Merry Christmas!

These past couple of weeks have been a bit hectic. The kids have been out of school, which is enough to keep me exhausted on its own. Plus my phone completely died, and I've had to adjust to the less than stellar camera on my new phone. And of course, all of the last minute Christmas things we've had to do.

I love Christmas, and this year is no exception. It's been a little bit harder though. I miss my family and friends back in the States, and the loved ones we've lost over the past year.

Still, I'm looking forward to seeing the kids' faces when they see that Santa has come to visit. And hopefully we will get to talk to family a little bit, or at least exchange pictures. We are just having a quiet day at home, which is my ideal way to spend a holiday. Snuggled up in blankets being lazy and eating good food.

Happy Holidays everyone!

School Plays and Activities

The kids are officially on winter break until 4 January. Leading up to the end of term, they did lots of fun activities at school.

One of the big things the school did was the Christmas play. There was a separate one for the nursery class and the infant classes (Reception and Year 1 and 2).

Lily was one of three shiny stars in the nursery play. I think their play was just a bunch of cute songs with some dancing, but I'm not sure because Lily got strep throat the day before the performance and missed it. She was sad, and I was sad because this would've been her first play. She may have loved it, or she may have gotten self conscious and refused to participate. Guess we'll find out next year.

The infant play was all about "the magic of Christmas." The premise was that two kids were ill at Christmas, and the Christmas fairy granted their wishes to do all of the fun stuff kids love during the holiday. The play was written by one of the teachers, and the music teacher wrote an original song for it. The Reception class did the nativity bit.

This school is not religiously affiliated, but it is standard in England for schools to have a small amount of religious education. The nativity play is a big tradition here. Now, we're not religious, but we will encourage the kids to learn a lot about many religions. And, at least at this school, they encourage diversity and do like to expose the kids to different religions and cultures.

So Miles landed the part of a wise man. He even had a line - "I bring frankincense!" (He said it loudly and enthusiastically, it was cute.) He told us leading up to the play that he couldn't wave at us because he had to just smile and walk kingly, and he did just that. I love watching performances at this age.

Delivering his line

The Saturday after the plays was the school's Christmas Fair. I didn't get any pictures of this because I was helping out. There were stalls with vendors selling stationery, teddy bear clothes, and makeup, to name a few. There were raffles, crafts, and games, and Santa was there for photos. We didn't get pictures with Santa here, because we had to rush off to a Christmas party put on by Matt's workplace. It was fun though. We won a 1000 piece puzzle through the raffle, and the kids got sugar cookies and sausages to eat.

Then basically the last week of school before end of term was just fun and games. The classes had Christmas parties, visits from Father Christmas, and lots of craft opportunities. Miles' class even had a elf on the shelf. Luckily he didn't ask why we don't have one - they creep me out!

And now, nearly a whole month of three kids at home 24/7. Wish me luck...

Australian/American Thanksgiving in England

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday since the kids were in school Thursday. We are awaiting delivery of the dining room furniture we ordered, so our Australian expat friends offered the use of their house in exchange for delicious American food.

We went simple and traditional with the food, but the preparation was anything but simple. Our menu consisted of turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, smashed potatoes, rolls, and pumpkin pie. Our hosts would supply another dessert and the adult beverages.

Some of the ingredients were difficult to find, but we managed. The real challenge was cooking all of the food in an English kitchen. The ovens here are much smaller, so we could only cook one thing at a time. Add in adjusting to a different oven, temperature conversions, some substitutions in ingredients, and trying to clean up with a sink that is smaller than some of our pans, and you can see why Matt was cussing and stressed. But we (he) got through it, and we carted our feast to our friends' house.

Once we got there, we were able to enjoy ourselves. We had drinks while warming up a few things, and the kids all ran off to play.

Pretty soon we were able to sit down to eat, and the food turned out great. The pumpkin pie and homemade "cool whip" were delicious, and the sticky date pudding (aka sticky toffee pudding) made by our hosts was amazing.

