I can’t remember what it was – but one day I was reading something somewhere and a voice in my brain shouted at me 

“St. Paul’s Cathedral! At Christmas-time!” 

I made note of it but then got distracted until I got a Vox from Adri the next day saying 

“St. Paul’s Cathedral! At Christmas-time!” 

Unfortunately I was too late to get tickets to any of the really amazing Christmas services. (For example, the Cathedral choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus.  Can you imagine?! NEXT YEAR.)  But I did remember multiple people telling me that Evensong was always open to the public.  So I chose a day and stressed over the logistics because the kids don’t get out of school until 3:50, Evensong begins at 5:00, and it’s easily a 45 minute trip from their school to the cathedral.  Plus- four kids, by myself, at a choir service in a sound sensitive Cathedral?

I put a little something for each of them in my bag, something to wear with their school uniform to dress it up a little bit, and made them change in their school bathroom.  Then I begged the receptionist to let me leave all their backpacks in the school office overnight and off we went.  They were pretty good about walking quickly to the DLR station, and on the train we talked about cathedrals, and how their beauty and majesty is purposefully designed as a way to express worship and respect for Deity.  I told them that Christmas was a really fun time, and there would be and have been a lot of really fun things, but this was about Jesus Christ and reverence.  They listened remarkably well, and even seemed to absorb what I was saying.  

We got to the Cathedral in time, and found some seats.  The kids all did really well for the most part.  I had to keep Simon entertained by asking him to find paintings, statues and stain-glass images of Jesus throughout the cathedral.  And Miriam fell asleep with her head in my lap by the end of the service.  (The choir voices were really soothing and lovely, and Psalms are just the kind of lullaby that might make one doze off.)

St. Paul’s Cathedral is so beautiful.  Notre Dame was beautiful too, but in a different way.  I’m not an expert in historical architecture, but I think that the Gothic style is lovely, but more dark and broody.  Baroque style is open, full of light and majesty and so brilliant and bright.  The inside of St. Paul’s is really just magnificent.  I think the kids and I were all content to just look around us, with the angelic voices singing along in the background.  

When the service was finished we went outside for a few photos but it was really cold and we were all really hungry.  I was so grateful that the kids had behaved so well that I took them to dinner at Pizza Express and they devoured their food.  (My kids have become lovers of Italian style pizza, with the really thin crust.  And I think they feel fancy when they ask for “Margherita” – which is just plain mozzarella and tomato based sauce.)  

Then we went walking in search of some Paddington bears, but didn’t have much luck as many places were closed already.  But we did see some new places that I would love to go back to during daylight.  (The Museum of London, the Guildhall, and the St. Paul’s churchyard.) 

I first heard of Winter Wonderland when I was reading Tanya’s blog and it immediately became my number one priority for the Christmas season. (That’s a bit pathetic now that I think about it.)  I was seriously so excited.  It just looked so festive, food-y and fun.  The only problem was I couldn’t decide if we should go during daylight at the warmest part of the day, or at night when everything was all lit up.  So I planned it that we could be there during the last couple hours of daylight and into the darkness. (Which fortunately happens at 4:00 during this time of the year.) 

It was a gorgeous day with bright blue skies.  It was cold outside but we dressed warm and we were comfortable for the most part.  (Until the sun went down.)

It was really everything I wanted it to be.  It was so festive.  Christmas music playing, everything was decorated in  Scandinavian and Bavarian themes.  The food.  Oh the food! We tried churros with chocolate, German soft pretzels with melted cheese and bacon, candy, hot choccy…  

But it was soooo crowded. I’m determined to find a way around that next year because it stressed me out a bit and one simply does not want stress at Winter Wonderland.  

We let each of the kids choose two rides and then we just wandered and ate.  

I had to ride the swings.  The swings have always been my favorite carnival ride.  But I must say- it was so cold! It offered rewarding views of the Hyde Park though. 

After we were all pretty well worn out we decided to walk back out a different way than we came in, and realized that we had really only been through a part of the whole fair.  There were more rides, more food and more fun to be had but the money was spent and the kids were getting really cold.  We had a lot of fun and I have one year to convince Eli that the high swings are safe.  

