Whew one month into 2023! Are we late or what in regards to our holiday tidings ;). Our last tidings focused on the stress and craziness that we came back to after our summer travels and our one-year anniversary abroad. Despite that, fall was a net positive experience for us. We traveled less, embraced the holidays, and kept working on building our community. Here are a few highlights!
Steam Back to the Forties
Every year the North Norfolk Railway holds a Steam Back to the Forties event. Our kids love trains and we love history. We thought it would be fun to try out this event. It SUCH a fun September day! The railway is a steam train that runs from Holt to Sheringham in Norfolk (Nor-FUK).
This happened one or two weeks after we got back from Greece. The cold, grey weather felt like a slap in the face. Jackets and hats made up our wardrobe that day. Maybe 50-75% of attendees were dressed up in character for the forties and we were dressed for The Day After Tomorrow. It felt like we were in a real movie set and showed up for the wrong movie ;). It did feel like a movie set though.
Shut your eyes and allow me to paint the picture! The train stations are old and probably haven’t been renovated since the forties. Kids walked around holding shoe polishing signs while in costume. You hear a steam train whistle and chitter chatter. Ladies and gents walked around wearing seamed stockings (i.e., the black line up the back of the legs) and carrying wicker baskets looped around bent elbows. Train stations had black out signs pinned to the brick wall. Other WWII related signage adorned the remaining space. Just around the corner of the platform in the grass, you’d find military camp set ups. Soldiers dressed up playing cards or officers walking between tents. It was real feeling!
Our kids played with some toys popular back in that era. A kind gentlemen told them how each worked. A trio of Andrew Sisters-inspired female singers had us dancing on one platform. Some delicious local hard cider led to us buying a box of it. We rode all the different steam train cars back and forth between the cities, because the insides were different. We wanted to experience them all. The ticket officer who walked up and down the train, played his role in the forties very well, and made us chuckle.
If we go back next year, we definitely need to up our game. The event surprised us in every way imaginable. The fact everyone seemed to be owning the experience also made us wonder why. Upon reflection we wondered if it has to do with England citizens being more directly affected by the war than the US in terms of physical proximity to the action. Perhaps it has cultivated more of that desire to honor that part of the history and heritage. This is all conjecture on our end. We haven’t really seen immersive events on that scale before back when we lived in the US. Not to say they haven’t occurred but it was a new experience for us.
London Weekends
We like to visit London as often as we can. It’s only about 30 GBP for a return train trip on the same day for our whole family. There’s lots of free stuff to do there making it more affordable than going out to eat, or even bowling!! It sounds weird to actualize that. Every few months we splurge and try to see a musical in London’s West End. I know you’re shocked *sarcasm* to read that we only do this if we can get same day discount deals. I will say budget experiences is why we get to do so many!
In the fall we saw Mary Poppins. The trip was quite an adventure. Kevin felt a bad stomach ache once we got on the train to London. He thought it was hunger pain, but it lasted throughout the day. A spoonful of sugar and all that jazz did not work out for him. Getting a sudden urge to throw up during Mary Poppins let him feel better for the remainder of the day. It was likely some quick stomach bug since it then passed through our house over the following week. Despite this, Mary Poppins was a smashing success for our family. Lil Fox asked to listen to the musical soundtrack at least once, if not twice a day, for about a month after. It really didn’t stop until we went back to the States for Christmas. Our whole family can probably put on the whole song and dance by now. You know it was getting to be a bit much when I’d catch myself singing, “It’s a Jolly Holiday with you Bert” with a little quick two step when no one was around, no music was on, and I’m washing dishes.
Our First Official Visitors
Technically, our first visitor was one of our good friends who came over here for a work trip. We met him out a few times and it felt really good to have that sense of home and deep connection with someone we haven’t quite made here yet. Then we had my parents who made the trip to stay with us for pleasure in late October through early November! We hung around our city for a few days, took them to London to see the sights (btw I had no idea my mom was so hard core about Buckingham Palace, you go girl!), and then we went off on a holiday with them to the Amalfi Coast and Capri, Italy.
Getting to show them around the city we live in, where Lil Fox and Hedgehog go to school, and some other daily aspects of our life felt like a nice way to share a piece of our life outside of blog posts. With that said, if anyone is ever curious about anything, for example, what a library looks like – just let us know. We can always send you a picture or make a short post about it. It’s always hard to predict what people want to hear about, or if they even want to hear anything. If you haven’t noticed I can’t resist telling a good (at least in my mind, ha) story so I’m happy to continue to hone my skills in any writing subject.
Christmas Season in the UK
For Christmas season we tried some new things! We skipped going to see Christmas lights at an estate like we did last year. It’s very expensive (in our opinion) but nice to do every so often. Instead, we visited Enchanted Audley Railway to ride the miniature steam train and meet Santa. The kids loved that and was a great way to kick off the Christmas season. Pantomimes are a British Christmas tradition so we went to our first one with another family we know. It was fun! We saw Dick Whittington and his Cat. Pantomimes are a representation of British humor and feature a drag queen. They also require audience participation, like booing or shouting phrases. We found the show amusing and most of it funny.
Just before we went back to the States for Christmas to visit some family, we received our first snowfall in England! It wasn’t much but we went through a cold front so it stuck around for several days. The snow came on Sunday so we couldn’t bike to school on Monday. We rallied and took the bus. Kevin helped run the kids to the bus stop with me. We even saw a random act of kindness where a lady paid for a gentleman’s ticket because his card wasn’t working.
She sprung out of her seat before he walked off the bus and paid for it, dropping her dry cleaning on the snow-melted, slush floor. He thanked her and said he was new to the country and the card he had from his old country wasn’t working for some reason. I was so touched, and a bit choked up by this, that I about stood up and yelled, “the next round of drinks is on me.” Then I realized we were on a bus, not a bar and made my emotional sore throat go away. The kids loved riding the bus, of course, and it felt nice to put the snow boots to use. Since we don’t get a lot of snow in this part of England, many people don’t own proper snow attire, which makes sense. While understanding that rationale, it’s a bit surreal to see people walking through snow in tennis shoes!
Home for the Holidays
Later that week we packed up and set out to head back the US. It was nice to see loved ones and a bit hectic trying to see everyone while going through sickness, partial time zone adjustments, and all that jazz. Fresh snow made a debut so we were fortunate to experience sledding and playing in the snow before the rain washed it away. We’re sorry about not having enough time to see everyone either.
Well that’s a wrap for the “holiday letter.” For those of you who love following them, we hope to share more stories of our travels soon!
