Christingle Service and Christmas Tunes

On Monday, December 8, we attended the Christingle service performed by the children at Brett's school. While this is the second year in a row that we attended this service, to be honest I really didn't understand what the true meaning of the service was. So, I looked it up and thought I would share with any of you who might not know the true meaning either.

The story of the first Christingle...

On Christmas back in 1747 in a town in Germany, a pastor sat at home thinking of how he could explain the love of Jesus and what Christmas really meant to the children in the church. He decided to prepare an simple symbol to help make the message of Christmas easy for them to remember. He gave each child a lighted candle wrapped in a red ribbon, with a prayer that read "Lord Jesus, kindle a flame in these dear children's hearts". This was the first ever Christingle service.

Many years later, in 1968, Christingle services were introduced to the Anglican Church in Great Britain and the custom spread quickly. Each year there are more and more Christingle services in England and Wales, although today's Christingles are a little different.

The Christingle consists of:
* an orange representing the world
* with a red ribbon around it representing the blood of Jesus
* fruits and sweets are skewered on 4 cocktail sticks which are pushed into the orange representing the fruits of the earth and the four seasons
* a lighted candle is pushed into the centre of the orange representing Christ, the light of the world
* and tinfoil around the base of the candle to reflect Christ's light and goodness

It has wonderful meaning and I honestly wish that schools in the U.S. would adopt some of the practices and services that occur in the U.K.

In addition to the Christingle service, Kendall and Kameron wanted to share some of the Christmas songs that they learned in Playgroup.

The kids and I are currently in Peoria for the Christmas holiday (and loving every minute of it) and are awaiting Mike to join us in just a few days. Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Fayre and visiting Santa

This past Saturday, I volunteered at Brett's school's Christmas Fayre. I worked in the kitchen (I know, this is really hard to believe!) and prepared tea, coffee, mulled wine, minced pies, and biscuits to sell. The FOES (Friends of Elton School) group that I am a member of -- which is basically a PTA for the school -- raised a good amount of money that will go towards helping the school. Well, I know why I don't like to work in the kitchen much -- I was absolutely exhausted when I got home! ;o)

Craft decorations the children made after the Christmas Fayre

On Sunday for my birthday, we decided to take the children to the Baytree Garden Centre in Spalding (thanks for the suggestion, Jenny!) to visit Santa. It took us about 40 minutes to get to the Centre; however once we arrived we were very pleasantly surprised with the setup. The area leading to Santa's Grotto was decorated with "snow-covered" trees, decorations, animated figurines, and a sleigh ride (for all of us!). ;o) It was absolutely freezing that day but we were lucky enough that the area was covered so we weren't getting soaked from the rain pouring down outside (I guess it is better than snow, right?!). It took us about 40 minutes to get to Santa but once we arrived, the kids had a great time talking to Santa and telling him the things they would like for Christmas. They each received a nice present from him as well as a Christmas tree (we still need to plant them outside). Mike and I had to explain to Kameron before we went into see Santa that her first request couldn't be made -- as Santa doesn't have enough room in his sleigh for a REAL pony! Oh my goodness, leave it up to Kameron to ask for something like that! ;o) After visiting Santa, we went to the area where Santa's reindeer were staying. We picked up two carrots for each of them to feed the reindeer. Brett and Kameron enjoyed feeding the reindeer; however Kendall preferred to just toss her carrots into the cage where they were staying as she wanted nothing to do with the reindeer. Following our visit with Santa and his reindeer (please look at the photo below of one of the reindeer decorations in Santa's Grotto -- hee hee!), we headed to Frankie & Benny's (an American-Italian restaurant in Peterborough) where we enjoyed my birthday lunch/dinner. We had an absolutely fabulous day and the only thing that could have made it better would have been to be able to celebrate my birthday with my entire family. Only 12 days to go until we are back in Peoria!!!!!! ;o)

The kids loved the snow-covered trees!


Standing in front of the nativity scene (not sure if you can see in the photo but the wisemen are "politically correct").


Obviously they don't realize that this reindeer's name is Donner -- NOT Donna! ;o)


Sorry this photo isn't too clear ... we don't have a scanner so I had to take a photo of a photo. We weren't allowed to take photos in the room with Santa so we relied on the photo they took for us.


Getting ready to feed the reindeer


Brett and Kameron enjoying feeding carrots to the reindeer.


We conned Kendall into standing close enough to the gate to get a quick picture to prove she was there!


Enjoying my birthday with my three little blessings.

