Christmas in London
Our Christmas Day was a quiet one, with many of our colleagues and friends being out of the city; and, of course, with our family being far away. London took on a wholly different aspect from what we are used to -- it was very quiet for several days, with comparatively few people on the street and very little traffic. A great many of the residents had gone "home" to the country or other cities to be with family. Kathi prepared a wonderful traditional dinner with all the expected dishes including two of our family traditional favorites -- scalloped corn casserole and broccoli and cauliflower casserole.
Kathi played a role in the children's Christmas pageant at church (there were several adult roles) -- she was the "good inkeeper" who let the Holy Family use her stable. She looked fetching in Chuck's bathrobe! We also helped with the decorations of the church, which looked beautiful. (Unfortunately, we never remembered to take a camera to church and get some pictures.)
There were also several very nice social gatherings in the days before the Holiday itself. We attended a dinner at the vicar's house (he is single and did all the cooking) with about 12 other people from our church; and we co-hosted a "progressive" dinner party of couples from the Officers' Wives of London social group (which Kathi is a member of) about a week before Christmas. We hosted the appetizers and main course portion with another couple in our building (Chuck's commanding officer and his wife) hosting the dessert course. There was also a very nice "sherry and mince pies" gathering at the home of our church curate and his wife.
On Christmas Eve we took a LONG walk with another couple to view the various parts of London with Christmas lights and window displays; it turned out to be another of those 7 or 8 mile walks which seem to be something one automatically does in London. The most spectacular windows were in the famous and very expensive Harrod's Department store; the most enjoyable street lighting was in Regent Street and in Carnaby Street (remember Carnaby Street from the 70's?). There are some pictures at:
http://chuck.smugmug.com/Holidays. We're sorry that all the pictures seem to be of "secular" sites -- store windows and street lights. As we said earlier, this is largely because we never remembered to take the camera to church and because these just happened to be the places we got photos of.
Kathi played a role in the children's Christmas pageant at church (there were several adult roles) -- she was the "good inkeeper" who let the Holy Family use her stable. She looked fetching in Chuck's bathrobe! We also helped with the decorations of the church, which looked beautiful. (Unfortunately, we never remembered to take a camera to church and get some pictures.)
There were also several very nice social gatherings in the days before the Holiday itself. We attended a dinner at the vicar's house (he is single and did all the cooking) with about 12 other people from our church; and we co-hosted a "progressive" dinner party of couples from the Officers' Wives of London social group (which Kathi is a member of) about a week before Christmas. We hosted the appetizers and main course portion with another couple in our building (Chuck's commanding officer and his wife) hosting the dessert course. There was also a very nice "sherry and mince pies" gathering at the home of our church curate and his wife.
On Christmas Eve we took a LONG walk with another couple to view the various parts of London with Christmas lights and window displays; it turned out to be another of those 7 or 8 mile walks which seem to be something one automatically does in London. The most spectacular windows were in the famous and very expensive Harrod's Department store; the most enjoyable street lighting was in Regent Street and in Carnaby Street (remember Carnaby Street from the 70's?). There are some pictures at:
http://chuck.smugmug.com/Holidays. We're sorry that all the pictures seem to be of "secular" sites -- store windows and street lights. As we said earlier, this is largely because we never remembered to take the camera to church and because these just happened to be the places we got photos of.
posted by Chuck and Kathi Calvano @ 3:07 PM
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