Well both of them sure got a better handwriting than me.
It's quite amazing how little handwriting I do nowadays, come to think of it, it happens I don't write anything for a couple of days and when I do it's usually just a quick note.
I don't think I could write a fully readable letter if my life depended on it, if I was told to do it right now.
Beforehand you were told to hold the pen in one specific way and write with your right hand, too bad if you were left handed.
But back to the DRF.
M&F should have arrived at Marselisborg by now. They usually live at the cavallier building next to the main building, that's where the staff, courtiers and some guests stayed.
Servants and cooks and what not lived in building nearby. That building is now used by the soldiers from the Royal Lifeguard regiment, I understand. Beforehand they stayed in one of the three or four barracks there used to be in Aarhus. (There were no less than four regiments in the city!)
There is also a smaller building that was previously used by those who looked after Marselsborg, but today he lives in a private house on the far end of the park. A lovely, secluded house in the middle of the Marselisborg Forest. You'd have to pay a serious fortune for that location!
The DRF used to bring a horde of servants with them back when Marselisborg was build some 110 years or so ago, so they accommodations were quite good.
That in contrast to the accommodations at Marselisborg itself. It was as you may recall a wedding present from Aarhus to the newly married CP couple back then i.e. the later Christian X and wife, and quite understandably they hadn't produced any children yet...
And the idea that they might eventually produce children apparently didn't occur to the architect and those who approved the whole thing. So as QMII puts it: Marseliborg is awful big house with awful little room.
Because there are big a spacious rooms alright and a couple of wonderful big bedrooms. But only a handful of additional bedrooms and they were mainly meant for the chambermaid and the valet.
Marselisborg is also where QMII went all out on colorful patterns in regards to upholstery on the their furnitures. QMII did
not miss nor has she ever forgotten the vivid and colorful fashion of 1968!
I dare not post any photos lest my monitor explodes!
But you can find them on the Net, if you are courageous enough!
There are a number of traditions with Christmas at Marselisborg.
The watch on Christmas Eve is sought after among the guardsmen, not as much a New Year Eve though but we will get to that eventually. As such those who serve at Marselisborg at Christmas are usually from Jutland, which means that at the change of the guards at noon, hordes of parents and grandparents gather to see their son or daughter among the ranks of guardsmen.
The DRF always attend Christmas service in the afternoon (while the table is set back at Marselisborg) at Aarhus Cathedral, so don't worry, we are going to see all of them today (unless some of them have fallen ill).
On the way the Regent Couple will always stop at the guards-house to wish the guardsmen a Merry Christmas. With no PH around, it's Frederik who accompany QMII in the toast.
The DRF have dinner around 18.00 or so, around the time pretty much everybody else who celebrate Christmas in DK eat as well.
After a couple of hours it's time to open the presents. The DRF don't dance around the Christmas tree. QMII stays with the original tradition, where "the tree is shown (presented)", to be looked at and admired.
