Merry Christmas, everyone!! Father Christmas will be hopefully coming to our home soon! We spent Christmas Eve with some friends-they had us over for "nibbles", and then we all went to a crib-side service-in a Church that's been around since the 1300s, and there is a listing of all the priests since that time. The history here is just unbelievable. We then came home, and Gregg made his traditional dinner, and we watched some Christmas programs. And everyone has visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads, and I am in my kerchief, er, pjs, ready to settle down for a long winter's nap.
I continue to do the trip planning/itinerary, as we will be leaving on Wed the 26th on our big adventure. No, it's not to a warm place, though that sure would be nice. We are really trying to take advantage of our move, and see/do as much as possible, without going broke or mad. Therefore, we will be embarking on a Scandinavian capitals tour. We leave the 26th from Manchester, fly into Copenhagen, Denmark, where we will stay for two evenings. The following evening, we will be taking an overnight ferry to Oslo, Norway, where we will spend another two nights. The next day, New Year's Eve, we will be taking a train from Oslo to Stockholm, Sweden, where we will stay three evenings. The following evening, we will take another overnight ferry to Helsinki, Finland, where we'll spend the final two evenings of our trip. The following day we return home (Manchester) from Helsinki. Lots of planning and coordination involved-how to get to hotels, what activities are open, what hours, and how to get there, where are there decent places to eat, how to get there..... etc. I'm sure we'll run into a few hiccups, but really trying to get as much planned now as I can. Takes more planning than you'd think. It's an independent tour, meaning we procured our flights to/from Manchester, and have planned all of our activities. A tour company has arranged inter-city transfers, and booked our hotels. Otherwise, we've done the planning, which really gives us the freedom to move at our own pace (important with the kids), as well as tailor the excursions/sight-seeing to what we are interested in. We are really looking forward to it. When we return, Christmas vacation will be over for W/N, and J will have only one more day off.
There will most likely be no blog-posting during our excursion, but I will blog about it in chunks when we return, and will include pics too. Don't want to alarm anyone when there's not a post for awhile!
Best wishes to everyone for a very, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year of 2013. Let us know what you all did for your holidays.
Lots of Love-
Lori and the Family
Tuesday, 25 December 2012
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
O Christmas Tree...
I haven't posted of late, as we have not been up to too much, other than holiday preparations, and planning for our holiday. (No, it's not to France, or to the south of Spain or Italy.) G was stateside for a visit, and the kids and I did not do much, other than see Father Christmas at Speke Hall (previous posts). The day G returned, we purchased our Christmas tree that we'll be using for the next 3 years. In the past, we've always went to a tree farm and cut our own. We decided to go with an artificial tree here, as most likely it will be me setting up the tree each year while G is in the US (G will be returning to the States each year roughly about this time). It is different than our artificial (kids) tree we had in the US, and maybe a bit smaller-not sure on that one. We put red lights on it, rather than the usual white. More of a kids' tree than a adult tree, as far as decorations go, but it'll work.
One thing Christmas related is the decorations here. Not a lot of people put outdoor lights up. Maybe one house for an entire block. Another observation: I had to laugh to myself today at a sign that read, "Chester shops open late til 8:00pm for shopping." How very different than in the States where stores all stay open til midnight, or even 24 hours. Really, how many people go shopping that late anyway? Is it worth what it costs to pay the employees, lights, heat, etc..? Another observation is the Christmas cards. In the US, most families send out a photo card. Here, not so much. And, the kids write them out to every kid in their class, just as we do at Valentine's Day. There are much smaller cards available (about the size of a kid's Valentine, actually), so it is economical. Rumor has it they don't really send Valentine's to classmates.
One final observation. Today the temp is 43. We drive to school, and home from school in the dark-at least to/from J's bus stop. Today's sunrise: 8:22am, and sunset is at 3:54pm. There's not much "sun" during the day either, but at least there is light. Soon this will be starting to reverse. One way to notice that we are farther North.
So today, a few simple observations, in the absence of anything exciting to post. Have a good week, everyone, and keep up the wrapping!
