Christmas at the Baecher's

We were invited to spend Christmas with Claude and Elisabeth Baecher. Elisabeth is Ed's first cousin. They live in a town just a 15 min drive from the Basel airport. They have four children all living away from home now. Marie Noel, the oldest daughter lives in the south of France and was not able to join us. Olivier is the next oldest. He spent a summer with us when we lived in Kansas working some for Brad Shue doing roofs. He is married to Valerie and they have a little 18 month old girl, Lucie. Then there is Florence who married in September and lives about one hour away from them. Viviane is their youngest. She spend one year in school in Goshen going to Bethany Christian High School. During that time she came to Harper for Christmas with our family for a little over a week. She is now working and going to school but was home on a break. I was not able to sing the words to the carols but I did hum along as the music is mostly the same. Of course they all speak very good English so I had plenty of people to talk to. We had a great time with them all and are very grateful their hospitality.

In the first picture is right before we took a walk over a bridge to Germany. Ed is trying to look French with a hat he borrowed from Claude, I told him it just made him look older.

The next picture is of Olivier and his daughter Lucie.

And then a picture of Florence and her husband David.

Basel Switzerland

On Christmas day we went to Olivier and Valerie's apartment for lunch after we had gone to church. We had raclette which Ed and I love. If you do not know what this is let me tell you. Raclette is a type of cheese but you can use other cheeses for this meal. There is a raclette oven, or machine that is electric. It sits on the middle of the table so everyone can reach it. There are little dishes that you put your cheese on to and then put it into the oven and it melts the cheese. You then take a boiled potato, cut it up and put the cheese on top of it. You can add anything you want, either putting it into the oven first or not. The concept is a bit like fondue in that you eat slower as you are waiting for your food to bake and so the conversation flows on.
We were so into the meal that Ed forgot to take a picture.

The big red building is the City Hall in Basel. We were able to walk through the front part into a court yard where there was a huge decorated Christmas tree. It was at night, was very cold, and Ed's pictures didn't come out too well as he was shaking from cold so the camera wouldn't hold still.

The picture of the elaborate manger scene is one of the cute store windows.

Roman Ruins

We visited a town nearby where Claude and Elisabeth live where Roman ruins have been discovered. The town Augusta Raurica was first begun around 15BC, existing until around 320AD. In 250AD, a large earthquake, and then warfare soon made the city mostly uninhabited. In the picture of the theatre, we are standing where the statue of the God they worshipped at the time would have been.
In the picture of the snow, we are walking along the Rhine going to a place where they believe baptisms were carried out after Christianity arrived in about 310 AD. Christianity arrived in the city via traveling salesmen (traders) but was reinforced later by monks from IONA (Scottish monestary still active) who brought more formal teaching and doctrine.

December 22, 2007 is our 28th wedding anniversary. We had no specific plans so we headed out to Central London. Here is Leicester (pronounced Lester if you are American or Lesta if you're a Londoner)Square. Leicester Square is where they show the film premieres before they are shown anywhere in the UK. So if you are really ambitious you can head to Leicester square early, wait for a long time and maybe you'll see a movie star. It's always a hive of activity. There was a small carnival set up there over the holidays.

Hyde Park Square

This is Hyde Park where they set up a carnival, food mall, and arts/crafts boothes. There was also this ice rink there. During the holidays, there are several rinks set up around London.

I finally got to see the Nutcracker. Every year I think that I'm going to make it to a production and every year it gets by me. I mentioned this to some of the others in the office one day and so when Janelle had two tickets to see one at a theatre in Islington, London, she asked if I wanted to buy the ticket from her and go with her. The tickets weren't the best seats, but I could see it even though I did end up with a neck and back ache. Anyway. If you click on the little x in the upper left corner of the next entry below, you will see the advertisement for the ballet. It was a slightly different slant on the nutcracker but it was fabulous!

The Nutcracker

The following pictures are: Ed & Phyllis wearing their paper crowns at the restaurant. Jane and Tina, two of the part time workers. And Ed and Dora-Marie after our lunch back at the LMC showing off their chocolates and bows that were on their gifts.
For some reason I was unable to add the dialogue to each picture like usual.

