Christmas in Henley

We hope everyone back home had a wonderful Christmas (and if you don't celebrate, we hope you enjoyed your day off anyway!). Father Christmas made it to our house and must've used his magic key, since our fireplace is (shh!) electric. We had a nice morning of opening presents and around noon, we headed out to a charming pub around the corner from the house called The Bull on Bell. 

We met up with fellow "North Americans" and Brits married to North Americans and had a nice gathering. Here are the kids, some a little too Christmas wasted, but all successfully facing the camera!

Since I didn't want to show off my mad cooking skills (ha!), we went to a store in town called "Cook" where they freshly cook amazing meals and flash freeze them for you to take home and try to pass off as your own cooking! For Christmas Day and Boxing Day dinner, we went for a nice beef Wellington. Stegen really enjoyed himself!

Today we took a stroll up the hill to the other side of Henley and had lunch with one of the families from school. After a full day there, we followed Henley Christmas tradition and went to see this year's pantomime of Alladin, at the Kenton Theatre near our house. 

I guess I should've looked up what a pantomime was before sitting down to enjoy what I thought would be a nice musical of the Disney Classic. Instead, we were surprised with some strange song choices (Bad to the Bone), inappropriate jokes, and a verrrrrry loose Alladin story line. This version takes place in Peking, China (seriously), and the princess has a group of girlfriends, each with names that made my eyes bulge: Sushi, Karaoke, Origami, and (get this) Feng Shui. Oh, British humor.

Bad jokes aside, the kids had a great time. Thank you to everyone who sent us Christmas cards--we have them up in the kitchen and love seeing them everyday. Aunt Jennifer, if you're reading this, we got yours in the mail safe and sound! The mail notice wasn't for your card. Merry Christmas again and a very Happy New Year next week!