A Very Merry UK Christmas!

Lately, a lot of people have been asking me how Christmas in England compares with the US. Here are a few of my observations:

First of all, commercialism isn't quite as bad as it is in the States. There are certainly commercials on TV and ads in the paper, but it doesn't seem to be so much "in my face," if that makes any sense.

Secondly, people decorate their houses, but there are no Clark Griswolds over here. Very few people have lights on the outside of their houses, and I only saw one of those blow up Santas in someone's front yard.

Christmas dinner for most people in England is turkey. Goose is in the running, as well. And for dessert, everybody has mincemeat pies and Christmas Pudding. I didn't really know what mincemeat pies were, so I bought some for us all to try. About a century ago, these pies were really made with minced meat. But now, they are filled with a raisin/fig/date mixture. I thought they were okay... not great, but okay.

Christmas pudding is such a big deal around here; very traditional. Apparently, you make this dessert (which is actually like a cake), about 6 weeks before Christmas. It's a dark cake, kind of molasses-ey, and filled with dried fruits (raisins, cherries, etc.) and nuts. After you prepare it, you load it up with brandy, and let it soak until Christmas. Then on Christmas day, you're supposed to steam it, then pour more brandy over it, and set it on fire! What a show, huh?! Anyway, I did not go to all that trouble. I bought one at the local supermarket for us to try, and I microwaved it. No flames. And to be quite honest, it both looked and tasted like a pile of crap. Sorry to be so blunt, but it's true. At least we can say we tried it.

Another tradition here is the Christmas cracker. A Christmas cracker is a tube that pops when you pull it open. It usually contains a paper crown, a joke, and some kind of trinket. Our trinkets included a small deck of cards, a sewing kit, a mirror, a squirt gun, etc. We popped ours before dinner. We all had fun sharing our jokes during the meal, and we looked so dashing wearing our crowns.

Another difference here is that everything is open on Christmas Eve, but closed on Boxing Day (12/26). The day after Christmas in the States is one of the biggest shopping (or at least, returning) days of the year, but here, everything is closed. What is Boxing Day, you ask? We've heard different explanations, but the most boring and truest one is that its the day that people box up their Christmas decorations.

So, those are a few differences I observed. As a whole though, it seems that the Brits celebrate Christmas much like Americans do.

Merry Christmas to ME!!

I received an early Christmas present the other night, when Collin slept through the night!!! Hooray! We dropped both the late-night feed, and the 4am feed, and he did it! He slept until 6:30! Woo-hoo!!! Since then, he's woken once at 4am, but otherwise, he's been sleeping until morning.

I, of course, haven't adjusted yet. I still wake earlier than him and lie awake in bed, waiting for him to wake up. I'm sure I'll adjust soon, though.
In other news, Collin just turned three months old. I don't know how much he weighs, but he's seems huge to me! He found his thumb recently, which has probably helped with the sleeping thing. He still enjoys batting at his gym, and is full of smiles and laughs. We discovered that he is very ticklish under his armpits, which is fun!

All I Want for Christmas...

...is my two front teeth!Timothy has been losing a bunch of teeth lately, including his front two. As a result, he's been gathering quite a collection of British coins from the tooth fairy.

The Christmas Code

Earlier this week, Tim and Maddie were in a Christmas pageant at school called, "The Christmas Code." It was called "The Christmas Code" because part of the plot focused on how the wise men had to "crack the code" to figure out the signs of the savior's coming.

Anyway, I love that they got to do a Christmas play at school. They would never have had the opportunity to do this in the States of course. Also, it has really helped them in their understanding of the Christmas story. They know "the plot" and can name all of the characters, which is just great.

Here are a few photos for you to enjoy. Tim was one of the wise men, and Maddie was the angel Gabriel. They both did a terrific job memorizing their lines, and improved a lot in their speaking voices. Maddie (Gabriel) telling Mary... "Don't be afraid Mary. God loves you greatly."
Maddie with the angel choir.
Tim and wise men.
Maddie's dancing scene.
The closing scene.
My angel and wise man!

