This year I (Lyana) have been way busier than ever during these days leading up to Christmas. I am not sure what I am doing differently this time, but it seems that I am constantly trying to catch up on my list of things to do. Blogging is part of it.
For now you get a random update from the Watsons:
*Did you know that kids in the UK exchange Christmas cards the same way American kids exchange Valentine cards? And they are not afraid to offend anyone by saying “Merry Christmas” around here.
*Neighbors we hardly know stop by and drop off their Christmas cards in our mailbox. These cards are never picture cards like the ones that are popular with Americans—always regular beautiful Christmas cards signed by hand.
*I thought mince pie is actually a savory dish with minced meat. Am I the only one who didn’t know it is a sweet tart looking thing with a variety of fruit inside?
*Traditional Christmas fruit cakes do exist and are very popular here.
*Still on the subject of Christmas, it is so wonderful to be living in a country that celebrates Christmas big time! These guys don’t have Thanksgiving so right after a slight attempt to celebrate Halloween, people start getting ready for Christmas. Santa’s Grottos are everywhere (that’s what they call a place where you can go and meet Santa:). Next year, we should go to Lapland, because that’s where Santa actually lives-haha.
*It’s kind of nice that because most of my Christmas shopping is done online, I have to do it way in advance for packages to come on time. That means I can relax a bit more a week before Christmas (maybe?)
*British people are funny (and blunt) and reserved at the same time. I think what makes them even funnier is the fact that THEY think they are soooo funny-hahaha.
*We cannot get mad at Alex when he speaks in a very proper British accent, completely naturally. It drives Katya crazy!
*Oh yeah! Our house is FREEZING! In a week, British Gas company is coming to get our wall cavity insulated around the house, hope that helps. Still waiting for our landlord to decide whether or not they want to install double-glazed windows in the house. Right now ours are sooooo drafty that we are simply heating the outside. We have fourteen windows in my house (some of them are quite small), and the quote one guy gave me was about $10K for them to be replaced with new energy efficient ones. We are offering our landlord a three month rent payment in advance to help to pay for it, because pretty soon we’ll have to give them our ultimatum—do the windows or we are moving out at the end of the summer. Not something we’d like to do…..argh…but a house in officer housing might open up with four bedrooms…and we could move there then.
*British winters are cold. For some reason, I thought that this year I won’t even get to wear my warm down coat that I used in Misawa. Ha! The cold here gets you to your bones! Misawa was a tropical paradise compared to this—haha, with some fun snow added to the mix. It’s very foggy here a lot of the time too. Gotta plan a skiing vacation for next winter.
*Speaking of vacations, it seems British plan out their vacations way in advance! And they travel quite a bit. I should say, Europeans in general travel quite a bit. And a lot of Europeans have been to the states (but not to Japan
). Oh wait, British are not European-haha. I forgot.
*I do like the fact that the kids wear uniforms to school. I don’t even remember what clothes they own any more.
*The other day I backed into our US minivan. I thought Katya was behind me so I had to turn my UK minivan at an odd angle and slowly smashed into the side of our Entourage. So it still has like 5 miles on it with a dent on the side….sad. In my defense, I have to say this is my first collision type accident of any sort in eleven years that I have been driving.
*Hmmm, what else…Kids get three weeks off for Christmas! Yay! It’s going to be interesting to see what we’ll manage to do around here in the cold and with no snow. Robert has ten or so days off. We are not going on a major vacation or anything, just taking some daytrips around. Kids said “no more castles”…hehehehe…little do they know!
Well, I better run. I need to go start getting ready for our Medical Squadron Christmas Party tonight!
Cheers,
Lyana
For now you get a random update from the Watsons:
*Did you know that kids in the UK exchange Christmas cards the same way American kids exchange Valentine cards? And they are not afraid to offend anyone by saying “Merry Christmas” around here.
*Neighbors we hardly know stop by and drop off their Christmas cards in our mailbox. These cards are never picture cards like the ones that are popular with Americans—always regular beautiful Christmas cards signed by hand.
*I thought mince pie is actually a savory dish with minced meat. Am I the only one who didn’t know it is a sweet tart looking thing with a variety of fruit inside?
*Traditional Christmas fruit cakes do exist and are very popular here.
*Still on the subject of Christmas, it is so wonderful to be living in a country that celebrates Christmas big time! These guys don’t have Thanksgiving so right after a slight attempt to celebrate Halloween, people start getting ready for Christmas. Santa’s Grottos are everywhere (that’s what they call a place where you can go and meet Santa:). Next year, we should go to Lapland, because that’s where Santa actually lives-haha.
*It’s kind of nice that because most of my Christmas shopping is done online, I have to do it way in advance for packages to come on time. That means I can relax a bit more a week before Christmas (maybe?)
*British people are funny (and blunt) and reserved at the same time. I think what makes them even funnier is the fact that THEY think they are soooo funny-hahaha.
*We cannot get mad at Alex when he speaks in a very proper British accent, completely naturally. It drives Katya crazy!
*Oh yeah! Our house is FREEZING! In a week, British Gas company is coming to get our wall cavity insulated around the house, hope that helps. Still waiting for our landlord to decide whether or not they want to install double-glazed windows in the house. Right now ours are sooooo drafty that we are simply heating the outside. We have fourteen windows in my house (some of them are quite small), and the quote one guy gave me was about $10K for them to be replaced with new energy efficient ones. We are offering our landlord a three month rent payment in advance to help to pay for it, because pretty soon we’ll have to give them our ultimatum—do the windows or we are moving out at the end of the summer. Not something we’d like to do…..argh…but a house in officer housing might open up with four bedrooms…and we could move there then.
*British winters are cold. For some reason, I thought that this year I won’t even get to wear my warm down coat that I used in Misawa. Ha! The cold here gets you to your bones! Misawa was a tropical paradise compared to this—haha, with some fun snow added to the mix. It’s very foggy here a lot of the time too. Gotta plan a skiing vacation for next winter.
*Speaking of vacations, it seems British plan out their vacations way in advance! And they travel quite a bit. I should say, Europeans in general travel quite a bit. And a lot of Europeans have been to the states (but not to Japan
). Oh wait, British are not European-haha. I forgot. *I do like the fact that the kids wear uniforms to school. I don’t even remember what clothes they own any more.
*The other day I backed into our US minivan. I thought Katya was behind me so I had to turn my UK minivan at an odd angle and slowly smashed into the side of our Entourage. So it still has like 5 miles on it with a dent on the side….sad. In my defense, I have to say this is my first collision type accident of any sort in eleven years that I have been driving.
*Hmmm, what else…Kids get three weeks off for Christmas! Yay! It’s going to be interesting to see what we’ll manage to do around here in the cold and with no snow. Robert has ten or so days off. We are not going on a major vacation or anything, just taking some daytrips around. Kids said “no more castles”…hehehehe…little do they know!
Well, I better run. I need to go start getting ready for our Medical Squadron Christmas Party tonight!
Cheers,
Lyana
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