Our trip to Mid and North Wales

Last Friday, we headed to Corwen, Wales, to a wonderful little bed-and-breakfast for a weekend getaway. Last year, we visited southern Wales so this year we decided to see sights in mid and northern Wales. We stayed at the Bron-Y-Graig hotel which was built in 1888. It was very child-friendly and from the sights we were planning to see over the weekend, this was a perfect location for us to stay.

Sideview of the Bron-Y-Graig

Throughout the weekend, we did "drive-bys" and saw several different castles -- Conwy Castle, Criccieth Castle, Harlech Castle, and Dolwyddelan Castle. The weather wasn't the best but it did seem to stop raining just about every time we wanted to get out of the van (except for when we visited Caernarfon Castle). ;o)

Beautiful rainbow we saw when driving through the hills of Wales

The main castle we visited was Caernarfon Castle in north Wales. The castle was built in 1283 for military purposes as well as to house royal families. The first English Prince of Wales was born in the castle in 1284. The castle became a bit more famous in 1969 when it was the setting where Prince Charles became the Prince of Wales.







Village pub near Caernarfon Castle

On Sunday, the main sight were saw was Pistyll Rhaeadr Waterfall. It was a beautiful waterfall in a great setting. We stopped into the cafe and were planning to get some ice cream before we started our long trek home; however once I walked in and saw Beethoven (absolutely HUGE dog) laying by the fireplace and smelled the horrendous smell of wet dog, I decided that we would just buy some canned soda and water and hit the road. ;o) It is definitely a good thing we did that as when we walked out of the cafe to take another look at the waterfall before leaving, we saw two black animals that I thought were cats and Mike thought were ferrets. Well, we were both wrong ... they were HUGE black rats that were running around. Ugh! It is a good thing I hadn't eaten anything in the cafe as I would have lost it on their patio. ;o) We had a great weekend getaway and are now looking very forward to our trip to Peoria for Christmas!





Kendall isn't very keen on dogs so she was in Mike's arms during this picture. ;o)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! It is very difficult living in a country that doesn't celebrate the holidays that we have all become so accustomed to. Today is simply a normal day in England where Mike heads off to work and Brett goes to school. The girls would normally go to Playgroup as well; however I wanted them to stay home with me today so we could spend time together.

We all wish we were in the U.S. celebrating Thanksgiving with our family. Besides spending time with our family, I will also personally miss enjoying the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, and pumpkin pie (and for many years, I have missed my Grandmother's mincemeat pie as it was absolutely phenomenal!).

While we won't be celebrating the holiday today as we would like, I would still like to share with you several things that I am thankful for.

1. A wonderful, loving husband
2. Three beautiful children that light up my life and make everyday a new adventure
3. A loving family that we can't wait to see in December (only 16 days to go!)
4. Friendships that we have developed both in the U.K. and in the U.S. that will last a lifetime
5. Loved ones that are no longer with us but are our angels that watch over us
6. Our health
7. The opportunity of living abroad which has provided an unbelievable experience for our family

While these are just a few of the blessings that I count every day, I know we are truly blessed. I hope everyone takes time to count their blessings not only today but everyday. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

'Tis the season...

'Tis the season, right?! Well, not quite yet I guess...but we decided that with our next two weekends being packed full of travelling and volunteering at the Elton School's Christmas Fayre and then with the kids and I travelling to Peoria on December 13, we wanted to enjoy putting up Christmas decorations together and be able to enjoy them for awhile before leaving. So.......we decided that we would put up our Christmas decorations today! I know, I know, most people don't normally put their decorations up until right after Thanksgiving (which is what we would do in most years); however we made an exception to our "unspoken rule" this year. The weather was in the mid-50s this weekend and fairly nice to so we unboxed our decs from the shed and enjoyed putting everything up together. It really got us all in the mood for the holidays and now we can't wait for Christmas to arrive!!!! (The kids are REALLY hoping and praying for snow in Peoria during our stay there in December. I would really like to see their prayers answered; however I hope my prayer overwrites theirs by just a bit as I have requested that the snow doesn't arrive until we all get there safe and sound.) ;o)

Viking Brett

This past Thursday morning, we attended Brett's class assembly. Every term at the Elton School, each class learns about a specific group of people or things and then prepares an informational performance regarding the topic. This term, the topic for Brett's class (Year 3 & 4) was Vikings. After working for several weeks with Brett to memorize the songs, poems, and specific lines for the performance, I became a bit nervous as to what the assembly would actually consist of (since the jist of the songs and poems were that the Vikings stole from people and fought horrifically -- not necessarily a happy-go-lucky group of people). Anyway, we worked to memorize all of the lines and borrowed a Viking costume from our friends, Holli and Drake (thank you so much!). By performance day we were ready to go (okay, so Brett was the only one in our family performing but I was excited for him so I felt like I was performing, too!). The assembly turned out great, Brett did wonderfully, and we were pleasantly surprised that the information provided to us by the children was very informative and shed a bit of light on what Vikings were all about.