We Elfed Ourselves!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Brian McLaren

A few years ago, a friend of ours lent a book to Ethan by an author named Brian McLaren entitled, "A New Kind of Christian". That book, and many consecutive ones has had a great impact on both Ethan and my faith; so much so, that we decided to start attending the church Brian helped to found back in Maryland, called Cedar Ridge Community Church. We attended Cedar Ridge for about 9 months before we came to England.

Well, a few months ago, we were speaking to our pastor here, who told us that Brian McLaren was coming to town. I checked out his website, and sure enough, he was scheduled to come here to Harrogate to speak. Of all the places in Europe, he was coming here... a 15 minute drive from our house! We were thrilled.

We bought tickets and made babysitting arrangements, and went to hear Brian both yesterday afternoon, and last night. His seminar was called "A Tale of Two Gospels," and he spoke about how the modern evangelical church puts so much weight on Paul's gospel, that they forget what Jesus said the good news is. He suggested that we look at Paul's gospel in the framework of Jesus' gospel, as it was intended. He also spoke a lot about social justice and mercy, and what that can look like for modern-day Christians trying to bring God's kingdom here to Earth. I'm sure that I've done a poor job summarizing all that he spoke of, but believe me, it was really intriguing, challenging, and refreshing to hear.

Brian has a lot of good books out there. We'd love to suggest some if you're interested. And, if you have just a few minutes, you can watch this short clip of Brian speaking about Jesus and the Kingdom from You-Tube. I think it's really worth-while.

Winter Wonderland

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. We probably had 3-4 inches of snow which is very rare for around here, so we've heard. School was closed for the kids, and even Ethan didn't need to report to base until noon.

In Maryland, we always joked how they didn't have enough plows, and that's why the state would shut down when it snowed. Well here, they really don't have any plows. They designate the few plows they have to clear the "A" roads, so the side roads don't get touched.

The kids had soooo much fun playing out in the snow with daddy this morning. Here are a few pictures of our village and the kids.
Our house
A lone, snowy sheepThe village telephone boothOur village of Shaw Mills
Our happy snowman

Sir Timothy's Birthday Party

Yesterday was Timothy's 7th birthday. Yes, 7th. I still can't comprehend how I am the mother of a 7 year-old, but it's true.

This year, Timothy requested a knight party. I thought that would be a terrific idea because we could easily incorporate princess activities for the girls we invited. We invited his whole class at school, all 9 of them, along with the 4 students who were in his class last year and moved up. That brought it to a grand total of 13 children, not including Collin.
A few weeks ago, we sent out really cute invitations that we made. The front of the invite had a picture of Tim in a knight costume, and a large print, "Here Ye! Here Ye!" The inside included directions to our castle, and how to RSVP to Queen Rebecca. They were cute.

I found a great deal on ebay from a woman who was trying to sell the leftovers from her own son's knight party. We got tunics, foam swords, poster-board shields, necklaces, gold coins, etc. It ended up being a great bargain. Then, for not such a great bargain, I bought some items through Oriental Trading for the fair maidens, including princess wands and caps.

When the children arrived on Saturday, they were all dressed up sooo cute in their knight and princess costumes. Even Ethan and I got into the spirit by wearing crowns (I got some free crowns from Burger King and labled them with "Queen Rebecca" and "King Ethan").

We started off the party with a craft time. The boys decorated their shields, and the girls decorated their princess caps. We fed them a lunch of pizza, cucumbers, dragon scales (Doritos), and dragon juice (green Hawaiian Punch), and of course, had some birthday cake. I cut out a 13x9 sheet cake into the shape of a shield and decorated it with a dragon crest.We had a few games for the kids to play, and gave out loads of gold coins as prizes. We decided that we would save the foam swords to give out for the last 15 minutes of the party. Well, that was actually 15 minutes too soon!! A sword fight emerged, of course, and all chaos broke loose. So, we stopped the sword fight, and did a quick game of "The Queen Says" (Simon Says) to finish up our time. Thankfully, it worked.Ethan and I both agreed that Tim's party was the slowest 2 hours of our life! But, it was worth it. The kids all had a lot of fun!
Tim got some great gifts, too. He got a lot of board games, including "Snakes & Ladders" which is exactly like "Chutes & Ladders," except with pictures of snakes instead of chutes, of course. He also got a lot of birthday cards with button pins attached for him to wear. Maybe that's more common in England.

