Christmas in Britain

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This Christmas I decided to go to the UK. I came to this decision for a number of reasons. I would be able to spend more time with Redington due to the way visitation schedule requires a full 3 days of recovery for him before his school resumes. I would be able to spend time with Vicki and meet her parents. And I had little surprise for Vicki.

I flew to Heathrow via Chicago on the 23rd of December and arrived on the 24th at about 7:00AM. Vicki drove out from Bath (red star on the left) to pick me up. She then drove us up to Bedford to pick up Redington. (The star on the map just north of London.)

We then proceeded to Vicki's parents house in North Yorkshire. They live in a small town called Kirkbymoorside. Kirk is the Viking word for church so the town is the church by the side of the moor. (Kirkbymoorside is the red star at the top of the map.)

We had a long drive to catch up with news of each other. Redington had amazingly gotten bigger (5'9") since I saw him in October. It was great to see him again and he was in good spirits. He had a copy of 'Canal Boat' Magazine for January 2006 which features 'The Grace and Favour' the boat he lives on so we got to see the inside of the boat. It also had a picture of the inside of his bedroom which he wouldn't let us see as it has his new mystery hobby laid out on his desk. Redington has been tormenting me (and now Vicki) with a guessing game as to what this hobby is. He was supposed to reveal it when I came to see him but he evidently got too much fun out of tormenting us. The vacation consisted of several sessions of twenty questions trying to guess it. Vicki now has a mission to procure the magazine at a newsagent!



Kirkbymoorside is a small village that looks like much like many English villages. It sits north of York and at the foot of the moors. In this map the raised hills to the north are the moors. During our visit we would drive through them to Whitby to see the abbey there.













Here is a view of the town on the main road. Vicki, Redington and I stayed at the inn in the middle of town called the Kings Head.

The Kings Head was a comfortable typically English inn with narrow twisting stair case and hallways and low ceilings and small bathrooms with showers that were impossible to control the temperature of. They served the classic 'cooked breakfast' in the morning as well.

We arrived at Vicki's parent's house and I got to meet Dan and Sally for the first time. They were very gracious and I felt immediately comfortable. One of Vicki's sisters (Becky) was there for Christmas as well. I had met here the year before on our Sardinia trip. It was good to see Becky again. I really enjoyed the two days I spent with Dan and Sally. They were both engaging conversationalists and obviously well read. I got to hear some of the family stories and it is clear they are a close family. We got along great despite me being 'a man of the right' as Dan would say.

Here is the part of Vicki's family we met. Dan on the left, Becky, Sally, and of course Vicki. Vicki has another sister in London, Rhiannon, and a brother in Manchester, Dominic.











Christmas morning had the traditional gift giving. Redington and I got some very thoughtful gifts from Vicki's family. The last gift was a large box for Vicki from me that disguised an engagement ring. As she opened it I went down on one knee and asked her to marry me. Fortunately she said yes! It would have been a long drive back to Heathrow otherwise. What a happy day. Redington was in on the secret so he wasn't shocked by my behavior.



Redington was quite relaxed, here is a somewhat blurry photo of him hamming it up a bit. That is a refrigerator magnet clipped to his ear.






Another of him looking over the trick cards and magic tricks he got from his grandfather.










We also took a short trip up to Whitby to see the ruined abbey there. It was closed so we couldn't walk around it. I had visited this before with Sarah some 15 years ago. Looking off toward the north sea on that cold day one thought of the Viking invaders sailing up to these rocky shores. (The hat and scarf are gifts from Vicki's sister Becky.)