An English Christmas!

The journey to western England starts in France at 4:30am Thursday morning. After a worrying three hours through the snow, we make it to Calais and get on the P&O Ferry to Dover, England. As you can see, very cold, gray, and rainy. It takes about an hour and a half of wild riding to get across the channel. Then we skirt around London and drive another 4 hours to arrive at Weston-Super-Mare on the western english coast where Paul's grandma lives.

can you make out the white cliffs?

Christmas eve is spent shopping for last minute presents and then spending hours wrapping then up and eating chocolate. Here's the beautiful tree... 

Paul's dad Pascal opening some presents. Probably model cars, he got quite a few...

After opening stockings and presents we had breakfast and got dressed to relax before lunch. We went out for a nice walk in the snow, and then come back and the power went out. In the middle of the day, it doesn't make that much a difference for getting around, but unfortunately the turkey was not quite done. So we had a nice cold lunch, and then power came back on. We decided to take advantage and watch a nice Christmas classic, Home Alone. Right as the credits came on, power went out again. Now it was dark and candles had to be lit. Then some friends came over and turned it into a party. So candles were everywhere, and you had to take a light to the bathroom. Luckily this time, power was restored after only an hour and the turkey was finished in time for a traditional English Christmas dinner. We also had these popper things with crowns (which we put on right away) and small gifts inside. 

Margaret, Myra, Ann, Paul, Pascal, Elena, Pierre, Kelsey

Other really yummy english food included: cottage pie (ground beef and vegetables with a pie crust topping), mince pies (best with brandy butter), christmas pudding (i don't know what's it's made out of, but we poured brandy over it and lit it on fire then ate it with cream), mini pork pies, fish and chips, and pasties.