On his actual birthday, we went bowling as a family, and went to a pub for dinner. All in all, Timothy had a very special birthday!

Collin at 2 Months

Collin went for his 2 month appointment the other day. This time, he was just short of 2 feet long, and he weighed a whopping 13 lbs. 13 oz.!! I couldn't believe it! That put him just above the 75 percentile for height, and into the 90 percentile for weight. Yikes! Why do I have a feeling that this boy will be eating me out of house and home when he's a teenager!!

Anyway, he also got his first round of shots (we get all of the kids' immunizations done on base, so that they are compatible with US standards). He screamed like heck when he got the shots, but seemed to be fine a few minutes later. What a trooper! Even Mommy was brave and got my flu-shot when I was there.

Collin has really been doing well. He is generally a very happy, smiley baby, which is just so nice.

Today though, he's a little off schedule. Yesterday, I decided to let him extend his cycle times (I had been waking him from his naps if he was sleeping more than 1 1/2 hours), and we decided to have him start sleeping in his crib at night time. I have to admit, I was a little sad looking at the empty bassinet in my room last night. Just one of the many last baby milestones....

Christmas Fayre

On Saturday, the kids and I, along with my friend Kelly, went to a Christmas Fayre (we spell it "Fair") at Ripon Cathedral. Ripon is a larger town, about 10-15 minutes north of my village, and it houses an incredible Cathedral. I'm not sure how old it is, but it is just stunning.
Anyway, during the fayre, there were about 60 different vendors selling their wares. We bought some wooden toys for the kids, a pork pie for Ethan, and some Wensleydale Cheese (with Wallace & Grommit's picture on it!)

Father Christmas was there as well. Tim was very excited to go see him, and Maddie was completely terrified. So Tim went by himself (which was fine, because it cost me 2pounds, 50p to see Santa!). Father Christmas gave him an early present -- a small tray of Cadbury chocolate bars-- which Tim kindly shared with his sister. What a good boy!

The children also got their faces painted while we were there. Maddie was a butterfly, and Tim got his face painted as a Christmas Eve night scene. Can you see Santa and his sleigh flying over the city?? Isn't that so cool??!!

I Think I'm in Love...

...with an 8 week-old baby boy.

I know I may be a little biased about this, but I really do think that Collin may just be the most adorable baby in the whole world.

It sounds funny, but my favorite times of the day are when I go to change his diaper. I don't know what it is about that changing table, but just about every time I plop him down, he looks up at me and smiles this big, gummy, toothless, tounge-y smile. It completely melts my heart. Then we proceed to chat for a few minutes... yes, I can tell he's talking to me. And yesterday, he made a new squeeky/gurgle-ly sound that was just for me. So precious....

Oh, and he is sooo good. He has fallen into a great 3 hour routine of feeding, playing, sleeping. He gets very excited playing under his gym. His face gets all serious, and he swings and kicks with great intensity. It's so fun to watch. And his nap times have become so predictable. When he starts getting fussy, I swaddle him up in his crib, give him his binky, and he usually falls asleep all on his own within a few minutes.

He's doing pretty good at night. He's usually fussy during the evening hours, but once he falls asleep, he sleeps for 4-5 hours. Last night, he slept until 4:30am!! What a guy!

Oh, I just love him.
P.S. The top 2 pictures were actually taken when Collin was 3 1/2 weeks old by a friend of mine who is starting up a photography business. The last photo is when he was 6 1/2 weeks old.

Guy Fawkes Day

Last Wednesday was a British holiday called Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night. I had never heard of it before, but now I will never forget it!

First, let me give you the background story to the holiday.

