28.12.06

Christmas in the West Midlands

Every year for the holidays I go to my boyfriend's parent's house in the West Midlands. Its about 2 hours outside of London by train. His parents live in a very old cottage in the middle of the country near Shropshire, Telford and Staffordshire. Its quite fun because as with English tradition we have Christmas pudding for desert and open Christmas crackers (prizes that include a gold crown hat and a joke to tell around the table). The cottage we stay in has two fireplaces and it was very nice to sit next to a fire after a huge meal. Here are pictures from the day:

This is James' parent's house. It is fully functional but the house is 250 years old and in some parts of the house it is 500 years old---OLDER THAN AMERICA!

THE CHRISTMAS TREE

The christmas Table
Sarah--James' sister and her son Alex (7 months)
James' niece-Hannah (2 1/2 yrs old)

James wearing his Christmas cracker hat!















In England--Holly leaves grow all over the countryside. I thought it would be cool to post what they look like in the wild!
---------
This is the countryside around where his parents live. Its always VERY green!

Countryside houses
Blymhill is a village next to where his parents live and this used to be the old post office. It is now someone's house (they have just left everything this way!)

This is the Village Hall in Blymhill (Like a community center). We sang Christmas carols just outside next to a big tree here and had mince pies and mulled wine.
Blymhill church--this is the church James' parents go to. Some parts of the building date back to the 13th Century.