London Times

My mom arrived in Whitehaven on December 15 to experience an English Christmas with us. Once she rested and the kids got out of school we took a train journey to London. Riding the train was a first for the kids (they seem to have had quite a few of those since we moved) What would be a traffic nightmare to drive a car 6 hours down into London was a four hour, scenic ride from Penrith. (I was very excited about the train as I had not ridden a train since China my sophmore year in college. Trains in China 20+ years ago left you scrubbing dirt and grim off of your skin once you arrived at your destination. Maybe it's not that way today)
Dennis and big cities go together like peanut butter and jelly. He lights up with the rush of city transportation and the mobs of people from all over the world. Dennis happily












manuevered us from the train station to the subway dragging 6 suitcases, 3 kids and a Grammy with two hip replacements. We dropped our suitcases at the hotel and hit the streets - jaws dropped for some of us seeing for the first time such sights as Big Ben, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey all from the front window of the second story of a double decker bus, of course. One of our stops was Hamley's toy store which gave the Toys R Us in New York City a run for its money. Really cool toys from all over the world complete with wall to wall people. (and they said it wasn't even their busiest day, whoah! If you didn't keep right behind each other the river of people could easily separate you.) After enjoying the Legos section of the store with Dad, Nathan purchased a skate board with his Christmas money from Granddad and Margaret. For the next four days, Nathan skateboarded through London. Had Nathan asked me back in Whitehaven if he could bring a skateboard to London I would have promptly replied, "What? Are you crazy, ride a skateboard in London? I don't think so." But ride he did. Yes, I may need to have my head examined but he only ran into two people, one of which was quite grumpy about it and told him to throw the skateboard away. No chance. So look for Nathan on skateboard in all of the pictures. While Na rolled, Julieanne bounced her Astrojax - she's quite coordinated walking and bouncing at the same time.I'm not that gifted.

Remember, it gets dark here in Merry Ole England by 4 p.m. so we explored the city in the dark our first day. We ended with some great Chinese food in China town. Normally, when you eat out in England, they expect you are at the table for an expereince not a necessity but the Chinese restaurant was there to maximize profit so we were served promptly. We all laughed at first and then became annoyed when we were asked for our drink orders by at least 8 different waiters. Once we ordered, we hardly saw them again. It was like they were on commission or something. Oh well, the food was good.

For the next two days we mostly hopped on and off the bus listening to the narrative of the city while perched in the front seat of the top of the bus. We left the hotel with high expectations of the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. (note the flag flying which signifies that the Queen is home. We kept looking at the windows to see if she was peeking out but I guess she's seen the guards change plenty.) We had the primo spot on the steps opposite the main gate but we pretty much froze our toes for two hours to see a few minutes of the soldiers in their dreary gray winter uniforms instead of the lively red coats. I mean they aren't called the red coats for nothing, right? Anyway, the band played the guards changed and Nathan skateboarded. He didn't seemed to be impressed with the fact that the Queen lived in that gargantuous mansion. He was more interested in the imminent fact that the band would have to march right through all that horse poop. Dennis obliged us with close ups of the 'squish' on video and picture. That's a boy (and a big boy)for you.

The big event for the day was great seats for the evening performance of the musical, 'Wicked', the prequil to the Wizard of Oz. If you know our girls well, you know that they get hooked on a musical and then we have to hear it every waking moment for months until we know all of the words and then move on to another one. They've been through The Sound of Music, Les Miserables, Fiddler on the Roof, Phantom of the Opera, High School Musical and HSM2, and Wicked. We ate dinner at a mexican restaurant before which was yummy and fun as you can see. The musical was naturally the highlight of London for the girls! The story itself is quite clever as it explores how the witches of Oz came to be witches. Elfaba was amazing and 'Ga-linda' was funny but she was the understudy for the regular Glinda.

Some other London highlights were Handel's Messiah at St. Martin's in the Field (that was Grammy's) Sunday morning and evening service at All Soul's Church with people from 70 different nations represented left Dennis feeling like he was 'home'. I loved experiencing the city with the family - watching the wonder in Nathan's face when he was completely engrossed in the Christmas window displays, Dennis and the kids marveling at the lights, people, and sights.

We took a boat ride down the Thames at 4 pm which treated us to some beautiful lighting and views of the city we wouldn't have had from the streets. Dennis and I stole away from the warmth and crowds inside the boat to the chilly rooftop for these pretty views of the London Eye and Big Ben and Parliament.
Mom was a trooper walking all over the city. She didn't particularly appreciate the mobs of people on bustling Oxford Street or Regent Street but she didn't complain and kept plodding along.
We're looking forward to returning to the city in April with the Willis family. We saved a visit to the Tower of London and the Eye to experience with our friends.

Christmas Events for the Kids

The girls attended a Christmas Ball at St. Bees. Finding 'ball' dresses that were modest, fashionable and didn't cost a fortune was a great challenge, especially since we only had 4 hours. We met the fashionable and modest and Julieanne's wasn't too expensive but AC's was another story on the cost. Remember that the dollar is $2.3 to the pound so everything is twice the price for us Amercians. I think we'll be doing some major shopping in the States this summer to avoid the prices here. I'm sure you'll agree, they both looked lovely!

The second and third graders at Nathan's school did a Christmas pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. First of all that's over 120 kids that needed some type of part. Don't you feel for the teachers? That took some seriously creative stretching. Russ Gladden, you would have been a great asset to these teachers. Nathan was narrator number 8. He handled his three sentences in the limelight well, though he looked a bit nervous.

