Embracing the Season We’re In

I envisioned the beaches of Spain or wandering the streets of some European city for the boys’ recent half-term weeklong break from school, but airline price hikes and Tim’s busy schedule kept us around home. Don’t you hate it when reality gets in the way of an unplanned, undetermined adventure?

But it worked out all right – we took a trip into Chester to explore and see a movie, spent a couple of days around home, and took a pre-Halloween visit to Spooky World. It’s basically a large outdoor area with mazes, inflatable slides, and “Haunted Houses” – sheds filled with plywood walls, creepy dolls and painted bloody handprints. It was fairly kid-friendly, except for the zip lines sending them flying into the air and a child next to us flying face first toward the ground, causing his mum to scream a combination of swear words I’m not sure the boys have heard before. (He was OK.)

We went to the same place with our friends to get pumpkins again this year. It’s a great spot down in Wales – a garden center with a pumpkin patch, a maize maze and a few rides. Enough to do in a couple of hours without spending your entire day (or paycheck). The boys were into all of it this year, picking out their perfect pumpkin, using the map to get out of the maze and of course doing the rides. It was one of the first things we’ve done now for the second time, so it feels like building a tradition.

We lost steam on the actual carving bit; I had an awful cold and spent the night in bed while Tim tackled the boys’ ambitious designs…a Minecraft mansion (not very successful), a Premier League footballer jersey (slightly more successful) and a simple scary face. The pumpkins didn’t last long in the cold rain and that was fine.

The boys dressed up for trick-or-treating Halloween night and had a successful outing. This year, the boys knew everyone else would be dressed up as bloody mummies and evil vampires and zombie witches, and they were fine with being whatever they wanted to be. Bennett was Steve, the main character from the Minecraft video game, and Nate was Harry Potter.

Once again, the trick-or-treating is nothing like the packed streets and party atmosphere of Tosa, but we were a bit wiser in knowing where to target this year – a few houses in the village where their school is, and off to the larger village where they play football. We also met a friend who knew people in the town and the hot spots to hit. The candy buckets weren’t filled to the brim, but they received more than enough and seemed to have a great time. Everyone keeps telling me Halloween is getting more and more “Americanized,” which is either wonderful or a complete travesty, depending on who is giving you their opinion.

November 5 was Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Night, which you can read a little about in last year’s post from around this time. (It’s also kind of fun to read how far we’ve come in a year.) The boys recently joined Cub and Beaver Scouts, so Bennett and Tim went to set up for the bonfire night in Tarporley the Saturday morning before. Their valiant effort of loading wooden pallets to the sky in the cold mud – and Tim’s subsequent aching back – prompted us to skip the trip back in town and instead watch nearby fireworks from the comfort of our driveway.

On actual Bonfire Night, we went to a nearby village to watch their bonfire and fireworks show,  and then again this past Friday night we met up with friends from Nate’s class to see another lighting of a bonfire and fireworks at a local pub. We’ve seen so many bonfires and fireworks in the past week that we can still see the flashing in our eyes, ha. We’ve enjoyed the camaraderie of the events though, and I’ve enjoyed the season’s first mulled wine…mmm.

This past weekend was Remembrance Sunday, in honor of soldiers who have given their lives in battle – more like Memorial Day in the U.S. than Veteran’s Day. Since the boys are in Scouts, it was expected that they walk in the Tarporley Remembrance Parade, and I’m grateful they had the opportunity.

It was a beautiful parade, led by a regal Shire Horse from a nearby farm, then the Cheshire Constabulary band, followed by military, all ages of Scouts, and members of the community. There was a church service and the laying of the poppy wreaths at different points in the village, and two minutes of silence.

These are the kind of ceremonies I grew up attending in our small town, where the elders of our community spoke or held flags or shot a gun salute over the fields. Back then, I suppose it didn’t mean as much to me because I was a child and couldn’t quite grasp the weight of it, though my parents taught me it was important and I could look around and see headstones with last names I recognized.

Now I understand the sacrifice, and though the flag is different and the faces and names unknown to me, I found the day quite moving. We want to be a part of the community wherever we are, and teach our sons to be civic-minded and honor those who have served. England may not be our home by birth, or home forever, but it is home now. I was proud to see Bennett and Nate walk by in the parade, pinned poppies to their jumpers and all.

As I mentioned in my last post, I think it took me a little while to come out of the rush and excitement of summer that was our trip to the U.S. and our parents’ and friends’ trips here. It was like how a child waits all year for Christmas and then hurriedly rips all of their presents open and then is bummed it’s all over. Indeed, the days are getting shorter and it hasn’t seemed to stop raining…but I’ve invested in a great rain jacket, we’re keeping busy and we’ve got a couple of little trips lined up. More soon!