Simon is in what is called Nursery.  A child can be enrolled in Nursery as soon as they turn three, it doesn’t have to be the fall of the calendar year when they turn three, it can be as soon as they are three, the government offers 15 hours of education.  When fall comes around, if your child is 4 they start Reception, and if they are still three they do another year of Nursery.  Miriam is in Reception, which is full-time education two years earlier than in the states.  (In Kuna Miriam would have started kindergarten, which is only half-time.)  I think I’ve explained this before but it’s starting to make more sense to me.  

Nursery and Reception together, are call the Early Years, and operate under a different curriculum than Key Stage One and Key Stage two.  The Early Years curriculum is a theory of learning designed mostly around play.  But I have also noticed how it’s very effective.  Simon was writing his own name within the first couple months of school and Miriam is reading now.  I wish I could take credit for these things, indeed how I wish, but the credit belongs to the school.  

Simon’s Nursery class has no more than 20 children, but always at least four adults.  A classroom teacher, the Nursery coordinator and two teaching assistants.  He loves all his teachers, and they are all really great with the kids.  The team is a really great combination of loving, nurturing, stern and energetic.  Male and female, racially diverse, and across an age span of probably 20+ years.  Miss Julie, Miss Maria, Mr. Mickey, Miss Ahmed and Miss Evelyn.  

Anyway, I wrote all that mostly for journaling purposes.  This post is supposed to be about The Lucas Vale Early Years Christmas Program. 

Considering that at least half of the school is not Christian, Richard and I were pleasantly surprised that they had a Christmas program at all, but especially that it was entirely about Mary, Joseph and the birth of Jesus Christ.  I was also surprised to see all the parents there, snapping photos and just gushing over their singing children.  No one seemed to mind that it was a Christian holiday.  I mentioned this to another parent and she told me about how they celebrate all different types of religious holidays, and throughout the year they will do plays and performances in honor of other  religious festivals.  Eli’s class studied Hinduism last term and will study Buddhism this term.  Cameron says they are perpetually talking about world religions in his class.  It’s as comfortable to the kids as discussing what country they are from or what they like to do on weekends. 

While I understand that separation of church and state is a fundamental part of our country and constitution, Richard pointed out that there was a bit of irony, in that the way the English treat religions in the classroom now feels far more liberating than any elementary school classroom back home.   From our [very limited] experience, no one felt threatened, no one was irate or uncooperative, every parent there seemed to think it was just all about their child’s performance.  It felt very unifying and non-political.  

Miriam and Simon both love performing and so it was a delight to watch them, and all the other kids for that matter. Preschool age kids are so entertaining.   

Right outside Richard’s office there is a big lawn, where they set up all sorts of fun things.  In the summertime there were giant t.v. screens where they showed Wimbledon, and I’ve also seen stages set up for outdoor concerts.  During the holidays they set up an ice skating rink so as part of our Christmas advent activities (that we ended up only doing about 1/3 of) we took the kids.  

Sadly we discovered that Simon wasn’t old enough, so Richard was the camera-man and Simon cried on the sidelines. I don’t think he was sad about not being able to ice skate, I think it was about some other trauma of some sort.  (He wanted “juice” which wasn’t actually juice at all, but alcoholic beverages he saw other people drinking and thought they looked enough like juice.) 

For the first few minutes I was having serious doubts about how smart of an idea of it was for me to go out with three kids who had never ice skated before, but we paid the five pounds for a polar bear and Cameron gradually gained some confidence,  

Cameron really got after it. He fell a lot but he would get back up and keep trying. I was proud of him.  He had pouted the entire train ride to Canary Wharf about how stupid ice skating was, but then he really had a good time.  It’s nice that he is at an age where he can change his mind about something, and he also doesn’t quite have the stubborn genes like one of my other children, who once he makes up his mind that he isn’t going to like something, he never will like it. I won’t mention any names…

Eli on the other hand was really excited to try ice skating, but I had my fears that all it would take was one fall and he would be done.  He doesn’t often like to take risks or put forth a lasting effort when something gets difficult or feels unsafe.  But he stuck with it too, and by the time we left was begging to go around one more time.  

Miriam was hot and cold.  She loved some moments and then would cry and panic a little in other moments.  As long as I kept her close to me she had a good time.  But her ice skates were either too big or too small or just generally uncomfortable which contributed to her misery. 

