Christmas Update!

Santa Came to 12 Craghall Dene this Friday!  Except his name was John Lewis!

This Friday, as I was contemplating making a trip into the ‘Toon’ (city centre) to buy Christmas food (crackers, cheese, chocolate, cakes ect.) a kind British man stood on our door stoop holding a box full of just that!!

Naner and Diddo (Nancy and Dad) were so kind to supply us this year, while we are far away from the Christmas cheer, with the Christmas essential goodies! 

Having all the fun goodies here have made it feel much more Christmasy! Plus I was sooo excited that I didn’t have to trek out into the cold weather and buy a £2.10 metro ticket. 

Here are some of the goodies!! Wine, chutney, crisps (chips), cakes, chocolate, cookies, bark, coffee

The lovely basket as well! can put my throws and blankets in after :)

Our grown card collection! Although we received some today they won't even fit!

My stocking from Mary Ann and Marty :)

We are truly missing Canada at this time of the year, but are also looking forward to our visitors who are coming this New Years Eve.  Our friends Steve (Stumpy) and his girlfriend Kristina are flying into Heathrow International airport London, on December 31^st!  And we are sooo excited to welcome 2012 with some fellow Canadians.  I am thinking our time in London, during NYE will be quite the experience!  I am planning on freezing my fanny off, as it has been pretty cold here lately! 

While they are here, we are also visiting Amsterdam and Scotland!  Should be a great time and I will definitely blog about all our adventures!

Richard, our British potted Christmas Tree, is doing well!  He now has an extension cord and lights :)

All we need is Kirby for this annual Christmas tree picture! :(

The type of Christmas that warms my heart...

December 1^st: Dress up the kid in their Sunday best and hurry on down to Devonshire Mall, where you can wait in an hour long line up at Santa’s Village, and place your child on a complete strangers lap.

???? Why do we do this?  Only for our sweet little darlings to grow up and realize that, “Santa” or “Santa’s helper”, as my mom used to tell me when I asked, “how can Santa be at Devonshire AND Tecumseh mall all at the same time?”  

If you were to ask any Child, “Why does Santa come to your house on Christmas Eve night?” they may respond with, “To give me presents!”  Which I can’t blame them for saying, because we have made Christmas out to be this over commercialized wonderland that screams money!  This year has been so nice to witness some true Christmas traditions that scream love as oppose to money, here is what we have been a part of so far.

It’s hard to believe that I am a primary teacher, I have no decorations up in our flat and it is nearly Christmas!  I am not the type of person who starts decorating for Christmas on Halloween, or starts shopping for Christmas gifts in September, and I am definitely not the type of person who bakes up a storm and plays Christmas music.  

Baking! Hahahah reminds me of the time my mom and I went to a ‘baking exchange’.  We brought a bottle of Baileys.... which explains it all.

What has been amazing this year, are the wonderful people that we have met and the amazing traditions that we have learned and have been a part of.  I hope to share with you the Christmas spirit Ryan and I have been a part of, beginning with Nicci and Dave’s gift to us.

Nicci, I promised to explain more about her from a previous post so here we go.  Nicci, is that kind of person who you seriously aspire to be like.  You know the yellow ‘what would Jesus do’ bracelets?  Well there should be a ‘What would Nicci do’ bracelet, because she truly thinks of others before herself continuously, and is the most thoughtful person I have ever met!

How we met (because I love this story so much):

I met Nicci in an Issues class, in Windsor last year.  We sat across from one another and she spotted my ‘X’ ring.  The lecture was about to begin, but she said “Hey you went to X!  My brother went there”.  Well, let me tell you, when you went to a ‘uni’ that has the population of about 10 people! You become intrigued when people’s brothers have gone to the same one.  The lecture started, so we as good students got quiet and listened in.  I, with my ADD, looked over at Nicci and realized within 10 seconds who her brother was.  I was soooo excited that I blurted it out (OOoopsS!).  “Your brother is Reeder!” Hahahah still makes me laugh.... anywhosy Reeder is Ryan and My really good friend.  He is our MC at our wedding and we cannot wait to visit with him again!

So that is how we met!  Earlier last year Nicci went on to explain how she would be moving to England to teach while her husband attended medical school here at Northumbria University.  At the time I thought, wow! Could you image! Teaching in another country!  So funny to think now that we are both here teaching British students all about how wonderful Canada is!

Nicci, unlike me, has that primary teacher thing going.  She has already decorated her flat, baked up a storm, got her Christmas pictures done, sent out Christmas cards, got Christmas lessons ready for her classes and continued to stay on top with her family, as she calls them, in Tanzania.  Unbelievable!  That to me means Christmas more than any man dressed up as Santa, who is probably getting paid.

Our first Christmas gift this year came from Nicci, she converted pringle cylinders into cookie packages and baked an enormous amount of sugar cookies for more than have the population of Newcastle, kidding! But she did make a lot! Also inside her British cards, was a professionally taken photo of her a Dave, along with a cookie cutter and the recipe for her amazing sugar cookies!  It was sooo thoughtful of her to give us a gift!  Ryan loved the cookies, I quote him saying “These are Legit!” made me wonder why I couldn’t “Be like Nicci!” haha... Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of her lovely gift so you will just have to trust me that they were really cute and well done packages!

Our next gift came promptly on December 6^th which is what the Germans know as, Saint Nikolaos.  Our flat mate, Anne is also one of those ‘let’s bake for Christmas!’ kind of people.  I have already posted about Anne in a previous blog, so you can find out more about her here, Ope.  

Saint Nikolaos is an old German tradition and is consequently where the modern day Santa Claus comes from.  Saint Nikolaos was traditionally known for his miracles, and went on to be notorious for his secret gift-giving.  Saint Nikolaos specifically would place coins into people’s shoes that had been left out on the night of December 5^th.  The tradition changed throughout the centuries, primarily from coins to peanuts, then to sweets and fruits.  Anne explained to me today, that it has become commercialized just like Christmas has, and that children get actual gifts left in their shoes on the night of December 5^th.

Our shoes must have been properly scrubbed and shined because on December 6^th Saint Nikolaos paid a visit to 12 Craghall Dene. 

That morning, as I was getting ready for work (in the dark, because it’s always dark in England) I noticed a basket on our living room table.  I thought Anne, who had just left for work herself, had forgotten the sweets she was bringing to work that day.  I took a closer look at the packages inside the basket and to my excitement one of the packages was labelled ‘For the Canadians’.  Yay!  After work, Ryan and I opened the packages that were left by Saint Nikolaos (Anne).  There was fruit, mince pies (English Danish that is yummy!), Canadian peanut butter (FINALLY!) and maple syrup.  Anne has been asking Ryan to make blueberry pancakes all week, and now I know why!  Hahah she has supplied us with blueberries and maple syrup so on Sunday when we get our Christmas tree we are going to make pancakes.

On a side note I made the German and her British Daniel try our peanut butter and they agreed that it is different than the stuff here and that it is lovely! Aha!