This was the first year Brian and I have been away from home for Christmas. Well, actually that is not true. Brian spent his first year away from home last year while writing his dissertation. I was still able to be back in Minnesota/Iowa. It doesn't seem that long ago! So this was officially my first Christmas away from family. I'll admit, it was a bit tough on Christmas Eve not able to attend church and have dinner with everyone like I've done for 29 years! But if we had to spend Christmas abroad, Oxford was a pretty okay place to be!Christmas Eve we kept busy enough. I actually had to work all day at my little shop, and Brian worked too. I was a bit sad all day, but we did all wear Santa hats, had treats in the shop and Christmas music on, so by the end of the day I was feeling more in the spirit. After we locked up, a few of the girls shared bottle of bubbly before we headed our separate ways. I came home to a nice vegetarian dinner made by my hubby, and we relaxed a bit before heading off to the midnight church service. We chose to go to Christ Church Cathedral again, since we enjoyed their Easter service, and because it's an amazing Cathedral and has a wonderful choir. We decided to walk into town, about a 30 minute walk. Mainly so we would stay awake and wanted to get there ahead of time. The service was very nice, but not as Christmasy as I was hoping. We only sang one Christmas song at the very end and only one of the lessons told the story of Jesus' birth. The rest of the service just seemed like a regular traditional service. But I suppose we're not familiar with the Church of England's annual service plans (or however I would call that) so it's always an experience if nothing else. Also, the Brits seem to really be into organized carol services held at churches and community centers leading up to Christmas. Usually they are free, but you have to get a ticket ahead of time for a seat. We didn't know this until after the fact, so next year we'll check it out. But sounds like at these services they sings lots of Christmas carols and alternate with Christmas readings and such. Our service also included communion, which I partaked in. Although I was surprised to see only about 50% of the attendees also did. It seemed all the same as we're used to, except that everyone drinks wine from the same goblet, and they just wipe it off. Kinda gave me the creeps and really wonder how that doesn't spread sick germs around. Oh, and the wine tasted much different than the Lutheran wine. We walked home and it was really amazing to be walking the streets of Oxford on Christmas Eve at 1 a.m.!
On Christmas morning, we opened a couple of Christmas crackers, and Brian donned on the paper hat from his cracker, and we played out the charades included. A cracker is a decorated paper tube with twisted ends, which you pull apart. When the cracker breaks, it "pops" and out tumbles a little hat, joke and trinket of some type. They are extremely popular here, and usually are pulled once you sit down for a proper Christmas meal. We had some great presents shipped to us from my family in the States. It was so great to have presents to open on Christmas morning! Also our good friends in Eugene, Jeannette and hubby Dave sent us some fun American treats as well. Thanks guys! Had a quick breakfast cause then we had to make an apple crumble for bringing to our Christmas dinner at Brian's advisor's house. 
About 2 p.m. Brian's advisor Ian, picked us up as well as our other American neighbors Matt and Donna and their girls. I just realized this now, but I had wanted to watch the Queen's Christmas speech at 3 p.m. on the tellie, and I totally forgot to watch! Although now I guess she's technologically advance, and they are showing it on YouTube for the first year ever. So I'll look that in when I'm done blogging! Ian and his wife Katie, and their three kids, Alex, Nathaniel and Clair were the lovely hosts. As you've read before, we've actually been to their house now for three holidays. Easter, 4th of July and Christmas. It was so nice for us to have a place to go and relax and be merry for the day. We visited for a bit with drinks, and then sat for dinner about 4:30. And boy did we have a proper Christmas meal! We weren't officially done until about 8:30! We had about 5 courses and it was all wonderful. Especially since the main course was a huge roast beef from Scotland! I was in heaven. 
Good thing there was a veggie option for Brian. :) But we had a starter of broccoli soup. Then the main including; roast beef, green salad, bread, green beans, roasted potatoes (they roast them instead of mashed, and properly cooked in goose fat) and a squash gratin. The next 2-3 courses we get confused about. Because there is pudding and there is dessert. Over here, they often call desserts - puddings. But we had sort of both, and don't know which was first. Let's just say the pudding was first. This was then the crumble I made and a trifle Donna made. Then we had tea and coffee after that. Then we had another very Christmasy treat over here called a Christmas Pudding. Think of sort of a really heavy fruit cake, that doesn't really taste all that great, but you have it anyway since it's traditional.
And it's served with brandy butter. Major calories! Oh, and you pour brandy on the cake and light it on fire first. So fun for tradition. After that, we had dessert, which is a cheese platter, fruit and port. Lastly, we had more port and chocolates. Whew! We had to be rolled home. 
Good thing the kids there had a Wii, so we could play some video games and burn off a few of the calories! Not long after dinner it was time to head home so we could call our families back in the US.Now I see the enjoyment of Boxing Day, so you can walk off the calories from Christmas! Like I said before, everything is still closed on Boxing Day since it's a national holiday. So Brian and I slept in after a late night on the phone. Once we were up, Brian had made a yummy veggie egg tart for breakfast for something special and fun. Then we took a really nice long walk around North Oxford and along the canal. We baked some sugar cookies with a recipe from Grandma Anderson in Two Harbors and they were yummy! Then watched the classic American Christmas movie - A Christmas Story. Pretty good Boxing Day!
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