The Tales of An Anglo-American Mormon Family: February 2015

I continue writing about Christmas, even though we are somehow now in February. With all the parties, baking, caroling, church Christmas programs, sightseeing, and shopping, Christmas was soon upon us. During the day on Chirstmas Eve, the little girls and I spent the morning making Christmas hampers for a few friends. The hampers always end up being one step too far, but I still loved making the stuff: beetroot and cranberry chutney, pickled fennel, gingerbread biscotti, chocolates, and hot chocolate mix. I also put cheese and biscuits in the hampers as well, but they weren't homemade. The finished product was pretty cool, I thought:

Christmas Even we had our traditional fish soup, made with saffron and tilapia, both of which are meant to be reminiscent of Jesus. Tilpia is also known as 'St. Peter's fish', as it is supposed to be the fish which Peter caught when Jesus said 'Let down your nets'. And saffron - well, they had saffron in Jesus's time, and it gives the soup a gold color, so I figure Jesus is King of Kings, and gold is the color of kings. It's a stretch but it works for us. We also had our cheese board, bread, etc., plus homemade mince pies for dessert.

     Then it was onto our traditional family nativity play, where we act out the Christmas story as a family, read scriptures, sing carols, etc. Abigail managed to secure the role of Mary, Samuel of course was Joseph, and Tim took on his usual role as the donkey.
     Finally it was bedtime! Stockings were hung up and treats were left for Santa and the reindeer. Suffice it to say that Tim and I got to bed much, much later than the children.
     Christmas morning we did the whole stocking thing - the Bleakley tradition is that stockings are hung up in the children's rooms, and the children open their stockings when they wake up and before they come downstairs, and then then all come into our room with their stocking gifts and watch Tim and I open our stockings. This year the kids woke up and opened their stockings at about 3am, so we heard lots of screams and shouts in the middle of the night and I had to go upstairs to tell them to be quiet. But somehow, miraculously, they all went back to sleep, and slept so soundly that I woke up at about 8:30am to a completely quiet house! I had to end up waking them up on Christmas morning!
     We had a lovely breakfast with our now traditional 'Christmas casserole' - a succulent bread, egg, sausage and cheese creation, with the addition of peppers and dill to make it even more fabulous. And then it was time for the present-opening fest.

The Christmas tree on Christmas morning, with Abigail trying on her new lipstick

Tim gets his big gift - a Go Pro camera, which he insisted was way too cool for him

I had done most of the cooking for the Christmas dinner in the few days before, so the mammoth task of the traditional English Christmas feast was significantly less mammoth, and we actually ate at a relatively early hour. The kids would never forgive me if I didn't put on the familiar spread: turkey, roast potatoes, gingerbread stuffing, Brussels and chestnuts, mashed swede and carrot, roasted parsnips, chipolatas wrapped in bacon, red cabbage and cranberry sauce. So that's what we had, with a Christmas pudding that had been cooked to perfection in ... the pressure cooker.
The day after Christmas we followed another family tradition: the Boxing day walk. It was very odd walk in the sun rather than in the cold and clouds, but we still had a lovely walk. We went to Torrey Pines near La Jolla and did a combination of a sort of forest walk/sea cliff walk.

Abigail walking along the trail

The sea cliffs at Torrey Pines

Samuel and Georgiana

The next day we took Grandma and Grandpa to see Old Town San Diego. We took them first to the Mormon Battalion, and then to see the old buildings and shops in the old town square. We loved the old fashioned candy store, and the candle store, where the kids got to dip candles.

Dipping candles in Old Town

And then, there was a miracle of miracles. What I forget to mention is that it had actually been rather cool during Christmas. It was getting down to freezing every night, and perhaps getting up to the 50's during the day. And then, on 31 December, it SNOWED in Julian, which is just up the mountain from us about 20 miles away. So it was absolutely clear to us what we had to do. All other plans and commitments had to be dropped, and we had to go to Julian, immediately. Unfortunately the whole of the population of San Diego had the same idea, so the tiny town was overrun with people. But we still had a great time.

Georgie and Verity in the Julian snow

Cabin in Julian

A tiny Julian street

Samuel helps Verity through the snow

Trees in Julian

When we got home, we made ourselves hot chocolate and threw in a gingerbread biscotti (a current obsession):

On New Year's Day, I got to spend the day grading exams. Yeaa! I'm a bit of a bah-humbug type of person when it comes to New Year's anyway, so I didn't mind so much. But Shirley and Dave were leaving soon, so they needed to get out for one last excursion. They chose to go see some very ships down in the San Diego harbor. Dave, I know, was in heaven. But as for Shirley, I'm not so sure ....