One thing Christmas related is the decorations here. Not a lot of people put outdoor lights up. Maybe one house for an entire block. Another observation: I had to laugh to myself today at a sign that read, "Chester shops open late til 8:00pm for shopping." How very different than in the States where stores all stay open til midnight, or even 24 hours. Really, how many people go shopping that late anyway? Is it worth what it costs to pay the employees, lights, heat, etc..? Another observation is the Christmas cards. In the US, most families send out a photo card. Here, not so much. And, the kids write them out to every kid in their class, just as we do at Valentine's Day. There are much smaller cards available (about the size of a kid's Valentine, actually), so it is economical. Rumor has it they don't really send Valentine's to classmates.
One final observation. Today the temp is 43. We drive to school, and home from school in the dark-at least to/from J's bus stop. Today's sunrise: 8:22am, and sunset is at 3:54pm. There's not much "sun" during the day either, but at least there is light. Soon this will be starting to reverse. One way to notice that we are farther North.
So today, a few simple observations, in the absence of anything exciting to post. Have a good week, everyone, and keep up the wrapping!
Friday, 7 December 2012
Speke Hall
As Weston previously posted, last Saturday we went to Speke Hall, which is a Tudor mansion. Speke Hall is a National Trust property, meaning we get in free, as we are members of the National Trust. There is a yearly fee (not sure what it is, maybe 100 pounds??), and for that fee you receive free admit to most properties (there are a lot). There is also a magazine that comes, and newsletters. Most of the Trust properties are pretty kid-friendly, and the tour guides do well to entertain them, and most sites also have a playground. Some also have the children's "quiz" for them to complete as they go from exhibit to exhibit, to keep them involved.
A lot of the properties have special Christmas doings. Speke Hall was to have a Victorian Christmas Weekend-traditional Victorian decorations, music, storytelling, crafts, SANTA..... And it is pretty close to us (30-35 minutes). It is very near John Lennon Airport, on the outskirts of Liverpool.
Half the fun is getting there, right? Apparently so for the kids, as they seemed to enjoy the bridge. We did see Santa, and Weston had already mailed Santa a gift with his list, so he didn't have a list, but Nolan did have one. We then went on to explore the mansion.
Speke Hall was built in the 1500s, during the Tudor reign, and you can see the house was designed in the Tudor fashion.
The Tudors started their reign with Henry VII, then the infamous Henry VIII (with all the wives), who was Protestant, and so got rid of Catholic monasteries, even though he still worshipped as a Catholic. His son, the boy king, Edward was next, and he also was Protestant. He's the one on the throne from age 9-16 when he died of Tb. Next came Mary I, who was Catholic, so she reinstated the Pope. She ended up with the nickname Bloody Mary, as she had a lot of Protestants beheaded. After her was Elizabeth I, who had the country revert to Protestant again. This ends the Tudor period. You had to follow the religion of the ruler, or risk your life. Which explains why in the courtyard of the house, there was an eavesdropping hole, so they could listen to conversations, to see if they were going to try to capture the priests that the Norris family owning Speke Hall hid. I've been brushing up on my English history a bit.
There was also a spy hole upstairs, so the family could see if a "priest hunter" was approaching and they had to hide the priest. There was a priest's bedroom, but when people came, he had to hide. To the left of the fireplace in his bedroom was a secret panel, that when opened revealed a ladder that went up to a secret area for the priest to hide. The rooms were all decorated for Christmas, and the tree was just beautiful.
There were also various activities you could participate in, including making pomanders, or making sugar mice.
When we were through touring the house, we went outdoors. They had a large (probably 1 acre) maze made with various gates, hedges, staircases, etc. Kids had fun finding their way about to the end.
This house was rather neat. Not just a mansion, but intriguing with the spy aspect. And the decor was very festive. A fine afternoon.
A lot of the properties have special Christmas doings. Speke Hall was to have a Victorian Christmas Weekend-traditional Victorian decorations, music, storytelling, crafts, SANTA..... And it is pretty close to us (30-35 minutes). It is very near John Lennon Airport, on the outskirts of Liverpool.
Half the fun is getting there, right? Apparently so for the kids, as they seemed to enjoy the bridge. We did see Santa, and Weston had already mailed Santa a gift with his list, so he didn't have a list, but Nolan did have one. We then went on to explore the mansion.
Speke Hall was built in the 1500s, during the Tudor reign, and you can see the house was designed in the Tudor fashion.