Despite each of their hang-ups all three kids were disappointed when it was time to go home.  So I guess it’ll be on the calendar next year too! (Except I think I’ll let Richard have the pleasure of being on the ice and I’ll stay behind with the camera and the alcoholic beverages. Ahem. Just kidding.) 

There are so many Christmas markets in London.  There are also so many events and festivals and obligations in December too.  I’d heard that the Southbank Christmas Market was not to be missed so Simon and I checked it out.  The afternoon started out sunny enough, but don’t be fooled.  It was COLD.  

I’d never been to the South bank before, and it seems like a happening place.  It is just across the river from Westminster and Whitehall and that fun part of the city.  There are restaurants all along the river walkway and it’s close to the London Eye. Sometimes when I go out by myself I make mental lists about potential date nights, but those never happen so the list is getting really long.  

The market was really festive, there were Santa Claus street buskers (that Simon seemed to be both attracted to and afraid of) and a youth school choir singing carols.   

There was so much delicious food and I had wanted to buy a Christmas ornament but I forgot to get cash.  So we bought a waffle with what money I did have and it was divine.  It wasn’t nearly enough for the two of us though.   The waffle texture and flavor was so good and the bacon and maple syrup were a bonus.  (I wouldn’t normally have chosen the bacon and maple waffle, but I was sharing with no-dairy Simon so it was our best choice.)  

We wandered through the market for a bit, but I wasn’t having any luck finding a cash machine so we decided to cross the river and spot a few more Paddington bears on the trail through Westminster.  

We walked along the river, in front of Whitehall, which is beautiful up close.  I’d never walked there before.  And then my phone died, totally randomly.  I had no way of finding the Paddington statues without my phone and it was so cold outside that we just went to a cafe, ate brownies and hot chocolate and then took the train home.  

Flexibility is the name of the game for London outings.  I was disappointed that it wasn’t the experience I had hoped for, and sometimes going to the city feels like such an effort that I hate it when it feels wasted.  But I remind myself not to lose perspective.  Any outing in London is worthwhile.  

Miriam turned FIVE on December 3.  She begged for a braid in her hair and she wanted it so badly she even sat still.  I do not excel in hair styling so I was really pleased that it looked nice, and it even stayed in all day.  I took a few pictures of her and I don’t often see resemblances in my children, but I think she definitely looks like me in the photo on the bottom right.  

That night when we went to dinner our friends were shocked that we made her wait all day to open her presents.  I know that a lot of people open birthday gifts in the morning, but it always feels too rushed, and until we moved to London, Richard was never around in the mornings.   

I’m a bit of a dead-beat mother when it comes to birthday celebrations at school.  But it’s hard to know how teachers feel about it, it seems like each class is different.  Not to mention the food allergies and preferences of parents about their children receiving treats at school.  AND providing goodie-bags or even cupcakes for all four of my kids in their classes could get expensive.  So I didn’t do anything for Mim at school, and she was disappointed, but I didn’t feel too badly about it.  My kids are not deprived.  

At first I let Miriam choose which restaurant she wanted to eat her birthday dinner at, but then I over-rode her decision. Poor girl. I had heard of a double-decker bus that had been converted into a pizza restaurant so I suggested that, and she was sold.  We invited our friends Mike and Cindy to come too.  (With Kayden and Tyler.) 

After dinner we went home for cake and ice cream and to open Miriam’s gifts.  Mike and Cindy were joking about how cruel it is to let her open her gifts and then send her straight to bed.  Which is exactly what ended up happening. 

“Here are some lovely toys to look at but you can’t play with them! Goodnight!”

From Mom & Dad,  Mim got a jump-rope, the Playmobil she picked out from Hamley’s, and a dress from Chinatown. 
From Kayden & Tyler she got a My Little Pony and a Melissa & Doug craft. 
From Baca & Grandpa Hall an Elsa cape. 
From Baca & Grandpa Bird a French fan.

Miriam is such a paradox.  I know I’ve written about her contradictory personality traits before, and I smile when I read through them again.  They all remain perfectly true.  Tough and tender. Sensitive and sassy.  Mild and wild. 