Staff Christmas lunch at Bakko's

Christmas crackers!!!

I'm sure many of you have heard about Christmas crackers. Everyone does crackers here. We had them at our Christmas lunch. We (The LMC staff) walked to Muswell Hill which is a 20 min walk through the woods to a Turkish restaurant. Before the meal, we had our crackers. Here's a bit of history about crackers:
Crackers are very popular and accompany many meals over the Christmas period, especially on Christmas day. A Christmas cracker is a brightly coloured paper tube, twisted at both ends. There is a banger inside the cracker and when it is pulled by two people, the cracker snaps in half making a loud bang. Inside the cracker there is a paper crown made from tissue paper, a joke on a slip of paper and a little gift.

How to pull a cracker: The traditional way to pull a cracker is crossing your arms and pulling a whole circle of crackers all around the table. Everyone holds their crack in their right hand and pulls their neighbours cracker with the free left hand.

Why do we wear king's paper crowns?
We wear paper hats on special occasions like Christmas Day and birthday parties. The traditions of wearing hats at parties goes back to the Roman Saturnalia celebrations (celebrated around 25 December) when the participants also wore hats. The idea of wearing a paper crown may have originated from the Twelfth night celebrations, where a King or Queen was appointed to look over the proceedings.

LMC staff

This is Alastair McKay (pronounced Mceye). He works at the LMC in the Bridge Builders department. He is the director of the department. Bridge builders runs training courses in mediation and facilitation skills for church workers. The courses are 5 day courses which are quite intensive and have become very popular. Courses fill out quickly and have waiting lists. They run them all over England and Scotland. I am officially the BB assistant, doing lots of office work for them. There are 3 full time workers for BB, one of them being Sharon who is a graduate of EMU, majoring in peace, justice, and reconciliation studies. She is on a 3 year term through Mennonite Mission Network, same as Ed and I. We have been trying to get a one year volunteer to work at least 4 days a week for them but nothing has worked out so far. I don't know if MMN has advertised for it or not. However, we needed someone so I said for the short term anyway, that I would do as much as I could and see how it went. So now I'm host and BB assistant. It's good for me because I like to stay busy.

This was at someones birthday tea. We are having trifle I think. Yum!

London Mennonite Centre Christmas Party

Saturday, Dec 8th was the Centre's work day and Christmas Party. We meant to have people come in the early afternoon to help rake the remains of the leaves in the garden then stay for soup and later for the annual party. The rain forced us inside and everyone helped with the mass mailing that needs to go out next week. We were able to solve many of the worlds problems over two hours of labeling. There were about five or six others that are not in this picture that also helped. They are some of the Centre's workers as well as church members and other friends of the Centre.
In the picture above, some of the party participants are in the lounge stringing popcorn and cranberries, putting whole cloves into oranges, and making paper snowflakes and other ornaments for the tree.
Here are a few of the kids of those that came to help out. They took refuge in the office to make paper airplanes and play on the computers. I got busy and didn't get pictures of the caroling around the piano (about 40 people were singing). Plus all the cookies that were baked for the three days prior to the party which drove us all crazy having to smell them and not be able to eat them. Total party participants totaled around 58. Many people stayed around the centre talking, stringing popcorn and eating. We had a lot of fun.

The last Cross Currents seminar for the Fall was last Saturday, December 1st called the Emerging Church: An Anabaptist Perspective. by Stuart Murray. He spent 12 years as an urban church planter in East London and continues to be involved in church planting as a trainer, mentor, strategist, and consultant. He is chair of the anabaptist network and author of several books. My only regret about working here is that I am busy in the kitchen and don't get to hear these speakers. I am still amazed at how many amazing people stream through the Centre in one capacity or another.
The other amazing thing is how often Ed and I are called upon to explain to others about the Mennonites and anabaptism and usually at the most unexpected times. Like when a delivery person is at the door. Last week we had a new floor put in at one of our flats that we rent out and the guy who showed up to do the work asked Ed about what the Mennonites are. And of course they want an answer in just a few minutes time. Days are rarely boring here.