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| Kids in front of Speke Hall |
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| You can see most of the mansion from here. There were various outbuildings as well, all beautifully done in the Tudor style. |
The Tudors started their reign with Henry VII, then the infamous Henry VIII (with all the wives), who was Protestant, and so got rid of Catholic monasteries, even though he still worshipped as a Catholic. His son, the boy king, Edward was next, and he also was Protestant. He's the one on the throne from age 9-16 when he died of Tb. Next came Mary I, who was Catholic, so she reinstated the Pope. She ended up with the nickname Bloody Mary, as she had a lot of Protestants beheaded. After her was Elizabeth I, who had the country revert to Protestant again. This ends the Tudor period. You had to follow the religion of the ruler, or risk your life. Which explains why in the courtyard of the house, there was an eavesdropping hole, so they could listen to conversations, to see if they were going to try to capture the priests that the Norris family owning Speke Hall hid. I've been brushing up on my English history a bit.
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| Can you see the eavesdropping hole? |
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| Explanation of the eavesdropping hole |
There was also a spy hole upstairs, so the family could see if a "priest hunter" was approaching and they had to hide the priest. There was a priest's bedroom, but when people came, he had to hide. To the left of the fireplace in his bedroom was a secret panel, that when opened revealed a ladder that went up to a secret area for the priest to hide. The rooms were all decorated for Christmas, and the tree was just beautiful.
There were also various activities you could participate in, including making pomanders, or making sugar mice.
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| Sugar mice made from icing--fondant/marzipam?? |
When we were through touring the house, we went outdoors. They had a large (probably 1 acre) maze made with various gates, hedges, staircases, etc. Kids had fun finding their way about to the end.
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| A poor shot of the outdoor maze with a blur of 2 kids in it. |
This house was rather neat. Not just a mansion, but intriguing with the spy aspect. And the decor was very festive. A fine afternoon.
Tuesday, 4 December 2012
Weston's 2nd blog
Hi! This is Weston speaking! Last weekend I went to speke hall, it was a very old house. (It was big.)
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| When we were geting there we saw a really cool brige. Here it is! |
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| When we were in it, this is what it looked like! |
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| When we were in it, we also saw a cool castle on the side! |
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| We whent to see santa, Nolan had a Christmas list but I did'nt because I had two lists coming to the North pole. I am sorry that it is a bit blurry, you can see my mum (if you want) because SHE TOOK THE PICTURE!!!! |
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| Here is a picture of the house, if you look in the corrner you can see the enterance to the house. |
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| This is the top of the house, look closely do you see the head with a huge crown? |
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| This is the (grand) door. The little thing is a little door and there is a big door if look closely you can see the big door. |
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| First (after entering the real house) we whent to the cortyard. There they had lots of little things you can read. |
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| This is the eavesdropping hole place. If you look above the 2nd window, you can see a little hole, this is were the servents would hear out this hole. |
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| When we were finished we did a maze, it was hard but we got though without getting lost. This is a picture of me and Jaymeson. (Beating the maze.) |
Music
On Dec 19, J has his end of term Carol Service at the Chester Cathedral. The school day formally ends at 3:50 per usual, and the Carol Service begins at 6:30 in the Cathedral. Attendance at the Carol Service is compulsory for all students: term ends once the service is over. I'd invite you all, but entrance is per ticket only, and each family is allotted 2 tickets. (So we need to get a sitter? Or only one of us in attendance. Actually, G may be in Italy that evening.) The entire school will be there-Junior and Senior School, which is appox 1000 kids. Now the cathdral is smack-dab in the center of Chester. I should mention that the Cathedral is hosting another event later that evening, so we've been asked to be as prompt as possible with exiting. I can not wait to see the fun with parking and maneuvering about. Good things there's carols, to keep everyone in the Christmas spirit!
Meanwhile, Key Stage 1 kids are singing "Sing the Christmas Story" at the Chester Cathedral today. Key Stage 1 encompasses Reception, Year 1, and Year 2; equivalent to our 4K, 5K, and 1st grade. N is in Yr 2. They will be joined by many other schools in the area to sing carols and listen to the Christmas story.
Not to be left out, in January, those in Yr 3 and Yr 4, equivalent to our grades 2-3, will be taking part in Young Voices Live. W is in Yr 3. The kids will learn a number of songs, some with dance moves (junior jazzercise??), and attend a concert with children from other schools. This larger group of kids will then sing 'live' via satellite with the Young Voices choir and artists from the O2 Arena in London. Not sure what songs are all involved, but W's been singing "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction (he was singing this walking from school to the car), and "Without You" by David Guetta and Usher. This promises to be interesting. I'm looking forward to it.
