Gingerbread House and Train 2013

As part of the Christmas preparations, we made a gingerbread house from a kit. Some friends came over to help and they brought a gingerbread train kit! It was big fun for all.

L insisted on using an apron and the cool chef hat we got from Granny. Things started off traditionally with the house. Mamabee helped out L with the initial construction and decoration. I was helping on another project, I am sure...

The start of something good

Progress was swiftly made, as was the house. The only challenge was keeping L from eating all the decorations.

Caulking the roof

Just about done, just about like the box

As things were wrapping up, J and Carolyn started in on the train.

The train gets rolling (also, I think there's a candy in L's hand, no wonder her smile is so big!)

L was quick to move in on the action, which didn't bother J so much. He's very laid back when it comes to arts and crafts.

L and Carolyn working on the train

More of the same

The results are quite beautiful...beautiful enough to eat! We had to move them to a special location so they wouldn't be eaten right away.

The final house

The final train

The final hiding spot

Harrogate Christmas Market, England

After Mass on the first Sunday of Advent, we went to the Harrogate Christmas Market. When we first got there, it was early enough that it wasn't too crowded. That soon changed.

Harrogate Christmas Market

The stalls had the usual variety of foods, gifts, and oddball items.

Another row of stalls

A row of roasts

Several rows of lights

More stalls

Like last year, they did have Santa's Grotto with reindeer outside. J and L loved petting the deer and were happily ignorant of getting to see Santa.

Reindeer eating

Kids petting

More reindeer eating, they didn't seem interested in much else

We stopped in the food tent for lunch. L had a huge sausage roll (I had to help her finish it), my wife and I split a pork/stuffing/apple sauce sandwich, and J had some cheese and bread bought at one of the stalls. It was a satisfying meal. L decided she was still hungry after I finished her sausage roll and finagled a piece of cake out of us for dessert.

Food tent

The market also included some rides for children. At first, we parents only wanted them to ride one ride. J picked the roller coaster. L wanted to ride the teacups, but they weren't running. She joined J.

Sitting in their car

About as high as the "rollercoaster" got

We then saw the teacups start and L begged and begged and begged and begged and begged and begged. We finally gave in since the rides were cheap. J joined her on her ride, making a fun time for them both. We parents had fun giving their cup extra spin when it went by us.

Teacups empty no longer!

Ariel's cup!

Spinning and riding

We walked a little bit more through the market and came across the music stage, where the ukelele club from the local high school gave a performance.

Harrogate High School Ukelele singers

By this point, the market was extremely crowded and we planned to go home. On our way out, L started to beg for candy. We compromised and let them ride the airplanes. We figured it was better than getting extra sugar in them.

Ready to take off

Low flying

High flying

It was a fun visit to the market. We didn't buy anything but food (and some Ampleforth Abbey beer that was very inexpensive) and still had a great time.

St. Martin in the Fields, London

St. Martin in the Fields is a church on Trafalgar Square that I feel is famous, though perhaps that is just because I've heard "Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields" on classical radio so much. The chamber orchestra is named after the church, since it is where they first played.

St. Martin in the Fields

The church itself is dedicated to St. Martin of Tours and a church has been on that spot since medieval times. Back then, the church truly was "in the fields" between the cities in Westminster and London. The two cities have since expanded into a megalopolis. The current church was built in the 1720s by James Gibb and is a splendid neoclassical structure.

Side view of the church

As with many churches we visited in London, we did not get pictures inside the main body of the church. Photography is allowed at St. Martin but they had a service going while we were there. The crypt area was open with a small cafe and an exhibit.

Crypt cafe

The exhibit includes a whipping post from 1752. Such posts were in use since 1572 and typically on market days, so malefactors would be more shamed by the extra spectators. The magistrate would determine the number of lashes, up to whipping "until the body became bloody by reason of such whipping." Yikes! Typical crimes punished this way were vagrancy, drunkenness, disorder, blasphemy, and slander. More grave offenses, such as bigamy, theft, and forgery, might also incur this penalty. They stopped whipping women in 1791. They didn't stop whipping men until 1837.

Whipping post from 1752

On a lighter note, this statue of "The Original Pearly King" Henry Croft seems as if it is crafted of pearls. He was a street sweeper in the late 1800s/early 1900s who started decorating his clothes with mother of pearl buttons. He became famous and used that fame to raise money for charities like hospitals.

Theology of the Christmas Cracker

We went to the early Christmas Eve Mass since the children were in the nativity presented in the middle of Mass. Right after the Gospel, about 40 or 50 children went up front. The older children read the story of the Nativity while the younger children reenacted it. J and L were both donkeys. Apparently Mary and Joseph had a good year this year and could afford two donkeys. Or maybe they got a two-for-one offer at the donkey rental agency. The nativity was delightful and they both looked very cute.

As part of the homily, Father drew out a Christmas cracker. For those who don't know about this English tradition, read my post here. Father got a volunteer from the children to help him pull the cracker. He then took out the various bits inside and gave an explanation of how they related to the true meaning of Christmas.

The paper crown that we find in the cracker reminds us of the king who has entered our midst, the King of kings. He is the true royalty to which we owe our ultimate allegiance.