Honestly, I still have NO idea how this photo turned out black & white on our camera.

Lunch is served

A few of our American friends in the UK have recently posted what their children have been served for school lunches so thought I would share with you what our picky (maybe not so picky now that we have moved to England) son is eating on a daily basis. ;o) While I'm not as picky as Mike, I will still admit that there is no way in the world I would be eating most of these selections -- so we are very proud of Brett for trying new things.

Monday
* Suffolk Pork Sausages & Gravy
* Oven Baked Mix Pepper Quiche
* Creamed Potatoes or Carrots/Garden Peas
* Cornflake Tart and Custard or Chelsea Bun & Cool Milk (honestly I have no idea what a Chelsea Bun is ... and cool milk, what is that all about?!)

Tuesday
* Spanish Meatballs
* Leek & Potato Bake
* Garden Peas/Baked Beans or Golden Sweetcorn/Roasted Winter Vegetables
* Jam Viennese Tart & Custard or Flapjack & Cool Milk

Wednesday
* Golden Shepherds Pie & Gravy
* Vegetable Tikka Masala
* Baked Beans/Garden Peas or Golden Sweetcorn/Broccoli/Savoury Tomatoes
* Chocolate Cracknell & Fruit Juice or Carrot & Orange Cake & Fruit Juice

Thursday
* Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding & Gravy
* Country Vegetable Pie & Gravy
* Cabbage/Golden Sweetcorn/Garden Peas or Roast Potatoes/Creamed Potatoes
* Steamed Jam Sponge & Custard or Rice Pudding & Sliced Peaches

Friday
* Golden Fishcake
* Herby Spaghetti
* Baked Beans or Garden Peas
* Swiss Bun & Cool Milk or Steamed Chocolate Pudding & Chocolate Sauce

While the selections are very healthy and nutritious (which is absolutely wonderful), would you honestly eat these things without hesitation?!?!?! ;o)

The Griswolds Have Returned...

It seems that we have travelled to so many different places while living over here that I have started calling us "The Griswolds" (from National Lampoon's Vacation). ;o) Well, we returned a few days ago from our "European Vacation".


With Brett being on half-term for the entire week, we decided to take a trip to Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. We flew to Berlin without any problems and rented a car for our journey. (While I will admit that I didn't do any of the driving on this trip (besides getting us to London), it was really nice to be riding on the American side of the car.) As you all probably know, I tend to procrastinate ALOT ... well, I didn't let this trip stop me from doing my usual. I didn't program in any of our sightseeing destinations into "Jane" (our handy GPS system) until we arrived in Berlin. We decided that we would start our trip off driving down to Vienna, staying for 2 days, then driving up to Prague, staying for a day, and then finally heading to Berlin to stay for the remainder of the trip. Upon programming in our hotel in Vienna into Jane, we were quite surprised that it was going to take us 8 hours to get there! Anyway, without hesitation (okay -- with a bit of whining!), we headed to Vienna and arrived at the hotel later that afternoon/evening.

We got up fairly early the following day to begin our sightseeing of the town and its surroundings. With it being an early Sunday morning, it was quite nice that there wasn't anyone on the streets until about 9:30 a.m. -- so we were able to drive by several sights, stop the car, get out, and take pictures without anyone really rushing us. Our first real stop for the day was Schonbrunn Palace. Schonbrunn was the imperial summer palace during Maria Theresa's 40-year reign. When Mozart was just 6 years old, he performed in Schonbrunn for Maria Theresa. Once we left Schonbrunn, we walked through the entire city centre of Vienna and were happy to find a TGI Fridays for lunch. ;o) After enjoying a delicious lunch, we decided to continue our walk through Vienna to see the remaining sights.

Liberation Monument


Schonbrunn Palace


Schonbrunn Palace (back garden)


Schonbrunn Palace (looking back at it from the garden)


Black squirrel playing in the Schonbrunn Palace garden. Do we have black squirrels in Illinois?!


