Christmas traditions

One of the traditions here is "Christmas crackers. I got my pictures out of order a bit, but if you scroll down you can see what they look like. They range from shiny and decorative to childlike. When the "cracker" is pulled, it makes a popping sound and then it opens and has prizes inside. The kids were good sports and let me take a picture of them modeling the tissue paper hats that came as a prize. Other prizes included jokes and little toys or games.

When in Rome....

We try to participate as much as possible in village life so the kids get the whole English experience. Most villages in England have a big church, even if the village is small. It is kind of odd since the British people as a whole don't seem to be terribly religious. Our village is very small, but has a good sized church that dates back to the 14th century. We were curious to see what it looked like on the inside, so when we got a notice through our door that they were having a Christmas Eve service, we decided to give it a try.

It turned out to be a Church of England, candlelit, Eucharist service. It was an interesting service - quite different from our own. Afterwards they served mince pie (a sweet pie served at Christmas and New Years made from a preserve of apples and raisins) and sherry or juice for the children. We chose the juice option :) I don't know if we will go again next year, but it was an interesting experience.

Winter weather

Okay, this does not feel like England anymore. It has been snowing all day with big, huge snowflakes. These aren't very good pictures, but you will get the idea :) The kids are playing out in the front yard. The snow has not slowed down the village at all though. The villagers, including us, are still walking into town, doing everything they usually do. We walked to town, went to the card shop and the post office, got a steak and kidney pie from the butcher and then stopped by the nice pub down from our house to warm up and get a hot dessert.

Snow Day

Snow is pretty rare in this part of the country, so when it does snow it is a big deal. We only had about three inches, but everything shuts down. Ken didn't have to go to work and they closed all the schools in the area. The kids are ecstatic to have Christmas break start a day early instead of having tests today.