Christmas at Covent Garden

We took Ed's parents to the transport museum which was at Covent Garden in Central London. Here is a part of the market there. They have it decked out with lights and trees for the holidays. There was an opera singer there which you can see in this picture. He is walking around singing to the crowd to recorded music. He was really good.
There were a lot of these hanging chandeliers all through the middle of the market.

A trip to Central London

Ed's parents treated us to see the play Les Miserables. It was really wonderful. It's been running in London for more than 22 years. The singing was by far the best of any of the other plays we went to.
We did most of our getting around with mother and dad on the tube. They are studying the tube map trying to figure out where we are.
Prior to going to the play, we walked through China Town.

Changing of the Guards

We took Ed's parents, Frank & Erica to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. It takes 42 minutes to change two guards positions. There were two bands playing great marching music. If it wasn't for the music, I doubt I would have stayed. We all decided that we could have done the same thing in a lot less time. It was great to see although I doubt I would do it again.
Bear skin up close!

Visitors from Swenden

One of the highlights about being here at The London Mennonite Centre is that we get to meet so many people from all over the world. This is a group of young adults from Sweden who wanted to come to the Centre to see what we do. There were about 8 of them and of course they all can speak English quite well. We had tea for them and Vic, our director, then gave them the history of the Centre and what we do now. Listening to what they do is always an interesting thing.

Once a driver always a driver

I just found out that in the U.K. once you obtain your drivers license you have it forever! You never have to retest. No further written tests, driving tests or eye tests. At around age 70 they send you a form to fill in asking if you have any vision problems but until then you can drive on!

Ed has been able to drive on his US license for the first year but has to take a written and driving test to get a UK license. After that he can come back anytime and drive legal!

Ed's parents are here for a week and we are having a nice time visiting with them. We went to Central London on Saturday evening after they rested up and walked around a bit. They went to church with us on Sunday and stayed home and played cards. Today, Monday, Ed and his folks went on a bus tour of Central London. Tomorrow we will see the changing of the Guards at Buckingham palace, then Wednesday we will go see Les Miserables. I hope to have some pictures in the next couple of days.

U S Thanksgiving in London?

The UK doesn't have a "Thanksgiving" in the way that the US does but since Sharon, Ed & I are US, we decided we wanted our Thanksgiving. Sharon's parents, Phil & Irene Kniss are visiting plus there is another US person living at the Centre for the next month. So we put on a supper. We couldn't do it at lunch since it's a regular Thursday here. Here is Sharon trying to find a good Thanksgiving story to tell after the meal. I had a 10 question quiz about the pilgrims I found on the net. The winners guessed six out of the ten correctly, one being British and one being a German!
We had about 16 all together around this table. A few are up getting the dessert and coffee and not in this picture. Things missing are watching the parades, college football, board and card games.
Sorry no wonderful pictures of London sites. We haven't been out much.

And the winner is......

Last blog entry I asked for guesses as to what the blob in the first picture might be. Diana B emailed me with the guess of plum pudding which was half right. Then my oldest daughter, Emily guessed Christmas pudding which is the correct answer. However, I feel that they both should claim the first prise as Diana's was her own guess and Emily did a bit of googleing. So Diana will get the mug and Emily the t-shirt. Depending on the shipping charges, you may both have to wait until we visit in May.
We have been here for nine months now. I'm not sure if I feel that is has gone fast or not. Many things have happened and to think back on some of them feels like a long time ago. Yet in many other ways it feels like it has gone quickly. I will save any serious reflections when we hit the one year mark.

Church Day Away

Every year the church here does a 'day away' where they go to a nice retreat centre and do different things. Often some spiritual input along with free time, a meal, games, hikes, etc. This year I (Phyllis) couldn't go as the CCND (Christian Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament) was meeting at the Centre so someone had to stay behind. The retreat Centre is in South London called All Saints Catholic retreat Centre.
Here are a few that went on a hike through some woods.

Of course Ed took way more pictures than this of the building but I decided to just include two.
I thought these windows were especially beautiful.

