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!