More Christmastime Fun

We got a chance to visit with Uncle Brian and Auntie Pauline one evening. It was lovely to spend time with them again. Harry Potter was on the telly, so the girls were happy.

We also watched the third installment of a new BBC version of Little Women.







We watched the new Star Wars movie - The Last Jedi - at the Odeon theater in Dorchester. Jenny had all the kids at their house - thanks, Jen! We enjoyed it, though Stace didn't think it lived up to the hype.





















We also got to have a lovely brunch with Andy and Jenny. It's always great spending time catching up with them.

We went out to celebrate Sue and Gord's 45th wedding anniversary earlier this month - such a milestone!

Nice pic here from Euan of brothers clinking glasses. We had our meal at the Rusty Axe in Kingsbury.

 It's always great to be together!

 Between dinner and dessert, the kids played pool. Violet had her eye on the ball.












With her Daddy helping her, Livi didn't need her eye on the ball.

Stace and I got in another walk along the fields, this time in between rain showers. You can see the result of all the rain behind us. Notice Burrow Hill, as well.

A Winter's Walk

Thursday was a beautiful, sunny day - not typical of the weather in the UK in December. We took advantage of it by stepping into our wellies and taking a walk through the fields.

We made our way to Thorney Mill. The river used to power the mill, and Gord used to swim here back when it was deep, clear and clean.

On our way back, Stace and Cora practiced gate vaulting. They hope to compete in the next Olympics, representing Great Britain, in this time-honored feat of athleticism.

We walked up Burrow Hill and took in some lovely views of countryside and nearby villages. It was cold, though!

The girls have been so disappointed about the lack of snow, but on our walk earlier in the day, they had fun with the ice in the puddles.

The ice sheets really looked like panes of glass, and sounded like glass when Cora smashed them.

We thought we'd go into Burrow Hill Cider Farm, but the owners were on a Christmas break. Instead, we got friendly with the doggies and cozy under some mistletoe.

We then stopped in at the Rusty Axe pub, where we had a drink and played some pool.

It was a lovely winter's day.

Boxing Day

We went to Dean and Jenny's house for Boxing Day, and Stace helped make our meal. We had Bubble and Squeak, the traditional way to use up the vegetable leftovers in England. Basically, you mash them all together and cook them, and eat it with cold leftover meats.

After eating, we opened gifts - we were all happy when Jenny suggested Sylvanian Families/Calico Critters for Livi. We picked out bunny babies and accessories, and she loved them.

Stace passed out the shirts he'd brought from home for all the men - oh so festive!

There was a pile of girlies!

Euan, Violet and Olivia had fun making their new Legos...

...while Cora joined us in karaoke. She and Dean were very good!

Cora enjoyed singing Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, though she changed some of the words, and Can't Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake.

She was having so much fun, and we had a great time listening to her. I wish she was interested in singing lessons - she has such a pretty voice.

At one point, Stace had a mic and was singing to a song with her, but he didn't know how the song went. Cora suggested, "Maybe you should sit this one out, Dad."

The girls ended up spending the night with their cousins - it was a late night for them!

Christmas Fun

Santa brought these two new friends for Cora and Violet, along with earrings and some Animal Jam and Roblox goodies (the last two are online games the girls enjoy).

Violet was so excited about the big Lego Elves set she received from Nan and Pop.

And Nan loved the hand towels Cora made for her. Cora bought the terry cloth, cut it to size and added felt and ribbon embellishments using her sewing machine.

The girls were pleased with their gifts from us - besides their trick scooters back in California, Cora got walkie talkies for her adventures on the hill, and Violet now has her own kindle.

The girls were very excited to be able to play Minecraft together, at the same time, in each other's worlds.

Cora also was thrilled with her new Warriors books from Nan and Pop.

I was volunteering at the school's holiday gift shop when Violet decided to buy her dad this awesome coin purse, covered with the image of hundred-dollar bills.

With a smile, I said to her that day, "Violet, do you think Dad will like that?"

"Yes!" was her reply. "His wallet is just boring black!"

Stace also liked his Darth Vader ornament from Cora.

Violet colored this reindeer ornament for Nan and Pop.























I gave Stace a Dodger polo shirt, and an electric razor. And he gave me this Cody Bellinger Dodger shirt, and a Nike zip-up sweater that I've been wearing a lot since I opened it.

After our fabulous Christmas dinner - thanks, Sue and Gord! - we watched Queen Elizabeth give her annual speech.

Later, we relaxed, watched movies, played with new toys, and played charades. It was a great day.

Christmas Eve

We joined all the family in attending a Christmas Eve service at Kingsbury Episcopi's ancient church, St. Martin's.

This was a family-friendly Christingle service, where an orange is made to symbolize various aspects of the life of Jesus Christ. After singing several carols - some of which have the same words but different tunes than we Americans were used to - the children were given the oranges.

Then, the candles were lit, and we sang the Christingle song. It was lovely!

Here, Violet is trying to roast one of the mini marshmallows with the candle flame. Naturally.

The community had held a Christmas Tree event a few days prior, with various villagers and groups decorating trees. This one was the biggest, though all were sweet.

Later that evening, the girls wrote out their notes to Santa and put out the carrots and a mince pie.

Then, it was off to bed, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be here!

Montacute

We wanted to do something Christmassy, and Stace had read that Montacute House was featuring a Christmas lights event on December evenings.

We met up with Dean and Jen and the children, and had a hot drink before we walked the grounds. Jenny and I enjoyed mulled wine - lovely!

It's always great to spend time with Dean and Jenny.

The lighting highlighted the beauty of 400-year-old Montacute House.

The cousins occupied themselves with tag and hide-and-seek.

We weren't able to enter the house, but walking around the grounds and seeing the outbuildings - also decorated for the holiday - made for a lovely evening.

Back Across the Pond

We returned to England this week, with an excellent journey Tuesday night on British Airways.

Sue and Gord picked up the girls (and the luggage) and Stace and I made our way on the Tube into London.

With a 9:30 p.m. flight, landing after 7:30 in the morning L.A. time, we were mostly able to sleep half the flight. Stace and I felt so much more alive for our time in London than we did in the summer, when we had flown on the earlier flight.

We didn't have a lot of extra time, so we headed straight into the Paddington station neighborhood. This was the same park we rested in this summer.

We had enough energy that Stace fancied a beer - we stopped in at the Dickens pub for a pint and a latte. Then we looked around at the shops in Paddington Station, before boarding our train for Somerset.

Less than two hours later, we were in Castle Cary. Time to relax!