Holidays in Hartlepool

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

 

 

 

The leaves changing color.  The morning beautiful with frosty window panes.  Christmas tunes playing in the grocery store.  Northeastern England flooded.  Well, that last one is not especially pretty, but it has helped usher in Jack Frost.

 

In such a short span, we celebrate three holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  I am going to use this blog as a way to explain how those holiday look, smell, and sound to us here in England.

 

 

Halloween

Ghosts and Goblins make their way through the streets of Hartlepool (the town in which we resides) but not nearly in the numbers as seen in the states.  Trick-or-treating isn't that big of a deal in England, but we were told that it is a somewhat new holiday here and it is just getting its bearings.  Halloween has always been my least favorite holiday because it is a lot of prep work and rushing around, but it doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy like a Malibu and Diet Coke.  I realize it is for the kids... what isn't for the kids?  Making dinner is for the kids.  Tear-free shampoo and body wash are for the kids?  Rice krispie treats are for the kids- no wait, those are for all of us!

 

Anyway- it was raining a tad here on Halloween and the kids were off school on half-term break, so it was not rushed at all.  In fact, we didn't purchase new costumes, but instead, they wore dress up clothes that we have had for years- BONUS!  The older girls went with Dan to about 15 of the neighbour houses and got sub par candy, while I stayed with Emily and wrestled her for the Haribo gummy bears to give out to the 20 visitors we had.  Luckily, our girls understood that Halloween wasn't a major undertaking in England and went with the slow flow of the evening. 

 

 

Emily wore a devil dress, but wasn't really feeling photogenic that evening...

 



 

 

Thanksgiving

Even though Thanksgiving has its historical roots planted in England, they don't celebrate this holiday with America.  So, it was out first experience not doing anything on that day except the usual- going to school and work, making a normal dinner, and getting ready to do it all over on Friday.  Yes, that means NO BLACK FRIDAY... an experience that I oddly enjoy.

Fortunately, we were invited by two American, CAT families, to celebrate the holiday with a traditional meal this past Saturday.  I made homemade rolls, an apple pie, and pumpkin squares (which did not turn out because I couldn't find all the proper ingredients- oh well) to take to our first meal.  We passed on having a second meal, but had a wonderful time having a full social calendar for a day.  Big thanks to the Daugherty and Kirschenmann families!

 

Christmas

Because we are so far north, it is dark here in Northern England.  Not like polar dark, but a day of sunlight is from 7:45 am to 4 pm.  This means that decorations, especially those with lights, are big hits.  Each town has a lightning event where the town squares are "turned on" and Santa shows up.  We have not attended a "switch on" but we hope to catch one in our area soon.

Luckily for me, I am obsessed with the holidays and it makes a lot of loneliness or homesickness fade... grab some popcorn and a hot toddy and take a look! (sorry about the audio at parts... I am a video recording novice!)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRO1acd6tuA&feature=youtu.be

 

Have a wonderful holiday season.

 

Much love!

Kelly

 

York and Scotland...well, Scotland for three hours

Our brief, but adventurous travels abroad

 

 

Well, it has been some time since I last "blogged" and we have put on some serious train miles since last month.

 

As you may remember, Gigi and Fritz visited us in October.  One of the places we travelled to was the city of York.  It is an amazing city with a rich culture and history.  Sadly, our kids don't give two shits about rich culture and history- that is unless it involves Disney Princess culture and/or the history of Barbie movies.  Therefore, we did not do too much sightseeing in York, but we did visit the York Minster, one of the oldest and largest cathedrals in England, and got a Yorkie chocolate bar.  Yorkie chocolate:England :: Hershey chocolate:America (I hated those damn types of standardized test questions... I mean, really, isn't that kind of crap subjective?!?!?).

 

Our first adventure before arriving at York was getting to York via train.  It was our first legit train ride :)

 

Train rides nowadays are pretty comfy and first rate.  Atleast the larger trains that travel farther distances... and kids 5 and under travel free.  That saves the Sandbergs quite a lot of money!!

 

The York Minster is a place of pilgrimage and was originally constructed in the 800s.  Since then, it burnt down several times (as has most everything in this blasted country, I swear) and was raided by William the Conquerer, but it is still, through its many stages of reconstruction, an amazing cathedral.  Guy Fawkes, a name synonymous with English uprising, was born and baptised on the same block as the Cathedral... so the area is steeped in history and just cool to see. 

Emily getting her prayer on at the altar while the older girls played bride and groom (a game they play at every Cathedral where one plays the bride and the other, the groom, and they march down the aisle to get married...whatever works as long as they are well behaved).  Emily needed to get her prayer on- see below.

We quickly noticed that the girls were hungry, restless, and wanting to move on.  Sadly, besides this Cathedral, York offers a ton of touristy locations.  Why is this unfortunate?  Easy answer!  Or kids are too young for days of sightseeing.  So, we took a bus to the nearest playland and let them get all their pent up aggression out on plastic toys and other children.  Our children are a joy to travel with sometimes (please note my sarcasm here).



 

 

 

Scotland

 

Posing...what a gorgeous site.  Both the cuties in the foreground and the amazing view in the backdrop!

Cecelia practicing her photography.

We already knew that we had to travel to Scotland the following Tuesday for a very short trip.  Not being told before we left the States, we had to get a paper notarized by an American notary.  The closest one is located in Edinburgh, Scotland, which is a 2 hour train ride. 

 

Cecelia was all "fashionista" that day so I was compelled to snap photos.  She is standing on the stairway to a huge, old cemetary... not sure she knows that ;)

Our plan: take the train 2 hours to Edinburgh, walk to the American Embassy, get the paper signed, get lunch on our walk back to the train station, and get back on the train to come home.  Since Emily proved, while in York, that travelling was not really her "thing" we knew that she should stay home.  We put her into daycare for a full day (she only attends for 4 hours in the morning normally) and we headed to Scotland.

 

Oustide the train station staring at... I'm not sure.

Everything was on schedule, but the notary with whom WE HAD AN APPOINTMENT was not available until 1 1/2 hours after we reached the US Embassy.  No big deal, right?  Wrong.  We had to sit in a room the size of a small doctor's office and wait- for security reasons, of course.  If you know me well, you will get the following statement.  Asking me to wait in a small room with nothing for my children to do while I am sifted through an incompetent system that should be fool-proof since some chick had only to spend 2 minutes stamping her damn name during the appointment time we made 3 weeks prior IS A SECURITY ISSUE!  I had to practice the little patience given to me by God...but our children were great.  All we kept thinking was "Thank God Emily is having fun with her friends at 'school' because she would have hated this experience."  This "waiting game" gave us approximately 35 minutes to grab lunch before getting on the train. So, all I have to show you are some pictures of amazing sites that we did not have time to explore or even found out what they are. 

 

Edinburgh looks FANTASTIC, and we plan on taking a weekend trip there next year when the girls are a little bit more tolerant of sightseeing.

I have so much to catch up everyone on so look for more posts soon - Halloween experiences, taking Cecelia to London for the weekend, and visiting the Beamish Museum.  

 

 Have a terrific Thanksgiving.  We truly have so much to be thankful for, regardless of which side of the pond we reside.

 

Love to all,

Kelly