She will be physical and tough with her brothers, and nestled in her dad’s lap minutes later.  She will be mouthy and snarky at the boys, but devastated when they are mouthy and snarky at her.  She can be so hyper I want to lock her up and then a few minutes later she’ll be sucking her thumb and dozing off on the couch.  

Miriam is intense.  She feels things deeply, like her mom.  She loves with loyalty and feels betrayal painfully.  If you’re familiar with the color codes, Miriam would be best described as YELLOW with a splash of blue.  At school she is friendly and outgoing.  It is hard for her to sit still and hard for her when kids don’t like her, but most kids do.  The older kids at the school love to chat and play with her and she loves to be nurturing and playful with the younger siblings of her friends in the mornings at drop-off and on the bus.  At home, Mim loves her alone time.  She will play quietly in her room for long periods of time and she has a colorful imagination.  But she can also be a couch potato.  She loves cartoons and movies.  Miriam loves attending social activities! Birthday parties, church activities, play dates; keep this girl’s calendar booked!  

She has learned to read, which is one of my favorite milestones as a parent.  The delight and discovery and satisfaction that she expresses when she reads a street sign or a word or a book is so fulfilling.  

She has picked up on a few English words and phrases like “paster” instead of pasta, “tell him off” instead of tattle-taling, and she uses the word “proper” all the time, but in different context than American’s do.  I like to think of “proper” as real, or legitimate.  A “proper” birthday cake must have sprinkles.  

And she also says “Mummy.”  Boy does she say it.  She says it in a high-pitched shrieky kind of whine. “Mummy mummy mummy!!!” 

We love her dearly.  She is such a spicy addition to our family dynamic and when we are dragging our feet through the city streets, we can always count on Mim to be skipping and humming, making life a little more upbeat.  

On the first Saturday of December we bought a Christmas tree, brought it home, and then I sent Richard and the boys back out the door during Miriam’s birthday party.  The family rule is that you get to have a party with friends when you turn five and when you turn eight.  So this was Mim’s first “friend” party.  

But first- the Christmas tree.  

Even Fancy Nancy knows that it’s always Mom who gets to pick the tree.  It was almost the shortest tree there, but my Christmas motto this year was to keep it simple, and since we  had less than ten ornaments I figured small was fabulous.  

They had this nifty device to bag the tree up for you and Richard said he wanted one to put the kids through when they got too crazy.   It was nice though, because we bought the tree at the local market, so Richard had to carry it home in his arms and this was much easier.  

I’ll pause here to say that I know that there are mothers/parents out there who are very careful to distinguish December birthdays from Christmas, and perhaps they are shuddering at my obvious lack of doing so, but Mim loved every minute of the jumbled day, whether it was Christmas or her birth that we were celebrating.  

We didn’t have time to decorate the tree before the party. So back to that later..

I saw on Tanya’s blog that she had done a little painting party for her daughter.  We live really close to where they lived so I asked her the name of the shop and called them.  The way it works is that you go to the shop, buy the ceramics you want to paint, and then they lend you the painting supplies and you can do all the painting in your own home.  It was really simple and worked out really well.  (Except I just realized the other day – weeks after the party- that I never picked up the finished products after glazing. Ha!)

We just invited four girls, and Svana couldn’t come because she was sick.  So it was just four of them all together.  I forgot to take photos of the painting, but they had a really fun time with it, despite the three of us mothers wanting them to do it our way. 

After painting we played BINGO and then had cake and ice cream.  

After the party the boys all came home and we decorated the Christmas tree.  We cut out paper chains and hung the few ornaments we’ve collected from our travels and that Baca Hall sent us.

For the life of me I couldn’t get any decent pictures.  My camera is still a mystery to me.   

A few weeks ago I was shopping with my friend Cindy.  She is the mother of Eli’s best buddy Kayden, and she and her husband are both first generation Londoners.  By that I mean, her parents and her husband’s parents are all Vietnam-born Chinese.  They came to the UK during the Vietnam war and Cindy and Mike and their siblings were all born here. 