A pantomime in Enlgand is a song and dance dramatization of well known fairy tales which encourage audience participation. In Nathan's production you saw 'Elfis' and Elf-ton John trying to dance, heard songs from Grease, High School Musical, Elvis, and Snow White. The audience clapped, laughed, cheered, and booed (not at children just at the witches attempts to do away with Snow White) It was an experience.

Remember that land and space is a premium in Merry Ole England which affects everything from roads to school performances. Each student was allowed to request two tickets; if there were any leftovers you could request more on another day. We ended up with three and we still sat on the floor but at least we got to go.

Anna Catherine has continued ballet over here which means a Christmas performance. She got to be in the dance 'Snow' from the Nutcracker on pointe shoes so she was thrilled. She even got her very own tutu to keep that we were able to embellish with sequins.

English Christmas Traditions

Where to find a Christmas tree in Whitehaven early December? We set off looking at the Home Depot type of place - trees were too short. We couldn't seem to find any "Christmas Tree" signs to show the way. After about an hour and a half of unproductive searching we went to a nursery near where Dennis works. Bingo, the whole place had been transformed into Christmas wonderland with music, hot chocolate, Polar Express showing for kids, decorations, the whole nine yards. Dennis and I picked a tree, he wrestled it on roof in the wind and rain and we headed home.

On the night we decorated our Christmas tree, we began in English style with Christmas Crackers. (the tootsie roll looking things on our plates) At a holiday meal, you would have these at your place setting to open before the meal. You pull both ends at the same time which yields a 'pop' or 'crack' and spills out a trinket, joke and tissue paper crown.

Normally, for their Christmas meal they eat turkey, stuffing, parsnips, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes and some other 'veg' as they call it. the crowning of the meal is the 'Christmas Pudding' or dessert. The most common is a dome shaped fruitcake type cake that has been made months ago and had dousings of brandy or rum. It is served with the lights out with the brandy flaming. The puddings do come in other flavors like chocolate or pecan for the non-fruitcake enthusiasts. Of course, they also eat mince pies which are chopped dried fruits in little pies or the yule log.

Julieanne won an 'accomodation' or award for her superbly decorated yule log made in her cookery club.

Our tree decorating deteriorated into a wrestling match but as Anna Catherine pointed out they were enjoying each other and wasn't that the point? The Kodak moments weren't too pretty but we had a good time together.

(Two weeks later our tree is a dried twig - it has the same water in the basin that I put in it the night we put it up. Oh well.) We know where not to get a tree next year.

A Manchester United Fan is Born!

What Nathan wanted more than anything else for his 9th birthday was a ticket to see a "Man U" game and a jersey. His sisters gave him the jersey and Dennis found a guy at work that new someone with season tickets. (In fact all 76,000+ tickets in the Trafford stadium are season tickets so you hope you like the fans next to you because you're stuck beside them all year.) I'll let Dennis write about the phenomenon of soccer fans here but let me say that the guy from work who got them tickets has had season tickets over 20 years and has been sitting with the same folks all those years. Dennis says it's like a little community.

So, why be a 'Man U' fan Uncle David asks? Back in the spring when they were interviewing for the Drigg proposal here in England, out of spite for a huge Liverpool fan on his team, Paul Poynton, Dennis got Na a Manchester United t-shirt. It was all for fun to get at Paul. Since moving here though, Nathan has connected with classmates and soccer team members that are also Manchester fans so he's sold on them much to the dismay of Paul, the Liverpool fan.

So where did Dennis get the Manchester shirt? You guessed right if you said Nathan coerced the girls to go in with him on the shirt for Dad's November birthday.

On Saturday, Dennis and Na drove to 2.5 hours Manchester to sit on a cold rainy day with thousands of enthusiasts to watch Man U beat Derby 4-1. Dennis said Nathan was very focused on the game and not detered by the nasty weather. A Manchester United fan I guess he'll stay.

Can you picture us here?

Being a visual person, it helps me picture someone if I can 'see' where they work or live so for those visual people out there, here are some home photos. These were taken at a 'good time', in other words not long after the Saturday cleaning chores.

For those who have wondered about the smaller refrigerators here in the UK, you get to peak into ours. The top half is the frig, bottom half the freezer. You shop more often since you don't have room for the amount you do in the full size frig of the US. Believe it or not, since the dollar is so low, our food bill is actually higher than it was in the States - and we fed lots of people at home.

This is the laundry room/closet. Often the washer is in the kitchen under your cabinet but thankfully, ours is on the second floor ina closet. We have a washer/dryer combination which means once the wash cylce is done you have the option of it going straight into the dry cycle without having to transfer clothes to a seperate unit. In theory, this is brilliant, but in reality, it doesn't work. It takes much longer to dry if it actually does dry and it's very small so clothes come out looking like you sqeezed them by wringing them and leaving them to dry in that form. Needless to say, I'm back to a good bit of ironing here and the old drip dry method. You can fit a a couple of shirts and maybe a pair of pants in one load. I never understood why they had a high powered radiator in the laundry closet but I now I realize it's to speed the drip dry process. The other odd thing about the washer is there is only one temperature even though it has many settings on the dial. The temperature is 'scalding' - at least that is what the clothes feel like when you open the door. So, if you don't want the sweater to shrink, you need to hand wash it. This issue is on my 'honey-do' list for the holiday break.

Nathan's room.

The girl's room moments after a cleaning but then you get a picture of the room the rest of the week. Dennis calls this 'Girl's room a la naturale'Hopefully, you saw glimpses of things you recognized and enjoyed the new look in other rooms. We are feeling at 'home' in many ways now. More pictures another day!