The joke is a reminder that God wants us to be joyous, not only at this most festive feast, but always. He wants what is best for us, what is good for us. Joy is certainly the ultimate goal of our lives--the joy of being in Heaven with God and the holy souls and angels. (By the way, the joke in his cracker was this: "Why does Santa use the chimney to get in our houses? Because it soots him!")

The present inside the Christmas cracker reminds us that this is the time of the ultimate gift. God gives His own Son to us as a redeemer. We are truly blessed and should be truly grateful.

Finally, the cardboard of the cracker reminds us of the stable and the manger, the first and humble home of Jesus in this world. No matter how poorly we are in our state of life, still God loves us and takes care of us.

It made for an interesting part of the sermon, certainly engaging for the children who were about to open Christmas crackers the next day. I wish you all the joy and grace of this Chirstmas season!

A Playground in Essen, Germany

While I went to the second day of the game convention in Essen, my wife took J and L on adventures. They wound up at a fun playground where they became superheroes and made friends.

The first thing to catch their eye was the large train engine.

L tries to board the train

The side view of the locomotive

J was eager to get on board and decided to practice his Ninja Warrior techniques.

Boarding like Makoto Nagano

He made it!

Did they jail him for improper boarding procedure?

J, like the A-Team, soon broke out of the maximum security prison and headed for the engine room of the locomotive.

J at the wheel

Looking out

Meanwhile, L tried out the nearby alligator, who was nice enough to let her ride.

L fixes her shoe

Comin' at ya!

J headed off to the spider climber in the back of the above picture for some action and adventure.

The spectacular Spider-J!

Web-head close-up

Joined by L

Ready to fight crime, or just hang out

L is a charmer

After exploring all the playground equipment, the kids started playing hide and seek.  Counting loudly to 20 alerted some of the other kids at the playground that we were speaking English. A girl of about 10 or 12 approached shyly and said hello and practiced a few phrases from her English lessons at school. Pretty soon her dad and sisters joined the fun, with various levels of English fluency but plenty of the international language of playground fun. It was really fun to make some new friends and to feel so welcomed.

December School Report

Naturally, the month of December is dominated by Christmas. This is true even in J and L's school, where the big activities were centered around the big day.

The school hosted its Christmas Fayre early in the month and I volunteered to man one of the booths. My booth was the snowball search, which involved a kiddie swimming pool, ping pong balls, and a ton of shredded paper. Kids paid 20p to find a snowball (ping pong ball) in the pool full of snow (shredded paper). If they found a regular ball, they got a sweetie. If they found one with "hohoho!" on it, they got a special prize. Seems simple and easy to do, right? In the first ten minutes things were fine. Then every student in the school wanted a go. We set up a queue and the kids turned in their balls for candy. The special prizes were soon forgotten and the special balls were given two sweeties instead of one.

The real challenge of the booth was three-fold: (1) keep putting the balls back into the kiddie pool before they ran out; (2) keep the shredded paper from going everywhere in the classroom (and in the rest of the school, too; (3) keep breathing/seeing as the air filled with tiny paper particles. Workers had to cycle in and out. On one of my cycle outs, I took the kids to the Santa's Grotto booth.

Santa's Grotto included a picture with Santa and some sweets. J and L were fairly shy, though L much more so. I had to walk her up to Santa and then race back to get out of the picture.

J, Santa, and L!

It worked out well enough. Other booths were available and popular, including the jarbola and bottlebola (substitute "raffle" for "bola" and you get the idea). Cakes and popcorn and drinks were available for sale, as was a tremendous collection of books. Afterwards, one of the organizers said they would sell the rest of the books at the next big event but not ask for donations beforehand. The Fayre was fun.

Another Christmas tradition is Nativities. J's class combined with the other Key Stage One classes (so that's Years One, Two, and Three) to put on a play about Christ's birth. J was the donkey and he did a good job when he had stuff to do (mostly walking around with Mary and Joseph). On some of the songs he was a little unfocused--staring off into the distance and missing some of the choreography. The production was fun overall.

J as the donkey

L's Reception class had its own Nativity play, "The Whoops-a-Daisy Angel." L played a star. When we saw the performance, she had one line that she said loudly and clearly. Other than that, she mostly stood there, singing the songs and doing the choreography of the songs. She had a great time and was excited to see us. Sadly, I think she was more focused than J was.

L as a star (sorry, it's a scan of a printout of a photo)

The school had a videographer record both shows and sold us a DVD with both performances. I predict it will enter hard rotation for at-home entertainment.

The last day of school was a flurry of activity. We spent the night before writing little Christmas cards for friends (not sure we got them all, whoops-a-daisy!) and packing presents for the teachers. L wasn't sure how to spell one of the assistant teacher's names and we weren't either because L's pronunciation was not the best. We think it was "Mrs. Knareston." But we might have been totally off. L handed out the presents to her teachers and was too shy to give Mrs. K her gift. I walked with her and didn't have the nerve to admit we had no idea what her name really was. She was gracious and didn't even look at the tag, so we dodged a bullet there.

That day, the children walked to the nearby post box to mail letters to Santa. L had a picture taken of her, which made it into her book bag before the day ended!

Mailing a letter to Santa!

It's been a good term for both children. L has settled in and hardly ever protests going to school. She's decide she wants to be an artist and is constantly crafting things at school and home. J loves school and his writing is improving amazingly. Now we have two weeks of vacation for the Christmas holiday!