Christmas Cake and a bunch of other stuff

For the last month, there has been this cake on our counter. Our neighbor, Alison, has the same house guest and she taught Vivian how to make a traditional English Christmas cake. Once a week, you feed this beast some whiskey. The cake is full of dried fruit and would classify as our version of a fruit cake. I wasn't sure where this would go but behold, the traditional Christmas cake masterpiece emerges. Smashing showing by mom. We are taking it to our friends' house tomorrow where we will go share a traditional UK Christmas dinner. It is basically our Thanksgiving style meal where we eat lunch and then take a nap the rest of the afternoon.

Sunday morning, we awoke and went to Ely Cathedral for the communion service. We blogged this a while back but a Church has been on this site for over 1000 years. It is a magnificent cathedral and the music was exceptional. The choir was all men and the music was beautiful. The one downside of a huge stone church is that it never heats up in the winter. Everyone in the congregation had on their full winter outerwear. Here is the picture from the side.

As today is Christmas Eve, we are getting to soak up a Christmas Eve day activity calendar. Of most interest to papa is the Christmas pub activity. Basically, we knock off work early and head to the local pub. We went with 6 or 7 other couples in the area to The Three Blackbirds. Nice fire and nice social time. Interestingly, we were the only ones that drove. Two couples rode bikes from a mile or so away. Two couples walked from our village which is about 3 miles away. Another walked from the next village over which adds on another mile. Guess we are still too American.

We then came home to get ready for the Crib Service at our local Church. Before we left, we let the kids open one present. They were actually excited to get their reflective vests. This is a fashion staple here as it gets dark at 4:30. Everyone has a vest. We suited up for Church and took off on our three quarter mile walk up High Street to the church. Excellent traditional service with hymns and a manger scene that came together throughout the service. We are now home listening to the music that is being broadcast from Kings College. It is a world famous performance that is heard around the world. I found out today that someone I work with might just get us in next year. People started waiting in line at 9:00 AM to get inside to see the performance. We hope to participate next year.

We are getting ready to sit down for our Christmas Eve meal. Papa and Mum are going to have a cup of Glogg. The closest description is mulled wine. It is quite nice on this cold Christmas Eve.

Happy Christmas all.....

(traditional modern UK Christmas greeting)

The Italian Job

While many of our friends back in the states drive their big gas guzzling SUVs and Mini Vans, we have decided to go totally green. Maybe not quite permanently green but we are green for the weekend. Vivian's car needed to go to the Audi doctor so they gave her a car to drive while they work on it. What a blast. We can park it basically anywhere and it you are in a bind, you can actually pick it up and take it with you. We did the math and I could actually haul two of these in my Sequoia.

After lunch today, we left the kids at home watching Disney channel and we headed into the village so we could act out the driving scene from the Italian Job.

Don't you think Vivian is looking a lot like Charlize in her hot little ride. The advertisement is what really makes her over the top cool.

Christingle ("Christ's Light") Service

We are learning so much about English customs. Thursday, the children attended a Christingle service at the village church. The first Christingle service was in 1749 at a Moravian Church and was created to symbolize Christ's love and light. Each of the children at Cheveley made their own Christingle which looks like this.

The orange represents the world. There are 4 sticks filled with sweets and fruits that symbolize the 4 seasons and the fruits/foods that God provides for us. The red ribbon symbolizes the blood that Jesus shed for us on the cross. A candle is put inside of the world and it represents Jesus Christ, the light of the world. The tin foil separates the candle from the orange and serves two purposes: reflect the light and catch the wax drips from a bunch of sloppy kids. If the tin foil were perfectly smooth it might have a perfect reflection. The tin foil is like us b/c we are called to reflect Christ but we are not perfect but we should try to do our best.

We sang some Christmas carols: Once in a Royal David's City, Little Donkey, and then we lit the Christingles and sang the Christingle Carol:

The Christingle begins with an orange,

like the world which the Lord God made.

For creation is full of his glory;

all around we see his love displayed.

Sing Christingle! Sing Christingle! Sing Christingle, it's the light of Christ.

Sing Christingle! Sing Christingle! Sing Christingle, light of Christ.

And other beautiful verses....

We closed by singing Away in a Manger. The words are the same but the tune is different. I have attended some other services and been amazed at the different carols they sing. John and Maggie's entire school walked from the school to church for the service.

That afternoon each child visited Santa's Grotto. I'm still not sure why they call it grotto but that's very common too. Santa gave each child a gift. Maggie's classmates each took a younger child with them. They very much encourage the helping one another at this school.

The children played games like Sleeping Lions, You shall be my master, Unwrap the gift , Musical Statues, Knots and Crosses (Tic-Tac-Toe), Chess. It's amazing how we speak the same language but so many things are different. Then they enjoyed food from the PTF&A (our PTA). I was able to help serve the food to the classes which was fun for me!

