Royal Albert Hall

At the end of November, the girls had the opportunity to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London with their youth choir and hundreds of other kids from all over the UK in the Youth Scratch Messiah. What a neat experience! Scott and I were able to get a babysitter for the three younger kids (thanks, Christina, Steve, and Lesia!) and accompany the choir on the bus. It was actually a really fun time.

On the journey down, the mayor of Ely (who is present at most of the youth choir's events) got a phone call from one of the BBC radio stations asking for an interview and for the choir to sing something for them live on the air. So that happened! Pretty cool.

Selfie

Then a nice Scotish lady (who saw us struggling with our selfie) offered
to take this shot. :)

Love that man. (Not the golden one.) 

Royal Albert :)

The other side of RAH

Dark selfie

The inside--
Almost all of the seating pictured here was taken up by youth choir members
from around the UK, and the orchestra was in the front. We weren't allowed to
take pictures once everyone was in place or during the performance, so you'll
just have to imagine the magnitude. 

Zoomed in: the little Ely Youth Choir are (some of) the folks in black. If you look
at the organist and go straight down the center, my girls are in the 4th row down.
There is a person with curly brownish hair in the center of that row, the girls' good
friends (Maggy and Katie) are on either side of that person, and my Emily and Katy
are on either side of them. (If you click on the picture, it'll be a little bigger and a
little easier to see.)

Description of the Scratch Messiah. It's put together from…scratch. All the choirs knew
the Handel selections to practice, and did so individually, and then they put it all together
with the orchestra about an hour before they performed. And it was AH-MAZING!!!

This is a panorama of the inside. Again, click on it to make it bigger.

I am so thrilled that we found out about this choir. Emily (and now Katy, too) are being given such amazing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities through this group that I hope they'll remember and cherish their whole lives.


(This took place on November 30, so I dated the post back to that day, even though it's January…)

Belated Birthday Blog

Katy and Emily celebrated their birthdays at the end of November, and I have not blogged it!

For shame.

I won't offer up a zillion excuses, mostly because I still don't really have the time. Also, even though it's January 6th, I am going to set the post date to 22 November (so that I can be sure to find this post later on if I'm looking for it.)

I will at least post some pictures. :)

November 18th

Being serenaded by Daddy

Awaiting the cake!

November 21st

Yep, that's really almost all of the pictures…

The girls have gotten to an age where they enjoy shopping, but it's harder to do little trips here and there right now than it was in the States. So, their gift this year was a shopping "spree" (set amount) in Cambridge, where we all spent a Saturday together. It was loads of fun, and neat to see them contemplate their choices.

Both girls were excited to help with their cakes this year, including the majority of the baking and all the decorating. I think making and coloring the icing was my biggest contribution. They both did a great job! Color me impressed!

Both girls have grown so much this year, and I'm so proud of the beautiful young ladies, both inside and out, that they are becoming.

Love you, Em and Kate, and praying for you always!

"Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red"

2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. While America was involved, the impact on England is immensely more profound. There are war memorials, for both of the  Great Wars, in virtually every town, large and tiny; the long lists of names, all those who were lost, continue to honor and commemorate the enormous sacrifice of this entire nation.

This year, an exhibit was set up at the Tower of London with ceramic poppies, one poppy for every British fatality: 888, 246…nearly one million. The final poppy was placed on 11 November, the Day of Remembrance. It was breathtaking to behold, even in pictures I saw other people posting.

Our family was able to make it down to London on Veteran's Day. We had such a good time as a family.

Julia got a nice nap in

There were poppies everywhere. The next few pictures are from King's Cross.

The girls each brought their own cameras to document the day. They are writing
articles about the 100th anniversary of the war.

Just…Julia :)

I love the way England remembers and honors…it is beautiful and inspiring.

HMS Belfast in the background

It's very hard to see, and the light was too poor to get a high enough resolution picture,
but in the window to the right of the poppies, there is a tiny toy soldier. If you click on
the picture, you can see a little better...

The daylight faded quickly

There were personal memorials all around the Tower Walk--crosses like these, photographs,
poems and letters… It was really quite emotional.

The Tower all lit up

The Shard, across the Thames

Tower Bridge, all illuminated

Takin' the Tube back to King's Cross…This is Tower Hill station. I love Julia's face

Guy Fawkes Fireworks and Bonfire

We went to Ely to see the big bonfire and fireworks display for Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night this year. (Although, the display we saw was actually on November 8th instead of the 5th of November.) :)

The temperature was significantly warmer this year…but it was also a lot wetter! It rained almost the whole time we were there, and had we brought umbrellas? Nope. Still, it was a good time, and the fireworks display was great! (Unfortunately, my pictures are not…but here are a few anyway.)

They even had a Guy-making contest at local schools and daycares, and there were monetary prizes
for all the participants. I didn't see any of them before they got burned though.

This just makes me laugh, LOL!

This was before Julia got scared by the 'bombs bursting in air.' She did better once she
was back on the ground, though. I think she felt like she was too high up and might
get hit.

It was an awesome display…decidedly colder than the 4th of July, but it's kind of nice to be able to start the fireworks before 11 PM. :)

Happy (belated) Guy Fawkes Day, England!