This should be a Christmas letter. Thanks for the 200 strong we received and thanks for your 2 letters. There is very slow post delivery between Copenhagen and Ruysbroeck. Your first letter came the day after I had written to you and the special delivery arrived today and was sent the 12th. That is 5 days. I hope this reaches you before you leave on a Christmas trip. The left over 100 Krone you don’t need to send if you haven’t so already. When we have 200 I imagine we can manage to eat us sick during Christmas time especially also when we get supplies in the form of almond cookies from Copenhagen and on the occasion of Christmas I won’t criticize that you, Valdemar, have been so lucky to stick them through as I myself.
Peter wrote right away to W. Hofmeister so now that story is finished. It is nice to sash in and let Frederik say that he also will send you money. It’s very nice, I hope he doesn’t forget, but maybe it comes as a Christmas present. The membership card for Amateur Clubs was sure enough in the letter and if you will trouble yourself with the newsletter we would be very grateful to you. All the expenses you have with the mailing you will have to write on my new year’s bill and cash the amount in yourself. In regards to mailing expenses and about the stamps for the engineer of course you should not put on too many stamps on the envelope as the engineer himself does. There was a stamp for 20 francs that he had special interest for and so he sent himself a letter with that stamp on. But maybe you get letters or packages with stamps of nigh value then you can put them in for us. Otherwise just in the moment I can’t give you any more explanations about the stamps since the engineer is leaving for Christmas vacation to Germany and they have already been here for a farewell party on Friday evening which turned into a trial for Christmas Eve since they bought Christmas greenery, candles, stars, and bells, in addition to other good things like cake, marmalade, sausage for Peter, a table cloth for me, a wagon painted red and yellow for Lars, who was extremely happy about it, he plays with it the whole day, and a little cloth puppy for Anna which however Lars has taken over, he loads him up between all his other rarities on the wagon. I am sending a lace for Marie. Perhaps you can use this lace one way. or the other, Marie. I bought it on the market in the city nearby and got it wrapped up in a newspaper.
Now at last our best wishes for your Christmas and many loving greetings from your devoted, Peter, Else, Lars, Halo
Ramsgate in England is really the harbor we first want to reach, maybe “Cape Horn” if the bridal couple is still laying there. Poor Paul or maybe we should say poor Kirsten who now has to suffer the seasickness the rest of her life.
Greetings from Vampus (Lars’s nick name)
We have looked in a dictionary but did not find “Philateliste”. The wrapping fits to the village, where we live. If you have to buy anything else besides potatoes and bread you have to walk to the “Large village”, They say, there you will get everything