In what has become a bit of a tradition, Rhiannon has had her birthday party on the Friday nearest to her birthday, and this has always been the same day as the Christmas Tree lighting evening at the Chelwood Gate village hall. So we invited a small number of Rhiannon's friends over for the period between after-school and 6:15pm when the Tree Lighting started. Amelia, Zoey, Freya, Sophie, Oscar and Bruno came over at 4pm with the promise of decorating gingerbread houses, but things didn't go exactly as planned...
We didn't realise that this particular day was the day that Martin (our amazing builder) was going to pull up the whole floor from the main downstairs room and then put it down again into the final position*. I had taken the whole day off of work and was busy with my head into gingerbread all through the morning and hadn't actually noticed that Martin had pulled the floor up around me until about noon when I mentioned that Rhiannon was having her birthday party here in a few hours! Wasn't he surprised! We weren't too fussed about it - just decided to have the decorating party crammed into the small (but now open) kitchen. So Rhods and I moved a narrow table in and started setting it up for the party just before 4pm, but then as the first guests started arriving, all the electrical power dropped out! The lights were ok but all of the sockets and appliances had lost power. As the electrical panel was out through the kitchen door, we had to think quickly and move the party yet again... this time to me/ Rhodri's bedroom! Fortunately Cat had offered to stay to help out because she went straight to work. We used one of partially painted closet doors from Rhiannon's new bedroom propped up between 2 chairs as a makeshift table.
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| Bruno, Tryfan, Oscar, Rhiannon, Zoey, Freye, Sophie and Amelia |
It all turned out just fine, with most of the sweets getting consumed rather than stuck onto gingerbread and then the heightened energy levels among the children that followed. We managed to get the stove turned on so we could boil a pot and heat up the hot dogs to serve as a bit of sustenance. All the kids sat on the [warm] bathroom floor to eat their hot dogs, and the whole scene was rather chaotic but fun! We had a sharp cut off to the party though, since many in the party were performing at the village hall and had to be there at 6:15 sharp.
The hall was packed the brims and once everyone was settled in, we all had to get up and go outside to see the ceremonial turning on of the lights, which was performed by a man who, as a child, used to visit his grandmother who lived in Chelwood Gate and ran the village post office and has now gone on to work for a charity. It was a cozy scene with everyone gathered round the dark tree and cheering as the lights went on while all the kids chased each other around in the dark field of grass.
The Danehill School Choir and Orchestra performed a few songs (Rhiannon was playing her recorder in orchestra and also singing in the choir) and then there were a few other interesting acts in the evening. As always, we stood in the back of the hall rather than opting for seats. This year was particularly crowded and overflowing out both entrances, so standing up made it easier to access fresh air and also it is somehow more fun to snicker and heckle some of the acts in the evening.
The Danehill Christmas Bells Society played several tunes, and this year (for the first time in the 5 years that we have attended) the audience sang and hummed along to the Christmas Carols that the team were playing. It was all very olde worlde small, quaint village in rural Englande which is still very charming to this American, and it was all going swimmingly until Cat whispered something about the bell ringer on the far right looking like he was found under a pile of leaves.. and that is when I got the giggles!
The other acts included a very memorable one by "Mr Fish", a local teenage boy who performed the reading of a poem that was found written 110 years ago by someone who was living in this village at the time and mourning the recent cutting down of some pine trees. Mr Fish went on to perform a bit of holiday comedy and finished with a song that the whole audience was singing along with by the end! A truly memorable evening which concluded with free mulled cider & apple juice and mince pies for everyone. It was a very full day and night, and still only the start to the weekend!