Neues Rathaus (New City Hall)


Karlskirche


St. Stephen's Cathedral

Monday morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and began our journey to Prague. (We checked "Jane" the previous night to program in all of the Prague sights -- and realized that the Czech Republic (CZR) isn't recognized by her AT ALL. That would be why it took us 8 hours to reach Vienna on Saturday. So rather than taking us from the Berlin airport through the CZR to Vienna, Jane decided to take us all the way around the CZR as she didn't recognize any roads.) Anyway, we used Jane to get us to a city close to the CZR; however after we arrived there, we were totally on our own (it is amazing how much you begin to rely on that system!) to get to the city of Prague and our hotel. We arrived without too many problems (although I'm sure Mike would disagree). Like I said before, I didn't do any of the driving on this trip -- so my job was to be the "navigator" and ensure we reached our destination. And also like I said before, I rely on Jane a lot. Need I say more?! Let's just say that I didn't read the foreign map too well in order to get us to our hotel. ;o) With all of the bumpy roads and trying to decipher the foreign street names, I was just trying not to throw up in the car! Thankfully Mike is excellent with road maps and was able to get us to the hotel. (Lesson learned for Amy -- program Jane before leaving on a trip!) ;o)

With us only being in Prague for one day, after we checked in to the hotel, we were off for some fastpaced sightseeing. While we took in a ton of sights, the main ones were Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, Petrin Hill, the Old Jewish Cemetery, and the Old Town Square. We didn't really go into any of the buildings as we wanted to ensure we saw everything while we were there. Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. CZR joined the European Union in 2004. It just amazed us as we were driving through the country that several years ago, we would not have been allowed into the country. We were hoping to run into some sort of border control so we could get our passports stamped -- but didn't have any luck. We drove right in and right out without being stopped (guess that is a good thing, right?!). Until 2010, the CZR will continue to use Crowns as their currency. Well, with 2010 coming up rather quickly and us realizing we wouldn't be travelling back, we stocked up on a few bits of their currency that we can keep. ;o) The city of Prague is absolutely beautiful and after seeing all it has to offer, it stands within the top 5 of our favorite visited places.

Charles Bridge


Charles Bridge (with Prague Castle in the background)


Old Town Square with the 15th Century Astronomical Clock and Church of Our Lady Before Tyn in the back.


Old Jewish Cemetery

Our last stop on the trip was Berlin. We knew Vienna was nice and Prague was fantastic -- but we honestly weren't sure what to expect for Berlin. We arrived in Berlin at late afternoon with the weather being nice, so decided to walk a couple miles down the road to see the Brandenburg Tor (where the Berlin Wall once stood). While in the area of the Tor, we noticed a Dunkin Donuts sign. I know that doesn't necessarily sound that good to too many of you -- but for our family not having the option to ever get Dunkin Donuts ... oh my goodness! We walked in and were like kids in a candy store! We all picked out a couple donuts (and I paid the outrageous amount for them) before heading back to the hotel to enjoy them (and no, we didn't save any of them for breakfast the next day). ;o) We woke up on our last full day of the trip to find it raining. Definitely a bummer; however we were really happy that the rain hadn't occurred on any of our other sightseeing days. We headed into the centre of Berlin to visit the Pergamon Museum. In the museum, the main things that interested us were the Ishtar Gate, Pergamon Steps, and the Market Gate of Miletus. After we saw the main things in the museum that we wanted to see, we headed to McDonald's (always a safe bet in a foreign city) for a quick lunch and then decided to do the Hop On Hop Off bus tour of Berlin. It was still raining a bit but had turned rather chilly. (We figured that a bus tour is a great quick way to see everything we wanted to see without having to walk for miles and miles and miles.) While not knowing what to expect for the city of Berlin, it was a very busy city; however the history that it had to offer was phenomenal.

Brandbenburg Tor


Walking back to the hotel from the Tor


Getting ready to enjoy our Dunkin Donuts!!!




The "walk" and "don't walk" lights were made up of the Ampelmann (they look like little generals) -- really cute!


So cute, we had to buy an umbrella with the Ampelmann on it. ;o)


Pergamon Museum -- Market Gate of Miletus


Pergamon Museum -- Pergamon Steps


Berliner Dom


Reichstag (federal government building)


Standing in front of the remains of the Berlin Wall


Another photo in front of the Berlin Wall


Checkpoint Charlie (location where the Allied Forces had to cross from East Berlin to West Berlin during the Cold War)


Stamps that were put in our passports at Checkpoint Charlie (these stamps were the official stamps used in past years; however aren't used any longer -- except for people visiting Checkpoint Charlie).


We exhausted all of the children on this trip -- but Kendall let it get the best of her by falling asleep on the tour bus while listening to the history of Berlin. ;o)

Just another cute photo! If only they would always be this peaceful and get along so well...

We had an absolutely wonderful trip and are looking forward to our next adventure -- whatever it may be!