Cindy and I were chatting about Christmas, and she mentioned that she likes to work on Christmas Day for the financial perks it offers.  I expressed pity that she would have to work on Christmas and she pointed out that they aren’t Christians.  I asked her if the claimed a religion and she said not really, but if they did it would be Buddhism and ancestor worship.  (Both things I feel I can personally appreciate and relate to.)   She said they celebrate Christmas for its secular traditions and fun.  They get a Christmas tree and gifts and Christmas jumpers and Christmas crackers.  Then she made an off-hand comment about how funny it is that Christmas has become so much about receiving gifts, and how did that relate to the birth of the Savior exactly?  She wasn’t being snarky, just asking. 

Cindy and Mike are fantastic friends.  They are all the things we strive to be- generous, friendly and kind.  I’m so grateful for them.  And I’m so grateful that my own parents taught me about the value of other individuals and their varying beliefs.  My dad gave me a quote a few years ago that says  

“We find comfort among those who agree with us and growth among those who don’t.” (Frank Clark.) 

I grew up in Idaho, surrounded by members of my own faith, and then Christians beyond that.  Living here in London, in the particular part of the city we live, Christianity is significantly less popular.  There are Hindus, Buddhists, Atheists, and Muslims at my children’s school.  This has really caused a lot of reflection on my part about what it means for me to believe in Christ.  As I’ve thought about it and I’ve thought about what the life of Christ has meant to my life, I have realized that being a Christian is as much a part of me as my Hall skin tone and my DeSavigny laugh.  I can’t imagine a world without Jesus Christ.  

I am so grateful for my testimony of the Savior of the world.  I am grateful for His example, His Atonement and His grace.  

“Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.” – 2 Corinthians 9:15

To kick off Christmas festivities I took the kids to the Greenwich lantern parade and tree lighting.  Greenwich is easy to get to from the kid’s school so we left straight from there.  It gets dark so early that the lantern parade was at 4:30 in the afternoon.  We had trouble figuring out where exactly we needed to go to see the parade but once we did it was fun to watch them go by.  The lanterns were all made by local school children, but I couldn’t get very good photos.  

After the parade passed by us, we worked our way to Greenwich Market, where the parade would finish and they would light the tree.  The kids got a little impatient because they couldn’t see what was going on at the front, but as soon as someone started a countdown they got really excited and everything lit up.  

We bought some treats at the market, and a balloon maker made Mim and Simon an Elsa balloon and a Rudolph balloon. Simon’s balloon popped before the day was through, but Mim’s Elsa balloon is still hanging around the house, albeit a little deflated, and it’s been a few weeks.  

Thanksgiving day here in London was just another day.  Richard went to work, I took the kids to school.  I was feeling pretty glum about it, wishing I was in a home full of people with delicious foods baking and taunting, football watched and played, and between dinner preparations periods of pure laziness.  My house was quiet, there was nothing baking, and it didn’t feel like Thanksgiving at all.  It was definitely my most homesick day up to this point.  It made me think a lot about missionaries, and how hard it must be to be away from family. I at least still had the company of Richard and the kids, and they say misery loves company. 

The day went from bad to worse when I got a flat tire on the way home from picking up Simon from school.  Getting a flat tire here was a highly stressful experience in and of itself.  When I realized it, there was no place to pull over, there aren’t many parking lots and the streets are so narrow and busy that there just isn’t space to stop moving.  Finally I got away from the busy road and a man helped me park out of the traffic.  Then he wished me luck and went on his merry way.  There was no spare tire in the car (they try to make them as small as possible, essentials only) and I couldn’t leave the car there because it was illegally parked.  The car is also a rental, so anything we do has to be done through KPMG and the rental agency. Fortunately Richard came to the rescue and I came home and felt sorry for myself the rest of the day.  

Fortunately we planned our big Thanksgiving feast for Saturday, and invited the two missionary couples/companionships from our ward over to enjoy it with us.  I was so nervous about cooking a turkey and making gravy that I did a practice turkey and a practice gravy.  (Ironically, the practice turkey turned out better than the real turkey.) It was really hard to make a proper Thanksgiving feast with the resources and ingredients I have here.  I couldn’t make a graham cracker crust, so I improvised with Belvita biscuits.  I didn’t have my pie tins, or a roasting pan, or a few other kitchen utensils.  I couldn’t get jello for rainbow jello, and there were a few other things that I’ve already forgotten were missing  But all in all it turned out really delicious and we had good company.