What's that blob? & Sharon's birthday

Okay, I've talked about house meal before. Here is a picture of the dessert or pudding as the Brits call it. Anyone who can guess what it is will receive your choice of either an LMC mug or tshirt. Hints: Served up at a special holiday & this one we poured some brandy over and lit it up. Unfortunately my camera was running low on battery power and I didn't get the shot of the flames. Another hint: I wasn't particularly fond of this dessert......not nearly as much as the Brits at the table were.
Sharon turned 23. She is the one on the far left. She works under Mennonite Mission Network with the Bridge Builders programme. She seems more like 33 with the way she carries out her work and juggles all the other things she does. She is in a choir that she had to audition for and they practice for several hours every Sunday evening. They have put out several CD's and have done numerous concerts. All these things mean many hours on top of her usual practices. Nine of us went out for her b day to Leon's, a mid Easternish type place in Central London. Then we went to the ICA (Institute for Contemporary Art) to see the foreign film 'Blame it on Fidel'. I would recommend anyone to see it. It's in French with subtitles. Usually it is hard for me to follow the story because I am too caught up in reading the titles. But for some reason it was not a problem. The film was superbly done. The ICA is in Central London very close to Trafalgar Square. Being in Central London at night is so electric. I was just starting to feel like things were familiar, then times like last night being around all these magnificent buildings and such made it feel surreal.
Ed and Nina were at the other end of the table so I needed to get a picture of them in here. Will was along too but was always hidden.

Highgate Woods & Guy Fawkes Day

Last Sunday we went for a walk in Highgate Woods which is the route we take when we walk to Muswell Hill for groceries that I can't get closer by. It is very peaceful and remarkably quiet given the fact that this path follows the busy road to Muswell Hill.

In an earlier entry MB asked in her comments if we celebrated fireworks day. I was surprised that an American knew of fireworks day. So for those of you who don't as I didn't, I will give you a brief abridged history lesson. It's actually Guy Fawkes Day. It celebrates the foiling of the Gunpowder plot in which a group of Roman catholic conspirators of which Guy was a part of, attempted to blow up the Palace of Westminster to kill King James I of England and destroy Protestant rule and aristocracy. This was 5th November, in the early 1600's.
Fireworks were going off for at least a week and huge displays were all over. We could easily see one from our back balcony of our bedroom that was at a local sports field. These mushrooms were growing on a tree on our walk through Highgate Woods.

Islington: The 'off-Broadway' of London

It's Sunday 4th November and the sun is out so we are going for a walk. We reach into our city walks of London pack given to us by Karen and Dick Aldis before we left for England and decide on this one. We take the tube to Angel and start out on a nice Sunday stroll looking at small theatres. This first one is mostly comedy showings.
This one is called the Almeida Theatre which is written about: 'always a showcase of today's more challenging playwrights'. It has been restored. Ed and I both decided it is plain compared to the other buildings. This one, the Kings Head Theatre is more impressive when standing in front of it than the picture shows. It has seen the likes of Kenneth Branagh on its stage.

This is the Little Angel Puppet Theatre tucked away in an alleyway and is the home of British puppetry.

Highgate Autumn

London has Autumn but doesn't have the color that is found in most parts of the U.S. I really miss that. Even the color in Kansas where I've lived most of my life and thought was usually a dull place for autumn color outshines London for color. The past few days have been outstanding as far as weather though. We had coffee breaks out on the patio it was so nice.
Friday 2nd November, 2007: No groups today so I did some spot carpet shampooing and guest laundry. Ed is busy raking leaves. It must be done at least every week or we would be buried in them as we have so many trees. We heard from the new young Mennonite church in south England that I had talked about before that has gone from a group of 8 to 30 plus. They meet 3 times/week in a small flat and the neighbors are complaining of the noise as it is in the evenings. So now they have to find a place to worship. They are mostly immigrants from all over, but the instigators are originally from South America. The main family whose father does the pastoring had to flee from Columbia as they feared for their lives due to their beliefs. They are in contact with the LMC and Urban Expression in London for ways of developing the church. It's exciting.
Sharon, the 23 y.o. on the top floor invited us to supper and we had a wonderful vegetarian curry. Reminded me of when we were early married as we ate with a mis-matched set of dishes, in her tiny room and helped to clean up in the tiniest of kitchens that is actually in the room of the other young girl on the top floor. Community living has it's upsides. She had the day off and felt like cooking so around 4:30 asked if we wanted to come up for supper.
Ed was able to call through to Barry Bontrager in Wichita where he is regaining strength at a rehab hospital following a heart attack with a few complications. It was good for Ed to get to talk with him. Praise God for his miraculous recovery.