Guy Fawkes was a politician who lived during the early 1600s. During that time, King James I came into power. English Catholics of that time were hoping that this King would be more tolerant of their religion. When it became clear that he wasn't going to be, a small group of men came up with a plot to overthrow the government and assassinate the king. They got a hold of 36 barrels of gunpowder and stored it in the cellar of the Houses of Parliament.

But as the group worked on the plot, it became clear that innocent people would be hurt or killed in the attack. Some of the plotters started having second thoughts. One of the group members even sent an anonymous letter warning a friend, Lord Monteagle, to stay away from the Parliament on November 5th. The warning letter reached the King, and the King's forces made plans to stop the conspirators.

Guy Fawkes was in the cellar of the Parliament with the 36 barrels of gunpowder when the authorities stormed it in the early hours of November 5th. He was caught, tortured and executed.

So now, every November 5th, England celebrates the foiling of this plot by having Bonfire Night. People celebrate by burning effigies of Guy Fawkes on huge bonfires, and by setting off fireworks.

We had hoped to take part in Guy Fawkes day, but with Collin being so small, and it already being so cold here, we didn't think it was a good idea. I was pretty bummed about that, so Ethan came up with the idea of having our own Guy Fawkes celebration in our living room. Here is a picture of the Guy Fawkes that Ethan made to burn in our wood stove. It turned out that Guy was too big to fit in our stove, so in the spirit of true English tourture, we quartered him first!!

12 pounds!!!

Collin had his 6 week appointment today. The doctor checked him over from head to toe, and said that he looked very healthy.

The big shocker came when they weighed him. He was 12 pounds! 12 POUNDS!! I was stunned! We've been supplementing his feedings with a few ounces of pumped breast milk & formula. I guess it's been working!

I'm just so grateful. A good bill of health for my little man is nothing to take for granted.

Happy Halloween!

Well, it turns out that the Brits do celebrate Halloween! In fact, in recent years, the British have come to celebrate it more like we do in America.

The kids and I had a great time the past few days making Halloween sugar cookies and carving our pumpkins. (We actually learned from a British friend that they used to carve out turnips, but it was much more difficult. I think I read somewhere that the pumpkins are an American influence.)

Here are the kids pumpkins. Tim and Maddie drew the faces on and I carved them out.For Halloween, Maddie dressed up as Madeline (from the book series). My mom had gotten this costume back when she was a baby, and we have waited this long for it to fit. But, oh it was so cute!Tim decided to go as Batman. Actually, I kind of decided it for him when I found a Batman costume at the thrift shop for $3.50. I was so psyched that it fit him. And of course, I couldn't resist but dress Collin up as Robin. I had to buy his costume on Amazon (and yes, it was a little more expensive than $3.50, but so worth it!!!)My caped crusaders!

The kids and I headed to base yesterday afternoon, as the base was sponsoring a Halloween party for the kids. They had games, face painting, etc. You could even go trick-or-treating around the housing area of base. However, we decided to go trick-or-treating around our own village. A family that we know from the kids' school invited us to go with them, as they knew the right houses to go to.

We all had a great time.

First Smiles

I can't believe that Collin is already over a month old!!! The past month seems like a blur (I'm sure that has to do with how exhausted I am!).

Collin is still doing well. Last week, I started supplementing with formula. Not a lot... just an ounce or two after each feeding. I feel really good about it, and am so much more confident knowing that Collin's tummy gets to feel full. Ethan and the kids enjoy feeding him his bottle, too, which is nice.Collin has also been falling into a nice routine. We've been trying to get him into the cycle of: eat-play-sleep. He's done really well with it, and his schedule is fairly predictable now. At night, he was waking only once a night last week, but now is back to waking two times a night. Oh well... The only thing I forgot about was the time change. Here in England, we changed our clocks back last weekend. Previously, I had Collin waking at around 6:45am each day. So, of course, with the time change, he was then waking before 6am the first few days. We're trying to shift that. It'll just take a little time, I suppose.

