Julieanne turns 12

We celebrate birthdays with just family one year and then have a friends party the next until your 10th birthday. This was a family party year (no surprise there). We have another special friend party for 13 and we’ll do a big 16 and maybe 18, I suppose, but we haven’t gotten that far. This helps us keep the party monster manageable. It’s always a challenge to be creative for family party years so that they don’t become the bummer year. For Julieanne’s 12th, we rented a Harry Potter movie on Friday night to watch and then headed over to Alnwick Castle on Saturday where the scenes for “Hogwarts” from the first two Harry Potter movies were filmed.

This castle has been home to the Percy family for over 700 years although it dates back to the 11th Century! It is the second largest inhabited castle in England, second only to Windsor Castle. The oldest son of the family inherits the castle, the title Duke of Northumberland and what used to be great land owning responsibility. They still own and manage 120,000 acres of land but it doesn’t come with peasants, farmlands, disputes that need settling and knights to lead into war. Aln was once considered the strongest fortress in England, strategically situated on the northern border holding out the Vikings or Scots. It was never successfully broken into as it is that well fortified. A young college age docent who reminded us of Josh Suich toured us through the courtyard where most of the filming was done and detailed the 10-15 hurdles an enemy would have to live through in order to storm the castle. We toured the keep (home) and saw the 40,000 volume library and lounge, dining room that seats 65 and other formal rooms. The current Duke didn’t expect to ever be the Duke as he is the second son but his older brother died unmarried so he holds the family inheritance along with the Duchess and four kids (mostly grown). One cool fact from the dining room: it has two concealed doors in the intricately carved ceiling that house the chandeliers (20’ up). These chandeliers are lowered through the ceiling. The docent told us they used to change the glass panes on the chandelier each night to match the color of the Dutchess’s dress. They always hoped she didn’t change her dress at the last minute.

The famous Harry the Hotspur was born and raised in this castle. He was what some call the first English hero. He is in part of Shakespeare’s Henry IV and is said of him by Shakespeare 'By his light did all the chivalry of England move to brave acts: he was indeed the glass wherein the noble youth did dress themselves'.
To read more about the castle visit http://www.alnwickcastle.com/history.php
Okay, well that’s probably more history than you really wanted today from England but that is some of what you’ll get in the blog. So that is where we went for part one of Julieanne’s b-day. We ended with dinner in the large eastern city of New Castle and then drove back across the country at night. (You can do that in just a few hours).

So on September 19, her actual birth-day, we started the day with breakfast with the Westergeens as they had sent a birthday package complete with cards for all of us. Off to school they went and when they came home we put our bargain barbeque together (that’s a grill) in order to grill marinated lamp chops! Yum. Incidentally, you can only buy charcoal through the end of September here. One of Dennis’ colleagues said we would soon find out why they don’t grill in the winter. Dennis assured him we were die hard southerners when it came to grilling. We’ll see how we do. Nevertheless, we’ll have to stock up on charcoal before it disappears for the season.

Julieanne continues to bring us smiles and laughter. She has an adventurous spirit, is a valiant competitor and a tender heart. Pray that this year she will begin to own her faith as she wrestles with what and why she believes in Christ. This is a good environment to ask questions and see differences.