Today we have three guys and two girls here staying in the guest rooms who are taking a little holiday from Europe where they are trainees. They are all from Canada, at least the guys are.
We also had the Bridge Builders advisory board here for lunch and their semi annual meeting. We also had a birthday tea. Whenever a worker at the LMC has a birthday, they get to choose what they want at tea. Today it was Alistair McKay's 44th bday and he chose scones with clotted cream and jam. The other part of the tradition is that of course we sing happy birthday to the tune they choose. Alastair chose the second half of the doxology, formerly known as 606. Then someone reads the same chapter in Psalms as they are old, so Psalms 44 was read. Then they recount on a special birthday memory.

Halloween party at the LMC

We, or Ed I should say, cleaned out the garage/carriage house to have a halloween party. We invited the house, the church, and some neighbors. The first picture is of the neighbors' kids Devonte and Destiny. Destiny refuses to acknowledge you if you call her Destiny as she has decided to be called Amolia.
We ended up with 28 people there at one time or another. We bobbed for apples, played charades, did the monster mash, except for Ed who says he is not opposed to dancing but just doesn't know how, and watched the animated films Charlie Browns The Great Pumkin and Disney's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Since it was a week night most went home fairly early.
Even Frankenstein enjoyed bobbing for apples.
Elvis decided to show up for a bite of apple.

LMC Happenings

I realized that I put things on the blog that are mostly not related to our work at The London Mennonite Centre. So I am going to try to journal a little more about what is going on at the Centre and things that we and the others that work here are involved with. The picture is just for something to jazz it up. It was taken on Portobello road market.
Today, Kathy Thiessen is going to a Friends Meeting House where she was invited to talk to them about the Mennonites and our peace & justice stance. Ed is busy putting together the reports that the workers at the LMC are writing about their last six months here for the Board and Trustee meetings coming up next week. Vic is busy trying to nail down future seminar dates and have finalized two more for May and July.
I have done a variety of things like laundry and cleaning of guest rooms, answering email and inputting new and revised info into our data base. Tonight our church is meeting at the centre for supper, communion, and prayer. We have a new young married couple attending as well as two young girls. The attendees vary often as there are those who come during times of attending University in London or on a short work term, etc.
Ed and I have started to attend one of the home groups that meet every other Thursday evening, or once a fortnight as they say here.
It has been a beautiful two days here with lots of sunshine and mild temps.

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The Victoria & Albert Museum

It's Saturday, October 27 and we are not expecting any groups or guests today so Ed and I decided to take advantage and explore another part of London that we have not seen yet.
This takes us to the Victoria & Albert Museum or as referred to here as the V&A. Like most of the other museums, it is free with a few special exhibits that cost extra. The exhibits are usually there for a few months at a time then move somewhere else. We don't too often take in the exhibits as there is plenty to see otherwise, unless it is really intriguing.
This first picture is of the early Europe cast room. It's a huge room full of casts of monuments, sarcophagus', and many other grand archetechural monuments and such that are famous. The shear size is impressive.
The second and third pictures are taken in the musical instruments room. Most all of them are behind glass with special lighting. They had all kinds of woodwind, stringed, and even some brass instruments. There were quite a lot of harpsichords.

This last picture is of a 'choir screen' which of course is where the choir would be standing behind. I couldn't get the entire thing in my camera as there is an arch between me and the screen and I couldn't get in front of it as there was only about 10 feet between the screen and the railing. The V&A building is very lovely but it seems that I didn't get a picture of it.