Our first Christmas in England was unusual for us, though extremely enjoyable.Christmas Eve: We started the festivities with a trip to our 13th-century village church (pictured above) for a beautiful Christmas Eve service. Then we hauled ourselves over to our LDS church building in Peterborough for a carol service (Matt sang in the choir and Lana played piano).
Christmas Day: whilst we were prepared for the lack of snow and had all our ingredients ready for our first-ever traditional English Christmas dinner, we were caught off-guard when the girls slept in until 8:30! All that church on Christmas Eve must have really tuckered them out! So, after getting the turkey prepped and baking cinnamon rolls we couldn't hold back - we went upstairs and woke the kids up to open presents (they didn't seem to mind).
From "Father Christmas":
Emily - bike with stabilizers (training wheels)
Amy - Fisher Price digital camera and dinosaur excavation kit
Other favourite gifts:Emily - play food that Grandma Tolley crocheted, sock puppets kit (from babysitter Emily's family)
Amy - Playmobil lighthouse tower (from Mom & Dad)
Lana - wok, pasta-maker (from Matt)
Matt - archery lessons (from Lana)
As usual, we enjoyed many hours playing with our new toys and gadgets. We took a break from all that playing to eat our Christmas dinner which consisted of: turkey, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots (in a brown sugar/parsley glaze), peas, gravy, stuffing and "crusty" bread. We skipped the leeks in cheese sauce and braised red cabbage for lack of oven/stovetop space (besides, who needs more than 4 vegetables for one meal anyway?!) Before eating, we engaged in another English Christmas custom: Christmas crackers (see video for demonstration) and in keeping with tradition, we wore our hats during the meal. 
After clean-up we celebrated Lana's birthday with a "Cherries-in-the-Snow" cake and saved the Christmas pudding for later... the cake was so good we are beginning to wonder if we will ever eat the Christmas pud!
Well Lana Banana you never cease to amaze. I can't believe you did all that! It looks so good I had to stop myself from licking the screen :) And your mom's crocheted food is amazing! She should start an etsy store!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a wonderful Christmas! We actually did "Christmas Crackers" this year too, so I guess we unintentionally had a touch of an English Christmas. Glad your day was great.
ReplyDeleteYour christmas dinner looks perfect - but no sprouts !!! It's not a proper British christmas dinner without them.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Lana! Hope you guys are having a great holiday. We are enjoying having daddy home for a couple of weeks. See you soon!
ReplyDeleteHappy Belated Birthday and Merry Christmas!! I hope you're having a wonderful time in Scotland. I really enjoyed your blog because my family did the little poppers too with the crowns and the whole bit. :) And I've been meaning to ask you, is Doctor Who a big deal over there? It's a BBC show that Clint has gotten me (and my parents) addicted to. Just wondering if you've ever seen it.
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