Finally, and most importantly, we have encountered our first event that we'd really like to be home for. A friend and classmate of J's, mother was taken on Friday, and her funeral is today. She was 37. May she rest in peace.
Sunday, 2 December 2012
Christmas Fair
Europe, particularly Germany, has wonderful Christmas Markets. Perhaps one year, we'll get to Germany for the Christmas Markets. There are various scales of these markets, and the quality of goods also varies. J's school even had a Christmas market a few weeks back that we attended. It was pretty good, with some decent area craftpeople.
Along the same vein, W and N's school had a Christmas Fair this past Friday evening. I wasn't really sure what it was all about, but various moms had told me to bring plenty of $$. I wasn't sure if that was for all the gifts I'd be buying, or all the things the kids would want, or all the food, or what I'd be spending all the $$ on.
The Headmistress was at the door with a basket, as admission was 1 pound/family. There were various booths selling things. The classes had made 2 crafts per child during school-one a Christmas bauble (what the English call an ornament) surrounded by foam with your child's photo in the middle (think Oriental Trading Post)-which you could purchase. Each year group also had another craft item the children had made-N's group made bookmarks, and W's group made keychains. These were for purchase as well. (There were also things for sale not made by children.) There was face painting, tattoos, food for sale, etc. When we reached the older year group's classroom, it was insane. All of the kids in that year group must have had to make up a holiday game, and run it. So there was homemade tabletop bowling-with Santa and penguin bowling pins, a homemade pinball game, suck the stryofoam "snowflakes" up with a straw from one bowl and release into a second bowl (there was a father doing this game repeatedly-he was very good at it!), snowball ringtoss, pin the snowball on Santa's hat, roll the snowball down the chute, guess the stuffed penguin's name etc, etc. Lots of creativity. And of course, there were fees involved with the games. Each one had a 3 tiered pricing approach (must've been a requirement)--1 go for 20pence, 2 goes for 40 pence, or 5 goes for 80 pence. The child running the game was collecting the money, it was very loud and chaotic. Of course, I had 2 kids wanting to play all the games-N only wanted one go at most of the games, but W was more into them. (J did not want to play.) This added another element of maths to the kids running the games. Kids got various awards of candy-we came home with so much!! Some of the games were unmanned, as the game's developer had wandered off. You could also visit Santa (Father Christmas) if you'd signed up for a time slot, and paid the fee, ahead of time, which I had not. I wanted to see how authentic it was first. So I figured out why I needed to bring lots of $$.
Most schools do not have the large scale fundraisers that schools do in the US. We come from a school that had 2 major fundraisers each year-the Haunted House, and the Dinner Auction-as well as many minor fundraisers. I have heard of school carnivals-I guess that's essentially what this Christmas Fair was. This school is a state school-similar to our public schools-which is most likely why there is not the level of fundraising that I am accustomed to in the States. J attends the US equivalent of a private school, and there have been no fundraising events that I'm aware of (although at the rate tuition is, they shouldn't need to fundraise!). I guess school funding is looked at differently here.
On Saturday (yesterday), we went to see Father Christmas. There is a guest blogger who would like to tell about this. If he has time this week, (around homework and playtime!), he will be posting. Otherwise, I'll be doing the post. Stay tuned!!
Along the same vein, W and N's school had a Christmas Fair this past Friday evening. I wasn't really sure what it was all about, but various moms had told me to bring plenty of $$. I wasn't sure if that was for all the gifts I'd be buying, or all the things the kids would want, or all the food, or what I'd be spending all the $$ on.
The Headmistress was at the door with a basket, as admission was 1 pound/family. There were various booths selling things. The classes had made 2 crafts per child during school-one a Christmas bauble (what the English call an ornament) surrounded by foam with your child's photo in the middle (think Oriental Trading Post)-which you could purchase. Each year group also had another craft item the children had made-N's group made bookmarks, and W's group made keychains. These were for purchase as well. (There were also things for sale not made by children.) There was face painting, tattoos, food for sale, etc. When we reached the older year group's classroom, it was insane. All of the kids in that year group must have had to make up a holiday game, and run it. So there was homemade tabletop bowling-with Santa and penguin bowling pins, a homemade pinball game, suck the stryofoam "snowflakes" up with a straw from one bowl and release into a second bowl (there was a father doing this game repeatedly-he was very good at it!), snowball ringtoss, pin the snowball on Santa's hat, roll the snowball down the chute, guess the stuffed penguin's name etc, etc. Lots of creativity. And of course, there were fees involved with the games. Each one had a 3 tiered pricing approach (must've been a requirement)--1 go for 20pence, 2 goes for 40 pence, or 5 goes for 80 pence. The child running the game was collecting the money, it was very loud and chaotic. Of course, I had 2 kids wanting to play all the games-N only wanted one go at most of the games, but W was more into them. (J did not want to play.) This added another element of maths to the kids running the games. Kids got various awards of candy-we came home with so much!! Some of the games were unmanned, as the game's developer had wandered off. You could also visit Santa (Father Christmas) if you'd signed up for a time slot, and paid the fee, ahead of time, which I had not. I wanted to see how authentic it was first. So I figured out why I needed to bring lots of $$.
