thread and needles. I was placed on the dinner table and - without anaesthesia (it is when you sleep in an artificial way)  - my wound was sewn together. Don't ask me why, but Peter and I did not play together any more.

   I had an uncle in Jutland. He was an owner of a big farm with many cows, pigs, hens and sheep. I was invited to go there a summer. Something happened all the time. Once we drove to a fold with a lot of sheep and lambs. They are terrible good at breaking out of the fold, and it is very difficult to catch them. So you must run at high speed to round them up. We needed a dog to do the job for us. We had to do the dog's work. We did it. and we took one of them and put it in the car's trunk. I did wonder why, but I was not invited to see it being slaughtered.

My uncle, his name was Aage, he was so clever that half of it may have reached. Aage and my father Mogens - I never called my father by his first name - only "father" - when they were together they always argued. They called it discussion. My father used to be the most clever and wise person. But two clever men in the same room is not so often a good thing. Aage's wife Bodil and my mother Elisa were sisters; most  often they often were sweet and tried to calm down their husbands.

    Another summer I was invited to stay by some friends at their summerhouse. They have bought some acres of land from a farmer. It was close to the sea. So we could swim, and we had a really good tent.

For a whole month I was together with Jesper and Morten and their parents. We had the tent and sleeping-bags at a good distance to the parent's house. Hundreds of earwigs went sleeping together with us thus we tried to throw them out of the tent.

   One day a huge swarm of bees swarmed in my direction. I ran all that I was able to do to get away, but they came closer and closer - BZZZ - and now they was quite close to me, I looked back, and I stumbled and fell.

But the swarm of bees swarmed away over me. They were more interested in their queen than in me, but I didn't know. I thought that they would come and sting me.

   Jesper and I built a toy cart of the pieces of wood we could find. We swam in the sea, and we caught fish. Jesper's father, Erik, showed us how we could learn the names of many flowers. And his mother, Lis, was good at dealing the work between us, when we had to cut wood and help building a fence. In that way she decided, that it was not me who should do the hardest work all the time.

  To be together with a strange family for a long time may be hard, but it was indeed nice to stay in a tent in good weather. On the other hand I would not have any part in going to scout back home after the summer holiday. No classmates were boy scouts, so I hadn't any to do it together with. But many years later I went together with Birthe, Jakob and Thøger to the girls' scout camp. Marie was not born yet. Birthe was the  leader of 100 girls!  She would miss Thøger and Jacob - and me - when she was leading the girls. So I went with her and the boys.

   On that camp we went to the seashore to swim every day for a week; we made  a campfire every night and made sketches. You must ask your father what it is to make sketches at the campfire. Your grandmother Birthe may as well tell you how to make sketches. In return you must show us your conjuring tricks!

   Before I tell you how I met your grandmother Birthe, I have to tell you how it happened that I went away from my parents home to be a farmer. I wanted to try if it was possible for me to stand up to it. I knew that my elder brother Carsten could cope with his learning as an organ-builder. So I thought I would be able to do it as well. And I had a dream to go to another country, Israel. I had read about the land and knew that they grew oranges there - and cotton and grain. I thought it would be a good idea to know something about farming, and I wanted to be strong, and I knew that I had to work hard to be strong. Luckily I came to a farmer who war good to talk with. He was a really good teacher. We went together all the time and took care of the cows, fed the pigs, cultivated the fields, build brickwalls, painted the buildings and repaired the tractor and the machines.

 Here you see Birthe looking at me when we were very young.

  Now it is time to stop and wait. 

I hope that I can write to you another day and find new things to tell about.

In a few days it is Christmas - and for me it is Chanukkah.

I hope you will have a nice holiday. Last Christmas Birthe and I were visiting you and we borrowed your room. Next time may be in the coming spring.

Kærlig hilsen fra farfar Elias