Happy Thanksgiving!!

This is our third Thanksgiving here in England and even though the Brits don't celebrate, we insisted that they do! Tom was traveling to Germany so we celebrated a day early, starting with the children's "tea." We had our best friends over: Fraser, Rory, Heath and baby Gregor, along with their mummy Sarah. All the boys are the same age as our boys, except baby Gregor, so it was bound to be fun.

Sarah brought the boys here after school and the turkey crafts started soon after. The boys glued on feathers and wrote what they were thankful for. Then we sat for dinner. The toughest part - making them sit while I explained what Thanksgiving was (I left out the part of the Pilgrims leaving England b/c of the tyrant King!). Then we went around the room to say what we are thankful for. The Clark boys - God and Jesus (they aren't Christians, so I was a bit blown away!). Jacob: his feathers were filled, but some of the best were: Mummy, Daddy, friends, Jeb, Aiden, beds, snow, and popcorn. Aiden: homework, brothers, school. Jeb: Cars. It was all very sweet.

Pumpkin pie - not eaten in England. So, the day before, I took all the boys to swim and there was a big discussion on eating pumpkin pie. Even my boys weren't too keen on eating it, so I gave them a back-up plan of apple pie. But when the pie was brought out, they ate it up - in fact I had to tell them to hold back so Tom could have some!

It was such a nice evening and even better when Tom and I sat down to have our dinner together. We do have so much to be thankful for.

Below is the English version of Thanksgiving - the Harvest Festival. We celebrated about a month ago. The kids bring in food to school and have a little play. This year Jacob was the star - Oliver. Very proud of him! Oh, Aiden was there too, but chose to not participate. Just depends on the day for Aiden...oh well, maybe the Christmas production!

Winter Wonderland

We started the Christmas season a bit early this year, but I guess we just needed to beat the crowds! Off we went to Hyde Park in London to "Winter Wonderland." This is London's version of the German Markets, which seemed to be few and far between this year. This year it was a bit more like a fair, with all kinds of carnival rides and greasy food. The kids were in heaven. The highlight, and reason for the visit, was seeing Father Christmas. Aiden was so shy last year, but a lot can change. He knew exactly what he wanted to say when he sat down - "A light saber, please." Jacob wants too many things, so he agreed with Aiden and added in Star Wars Lego. Jeb, who I was worried would cry, offered his usual plea - "Cars." Complete with his little British accent. A trip to Harrods followed, but was short lived when the crowds were too large to even see the candy in the huge candystore. Thank goodness for the toystore!

So, let the Christmas season begin! Well, let's give it a week.

Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night

We celebrated Guy Fawkes Day on Saturday night. Ever heard of it? Neither had we until we moved here. Guy Fawkes was a man that tried to blow up Parliment years and years ago and got caught. He was hung, drawn and quartered...look that up, it's quite interesting! Anyway, from that time on, the Brits have celebrated Guy being caught - through a bonfire with a strawman being hung and burned above it.

Times have changed, no more strawman. At least not in Beaconsfield, but they have replaced it with fireworks. It's kind of nice to have the kids see the fireworks in the pitchblack darkeness of 8:00, rather than waiting until 10:30 in the summer on the fourth. The kids loved it with Jeb laughing the whole time! But, I'll still take the fourth of July. Can't give up my favorite holiday!

Crazy kids and the bonfire

Jeb loving the fireworks

On the way home with Alfie

Edinburgh, Scotland

Last weekend we took a trip up to Scotland, stopping first in York to break up the drive. We found that York was a nice little town, with a ton of history, dating back to Roman times. We headed into Yorkminster and both Tom and I agreed that we have seen one too many churches in the past two years. But, not wanting to miss anything, we decided to head into the crypt this time. We saw the first layer - Roman built in the 6th century. That was torn down and a Norman church built on that, and then Yorkminster, which took 250 years to build!! A trip through the park for the boys to run about and then lunch. It was a great morning.

On to Edinburgh! 3 hour drive and we were in this lovely city. Although the arrival wasn't so pleasant since we discovered a chocolate candy that we didn't bring with us. Aiden literally sat on that little secret ever since the stop at the gas station 2 hours earlier! We are hoping he learned his lesson!

Edinburgh is a great town and easy to get around in. We headed up to Edinburgh Castle first. A medieval castle built on an extinct volcano, with tons of treasures within to explore. Our favorite was the crown jewels of Scotland - which were hidden from the English for over a hundred years! At lunch we were highly entertained by some Japanese tourists who were in awe of the boys. As usual, they took pictures. As usual, Aiden ignored them, but Jeb ate it up.

On to walk the Royal Mile, a street filled with old Georgian buildings and loads of souvenir shops. At the bottom end, we hit the Queen's current Palace of Scotland and Scottish Parliament. We took the bus over to Princes Street Gardens and climbed 250 spiral stairs to gorgeous views of the city. It was the highlight of the day for the boys! My highlight was getting a bit of peace and quiet when Tom took them back to the apartment and I shopped and took it all in.

The following day we headed to the other extinct volcano in Edinburgh - King Arthur's seat. At the bottom we debated on which path to take. We took the one with more people, only to find out that we climbed up and back down the wrong mountain and now we were at the bottom of the right one. The kids were doing great, so we hiked up to find some stunning views as well as a gentle slope on the other side leading to a parking lot. Our hour hike could have been 15 minutes with a stoller! Oh well, it's the experience that matters.

A quick and expensive stop at a very boring aquarium followed by the beach, which the kids had wanted in the first place. Why don't we listen to them?! Rocks, shells, sand, and water - all a boy needs to be happy.

An 8 hour drive back. I won't lie. It was hard. The van was trashed. Take a look. Good times.

Halloween

Halloween - not sure I can even say that we celebrated this year. Third year in a row of not trick or treating thanks to being gone. The boys had a week off, so when that happens, we hit the road!

We did, however, do a bit of celebrating. Jacob is now in Beavers - the first stage of cub scouts and they had to dress up. So, we went out and got a Batman costume. Here is the funny thing about Halloween here - it's not about just dressing up. It's about dressing up as something scary. So, when J announced that he was going to be Batman, the usual response was: "That's not very Halloweeny." Good thing my boy is sure of himself because he stuck to it. I now know why churches here are so against Halloween - I think that I like the way we celebrate in the US!

We did carve our pumpkins. With a kit this year! Wow, makes a difference! We had two pumpkins and I got another small one with the kit - good thing because we didn't think Jeb would get into it. He did. It would have been a nightmare had he not gotten to help carve one for himself. I did Aiden's and am quite proud of my skeleton (his choice to choose the hardest one!) and Jacob designed his himself. Not bad boys, not bad.