Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow!  I can't believe that it is Thanksgiving Day already.  Actually, here in the UK, Thanksgiving is closer to being over.  If you were wondering, there are in fact many differences in how we celebrate Thanksgiving here.

First, we do try to maintain our American culture as much as possible and Thanksgiving is such a special, amazing holiday that we don't want our children to forget how important it is to Americans.  Unfortunately, the school is an International one, so the kids did not have a holiday today and had to get up as usual and get the bus at 7:10am dressed in school uniforms.  The highlight of the day were the assemblies.  The middle school had an assembly in the morning that was prepared by the Student Council.  Jacob is a representative and was a speaker who talked about Giving.  What is amazing is that he actually wrote his own two minute speech about volunteering at Feed My Starving Children in Aurora.  For those friends in Illinois who are reading this, I hope you have heard about or even volunteered with this group; they are doing great work for children around the world.  If you are not from Illinois, quickly, FMSC packs a nutritious mixture of dried vegetables, soy, rice and a vitamin fortified flavoring to be shipped to groups around the world to get children in orphanages and other agencies the food they need to survive. 

Later in the day, the lower school had an assembly where all the grades sang a song of thanks together and then each grade did a short presentation.  The fourth graders did a Thanksgiving Day Rap (hat and glasses required)!  But Steve and I missed all of these demonstrations of Thanks, because we took the train to London instead.

Each year on Thanksgiving Day there is a special service for Americans in London at St. Paul's Cathedral.  We had heard great things about this service and were not dissappointed.  The music selection was great.  The speakers were great.  And to be able to celebrate and praise God in a building as beautiful and amazing as St. Paul's makes you think that your prayers of Thanks had been certainly heard.  I know many Americans who weren't there and yet the cathedral was full.  It is amazing to know how many "aliens" there are in the London area.  (The scripture lesson was from Ephesians chapter 2 and talked about being an alien in a foreign land.)

Statue of Queen Victoria in front of St. Paul's Cathedral (designed by Sir Christopher Wren)



Transept of St. Paul's Cathedral



So we spent the day at school or at church but the family did have a chance to celebrate God's bounty with a feast at home in the evening.  Many families in the American community around us made reservations in a timely manner and are eating a Thanksgiving feast at a local pub that has put together a special menu just for those of us craving turkey and stuffing on the fourth Thursday of November.  All reservations were filled quickly and we missed out (my procrastination, I must admit).  Many other friends are taking advantage of the day off from school tomorrow and are at the airport right now flying off for city breaks in Paris, Edinburgh, or Dublin to name a few.  Steve and I came home and I actually got very busy pulling together a traditional meal for the five of us.  I know, lots of work for dinner for five, but you would do it too, trust me.

I did not make a full turkey, rather, I found split turkey breast roast and actually made two of those.  My kids don't like mashed potatoes, please don't get me started about that, so I made Jacob's favorite roasted potatoes.  For Cameron we had Kraft macaroni and cheese on the table because he is most thankful for that.  Sweet potatoes, green beans and carrots helped to round us out.  Steve had only requested that stuffing be on the table.  Since there are no bags of Pepperidge Farms stuffing mix in the grocery stores or even in the ones that carry American goods, I actually made it from scratch.  I made cornbread first to use as the base rather than traditional bread.  Steve liked it which is all that really matters!

Today we prayed at our table for our family and friends so far away, but we also thanked God for the new friends who have made us feel at home in England.  We are also very thankful for our dog, Rupert, and can't wait for him to be here next Thanksgiving to help eat the leftovers!  Thanks to my parent's for making sure he is well loved until he can come to England.  I also thank all of you for reading these crazy blogs.  Thanks for being part of my overseas experience! 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Recycle and Save the World!

In the United States we have come a long way toward recycling.  I love that in Naperville we can even comingle all of our recycling into one bin.  Of course if you are the de Waard family, you actually set out at least two if not three bins each week for recycling.  One of the side effects of our easy American lifestyle is a preponderance of packaging.  We can buy just about anything we want in a nice neat package that we then need to recycle.

Here in Europe the recycling craze took off long before it did around the United States.  Mostly because of space.  How many people remember the Islip garbage barge trying to find somewhere to unload is smelly, fetid load?  Apparently there was no room on Long Island for it.  New Jersey didn't want it.  What were we to do?!  Europe has been overcrowded since the middle ages.  The people here have had to be resourceful, unlike in America where we could just send out garbage to the wide open west! (Until they started complaining too.) 

I wanted to show how things are different here in England.  First, I only have garbage collection once a week and what they will be collecting alternates each week.  Consequently, I have to always be on top of the schedule to know which bin to place at the curb (or in UK they write it "kerb").  I usually remember without any problem, but I don't hesitate to look up and down the street to compare the color of my bin.

Today was Garbage Day in Camberley.  I rolled out my Recycling Bin and my Food Waste Bin.  A Food Waste Bin is a glorious concept.  All food waste, cooked, raw, rotting, fetid, slimy, stale, you name it, goes into a collection bin.  The Food Waste bin is collected EVERY week.  This is then taken to a giant compost pile of sorts that is providing energy to the community.  Brilliant idea if you have ever had to stick your head in my refrigerator.  My husband and my father can attest to the fact that I usually have at least four science experiments going on in my fridge that tend to turn a stomach or two.  Now I know that it is all for the greater good of the community!  The second aspect of the brilliancy of this concept is that you do not have smelly Garbage.  Remember that today they only took away the Recycling and the Food Waste.  Next Tuesday they collect only Garbage and Food Waste.  What is interesting is that my Recycling bin is actually larger than my garbage bin and is overflowing after two weeks whereas my Garbage bin is often barely full.  I guess I am doing something right.

Another Recycling plus here in the UK are these really great Community Drop Off Centers.  No, not places for old people to play Bingo, these are Garbage Tipping Points.  On a side note, sometimes you see signs that say "No Tipping" next to a dark lane or open field.  Steve saw me look at such a sign and said "It doesn't mean that you don't have to tip a person for service rendered rather you can't dump garbage there."  In honesty, I thought there might be a field of cows through the long grass and shrubbery and you couldn't go Cow Tipping.  I had been surprised that they needed to put up signs to chasten teenagers for cow tipping which was the explanation of the weird look on my face.  No Dumping I would have understood, but who knows what they think when they see those signs around the U.S.

Back to Drop Off Centers.  These areas have big forty foot containers set up for you to properly sort large loads of garbage and recycling including things not allowed in the Garbage bin and Recyling bin set at the curb.  One great drop off area is for broken electronics and computer bits and wires.  We all know these things should not go into a garbage dump but we don't want to wait until June for the once a year collection behind the high school sponsored by the tech club and even that collection does not accept lamps and broken electronic toys.  Another drop off is for weathered clothing that you can't put into a charity bin because it is well beyond wearable.  There are the regular other spots like a bin for garden waste and one for recyclable like cardboard such as a pile of moving boxes because there are so many and you just want them out of your house.  It's a lovely place that is always busy and I am happy to say I can get there without even using my navigation system because I love it so much.

So we are working to save the planet one trash bin at a time.  We still have to work on the decreasing the number of juice and water bottles that we accumulate, but we are getting there.  I am thrilled that none of the kids are in diapers (nappies) because with Garbage collection only once every two weeks, my bin would be pretty foul, so not a perfect system, but in some ways, better than most.

Have fun taking out the Garbage this week and don't forget to Recycle!  (to save the environment, please do not print this blog!)