On Wednesday, the children has a Christmas dinner together. They each made a Christmas hat because it is a tradition that you wear a Christmas hat during the Christmas dinner. You traditionally have a cracker on your plate which you pop open and it will include a hat, small prize and a joke. The children did not have crackers but made hats instead. Here is a picture of Maggie & John with their Christmas hats.

John's Christmas Play

Tonight was John's school's performance of the Christmas Story - titled "The Lucky Owl." John played a shepherd, complete with a dish towel head scarf. There were angels and wise men and bats and squirrels. The play was an exceptional success and the crowd went wild. John absolutely nailed his line, "We brought some lambs for the baby".

After the play, you collect your kids and we stood around drinking mulled wine and eating mince pies. Bet that is not the typical activity at home. One of our friends was shocked that we don't do that at home. Funny how we all have much to learn.

Tis the season to get a Tree

I harken back (good Christmas word) to a time in Indiana when we would traverse the countryside to cut down a Christmas tree to fill the family room in our New Palestine house. Poor Marshall Sr. would end up dragging some monstrosity of a tree that would not come anywhere close to fitting in or on the car. Today, we had a whole new tree adventure.

After church, we loaded into the Merc for a drive to Elveden Estates & Farm. It is known for their Christmas festivity. We arrived and had a quick lunch. They had a nice warm cafe but the kids preferred burgers from the grill in the courtyard. From there we then made our way to select our tree. Lucky for us, the tree elf pops out of nowhere to help us with our tree selections. The elves seemed to be all over the place and they seemed to chase each other a good bit. MJ and I then carried our tree to the baler. When it is nice and wrapped, we throw twenty quid to the tree man and proceed to queue up for the haul to the car.

This is the memorable part where dad gets a break. The Newfoundland society of East Anglia brings their dogs in as a fundraiser to support the society. The trees are loaded onto sleighs (OK, it was actually a wagon because mud was everywhere but the sleigh theme makes it a little more idyllic).

Shown here is Duffy, our reindog. She was sweet and laid back and just went about her work. The kids loved it. I'll attach the picture on the right so that you can see that we have gone native. Here is Vivian in her Wellies. Whenever you head places that are wet or muddy, you take your wellies. Maggie has the pink set see on the left. This is a staple if you are going to live here.

Lastly, we'll add a chapter to this blog session. Last weekend was the PPD Christmas Party. It was a James Bond Casino night theme, complete with fake money and gaming tables. We had an excellent time. Vivian is looking smashing as a bond girl. I'd like to say I pulled of my best James Bond but if we really want to be honest, I am more of a Q. Oh well, I am one hair transplant and a set of six pack abs away from the real James. Maybe next year.

Christmas Time - Trip to London

When it is freezing cold and rainy, what is the best thing to do on a Saturday? If you said build a fire, stay in, and watch movies, you are correct. We decided to head to London's West End to stomp around in the rain. Go figure.... Here we are at Piccadilly Square looking wet and sloppy. We decided to slip into Planet Hollywood for a bit to warm up. Marshall Sr. ate bangers and mash so he could tell his friend Paul that he has finally tried it (he had to blackberry him from the table). They were actually very good. From there, we headed to a very famous London Christmas market at Covent Garden. Here are MJ and Vivian in the entrance. There were icicle lights hanging from the ceiling.

The main goal of the trip was to catch a show. After a very long and winding debate, the vote was for Stomp. We were about 8 rows back from the stage and the kids loved it. Mom and Dad enjoyed it as well.

We saw a whole bunch of very entertaining street performers. There was one juggler in a kilt on a ladder that was hysterical. There was also this barbarian looking thing to the right. We were not exactly sure what he was but the kids were glad to wield the battle ax and sword to strike a pose. All in all, a good day.

Maggie's week

Every once in a while, you just have one of these awesome weeks. This turned out to be Maggie's week. The drama club at school performed Cinderella Rockerfella this week. Maggie is Cinderella and received critical acclaim. They performed on Monday to some elderly folks and then on Thursday, they performed for the school and parents. She did a great job!

Maggie also gave a PowerPoint presentation on Princess Diana to her class and received a certificate for that at the Friday Assembly at school. We are impressed with her presentation skills at such a young age!

In addition to this, they closed out the season for Cheveley basketball. Maggie won the gold award which is basically the top player on the team. She received a black basketball as the prize. The coach gave her great praise and Vivian had to write to tell Coach Flax about her success. Another one of those proud moments. Now we just have to decide if she goes to college for drama or basketball. When you look at it, she is set perfectly for the next addition of High School Musical, only this time, the girls play ball.

It is important for us to enclose one picture of her scrubbing the floor. As Maggie is unable to clean at home, we thought it would be a good idea to post evidence that genetically, she does have the DNA for housework. There is obviously an issue with doing the work at The Old Pump House.