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!