Overall it was a really good day. Next year though, it has to be at our apartment, with more practice. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

This morning I was able to help out in Miles' class. Since they celebrate different cultures, they did a Thanksgiving party in the classrooms for the first three years. There were games, crafts, and of course turkey for lunch. I wasn't able to get pictures, but it was fun to take part, and Miles was so excited that I was there.

Since it's just Thursday here, we won't be really celebrating until this weekend. So tonight, we're having turkey dinner pies from our favorite sandwich shop. They contain turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberries, and apple. All topped with a pig in a blanket (aka sausage wrapped in bacon). Pretty tasty!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Christmas Market

This week our town's Christmas market opened, and I was excited to go check it out. It's been open for three days, and we've now been twice already. There are over 200 stalls with all sorts of things.

Food: burgers, sausages, carvery, and sweets, just to name a few. We had crispy duck wraps with cucumber and sweet chilli sauce, which were very good.

Drinks: hot chocolate, mulled wine, hot cider, and spirits. I had mulled wine with amaretto. At 11am. Hey, if the stall's open...

Gifts: Christmas decorations, home decor, jewelry, clothing items (a lot of knit and wool blankets, scarves, hats, etc.). We may have picked up a few Christmas gifts here, but of course I can't tell yet. :)

It was cold and rainy, so I'm glad I had everyone wear their wellies. So much mud. Friday night I wore Clara in the Ergo, which helped keep us both warm, but my back was sore that night. We took the sit and stand stroller on Saturday, but then it was really hard to navigate through the crowds.

There was also a small carnival-type area with rides for the kids, and Miles and Lily each got to pick a ride.

Miles was on this ride

Since the kids were mostly well behaved, we let them pick out a treat before we left. Of course they chose giant marshmallows.

Although it was crowded and the weather wasn't great, we still had a good time. Definitely worth the crowds, and I'll be happy to go back!

Bonfire Night

I'm a little late on this, but we got to celebrate our first English holiday on 5th November.

Guy Fawkes Night, or Bonfire Night, dates back to 1605. Guy Fawkes was a member of the Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy to kill King James I by blowing up Parliament. He was found guarding explosives underground, and he and the other conspirators were found and sentenced to death.

Historically, there was a lot of anti-Catholicism involved. Effigies of the Pope and Catholic leaders were burned. Those particular customs are no longer associated with Bonfire Night, but you can check out Wikipedia if you want to learn more.

Today, the holiday is celebrated with bonfires and huge displays of fireworks. People make effigies of Guy Fawkes, which can be burned in the bonfire.

We went to a celebration cohosted by the kids' school. Matt's mom was in town too, so she got to come. There were hot sandwiches, raffle drawings, and a bouncy castle. There was also wine and beer for the adults, woohoo!

It was really cold, so much different than the 4th of July events we've been to in the States. We were all bundled up in coats, extra pairs of socks, mittens and hats. We didn't get many pictures because we needed our gloves! Miles found a friend from school, and the kids played on the bouncy castle until the bonfire was lit. The cold didn't seem to bother them at all... yet.

Clara and me in front of the fire. I think that's Lily next to me.

Once the bonfire was going, we walked over to warm up a bit. There was a crowd, but since the fire was so big it did help. Briefly. Luckily the fireworks started soon after, and all three kids were just enthralled. By the time the fireworks were over, poor Lily was shivering, so we grabbed a flapjack for the kids and headed home.

Overall it was fun, especially for the kids. For days after, Miles talked about how Bonfire Night is his favorite day ever. I'm looking forward to celebrating again next year, and hopefully it's just a little warmer!

Autumn

Autumn weather is in full swing around here, and has been for the past week or two. It's been crisp, and in the 40s and low 50s. The forecast even calls for a little snow and ice tonight (no!). You'd think this weather would be cake for us, coming from Colorado, but it seems colder. I think it's the humidity.

Anyway, here are some fall pictures I've taken in the past couple of days.

This is what the sky looks like when I go to pick Miles up from school (at 3:30)...

These last two pictures are of a house I pass on the way to the school. It's a grand house, set back from the road. It has to be really old, and is apparently abandoned. I'm really curious to what the story of the house is.

Happy fall!