Last Friday, Collin gave me his first official smile. A big gummy one! It was so precious. I've been trying to take a picture of him smiling, but he gets too distracted by the camera. We also started putting Collin under his gym during his play times. He just loves it. He gets all excited and starts kicking and swinging his arms. It's so fun watching him.

The rest of us are doing well. The kids have this week off of school, so they're getting to spend a lot of time with their brother. As for me, I have some great days, where I am out and active and getting house chores done, etc. And then I seem to come to a crashing point where I am just exhausted. Last Wednesday, I called Ethan at work, completely crying from exhaustion. My dear husband actually took the afternoon off from work to come home so that I could sleep. What a guy!

Collin at 3 weeks

Hi everyone! Sorry again for the lack of blogs. It's all I can do to get showered everyday, let alone get on the computer (I trust all you moms out there remember what it is like!).

Anyway, we're all doing well! I am particularly pleased that Collin is gaining weight just as he should be. I had issues nursing my other two kids, so I was hoping that the "third time would be the charm" for this baby. And so far, so good. Last week, I sort of had a melt-down after Collin hadn't gained weight over a 3-day span. So, on the advice of the midwife, I began pumping after a couple of feedings each day. Three days later, he had gained over 5 ounces. And now, a week later, he has gained another half of a pound. I am just thrilled! Thank you God.

Otherwise, we're just trying to get into a routine here. It's a little more challenging as I have to get Tim and Maddie to and from school and their activities, but we're managing. This week, we've started having Collin get used to his crib, and have tried having him put himself to sleep. So far, it's not working too well. He really gets himself all worked up. But, we will persevere.

And although he's only 3 1/2 weeks old, we already see some of Collin's personality coming through. Here are a few of his likes and dislikes.

Likes:

• being fed
• his binky
  
• his brother and sister (no matter what they do to him, it seems)
• having Mommy rock him to sleep
• listening to music (like Daddy playing his guitar)
  
• staring at the cat picture on his changing table
  

Dislikes:

• being buckled into his car seat
• being swaddled
• being naked (bathtime, diaper change, etc.)
  

Well, I suppose that's all for now; especially as I am now typing one-handed while holding a sleeping Collin in the other! :)

Thank the Lord for Mommies!

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of blogs this past week. I'm sure you can understand. It truly is amazing how much time a newborn requires.

Anyway, we are all doing well. My parents arrived last Saturday, and have done an incredible job of taking care of us. My mom has done countless loads of laundry and dishes, made meals, changed diapers, prepared kids' school lunches, etc. And my dad has helped out by being the bus driver... taking the kids to and from school and their after-school activities. I haven't had to lift a finger, which has been so nice. It's allowed me to focus on taking care of Collin, nursing, resting, etc.Collin is doing just great. He's gaining weight nicely, which is so encouraging to an unconfident, nursing mom like me. He was 9 pounds at birth, and was 8 pounds 11 ounces yesterday. He's already a professional pooper, often granting us a second curtain call after we've just changed him. He's been sleeping well too, and once we get him to sleep, he usually sleeps for most of the night-time, except for feedings (and yes, I am knocking on wood as I am typing this!). He seems to be pretty content so far, and doesn't seem at all affected by the chaos in the house. It's apparent that he feels very at home with his big brother and big sister, who just love him. Maddie, in particular, just smothers him with attention to the point of literally squishing him. She's learning, though.The hardest part about this past week, is that I came down with Mastitis. It hasn't been particularly painful, but I had 3 days of severe flu-like symptoms that just wiped me out.... chills, fever, headaches, etc. Thankfully, we caught it early, and I was able to get on an antibiotic right away. Again, I don't know what I would have done if my mom wasn't here.

So, come Monday, my parents will be flying home, and Ethan and I will be flying solo (well, duo, I guess). I really have no idea what condition our home or kids or refrigerator will be like a week from now. I suppose it's a good time to focus on the priorities for survival, and let the rest of the details find their way back in someday.

Thank you to all of you who have emailed us with congratulations and words of encouragement. It's amazing how loved we feel even being so far away from you all. And, please feel free to leave any advice for us in the comments. We can use all the help we can get!