Most schools do not have the large scale fundraisers that schools do in the US. We come from a school that had 2 major fundraisers each year-the Haunted House, and the Dinner Auction-as well as many minor fundraisers. I have heard of school carnivals-I guess that's essentially what this Christmas Fair was. This school is a state school-similar to our public schools-which is most likely why there is not the level of fundraising that I am accustomed to in the States. J attends the US equivalent of a private school, and there have been no fundraising events that I'm aware of (although at the rate tuition is, they shouldn't need to fundraise!). I guess school funding is looked at differently here.
On Saturday (yesterday), we went to see Father Christmas. There is a guest blogger who would like to tell about this. If he has time this week, (around homework and playtime!), he will be posting. Otherwise, I'll be doing the post. Stay tuned!!
Belated Thanksgiving entry
There are many questions about Thanksgiving. Does the UK celebrate it? Did we? Do we still go to school/work on Thursday? What did you eat? Following, is a entry about our Thanksgiving, 2012.
First of all, the UK does not celebrate Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a recollection of the first people here (from the UK), to settle in the New World. They were developing the 13 colonies...... and they landed at Plymouth Rock. The UK does not have a holiday this day--its just a "regular" day for them. We are Americans and wanted to celebrate, but as we are living in the UK, we needed to do as they do here. Meaning go to work/school like any other day. All of the radio and TV stations mentioned it all day long, and people were asking me about it. I even got a Happy Thanksgiving text from an English person!! No, we did not even have turkey for dinner that night (don't even recall what we did have that evening). We did skype with our immediate families.
However, on the Sunday following Thanksgiving (11-25), we did get together with another American family, and we had the Thanksgiving feast, complete with football on the telly. However, instead of having turkey, we had chicken cushions. Chicken breasts wrapped around stuffing/dressing and sausage, wrapped in bacon. The were very delish. We had all the other things too-mashed potato, sweet potato, dressing, gravy, vegetables, assorted salads, cranberries, and apple and pumpkin pies. We were very full, just like an American Thanksgiving.
That was our 2012 Thanksgiving. For our first holiday here (didn't count Labor Day or Halloween) it was very enjoyable. The kids did miss the Macy's parade, and all the craziness of the preparations beforehand (really? you miss that??), and people at our house, but I think they enjoyed themselves on Sunday also. They did not have a lot of time to reflect back on previous Thanksgivings, as they had to get out the door to school on Thanksgiving. Probably better that way.
First of all, the UK does not celebrate Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a recollection of the first people here (from the UK), to settle in the New World. They were developing the 13 colonies...... and they landed at Plymouth Rock. The UK does not have a holiday this day--its just a "regular" day for them. We are Americans and wanted to celebrate, but as we are living in the UK, we needed to do as they do here. Meaning go to work/school like any other day. All of the radio and TV stations mentioned it all day long, and people were asking me about it. I even got a Happy Thanksgiving text from an English person!! No, we did not even have turkey for dinner that night (don't even recall what we did have that evening). We did skype with our immediate families.
However, on the Sunday following Thanksgiving (11-25), we did get together with another American family, and we had the Thanksgiving feast, complete with football on the telly. However, instead of having turkey, we had chicken cushions. Chicken breasts wrapped around stuffing/dressing and sausage, wrapped in bacon. The were very delish. We had all the other things too-mashed potato, sweet potato, dressing, gravy, vegetables, assorted salads, cranberries, and apple and pumpkin pies. We were very full, just like an American Thanksgiving.
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| Chicken cushion-got a little crispy at that one part...you'll have that. |
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| Center of the cushion |
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