Days 6, 7, & 8

Whoops I've been slacking a little with posting.  On Sunday I went to church where we had a lovely little Christmas program centered around the nativity.  My uncle and cousin even did a violin duet.  After church we had some of their family friends over for dinner.

On Monday (Christmas Eve Day) my cousins got up early to open their presents.  Since we had been invited over to another family's house on Christmas Day they wouldn't have time to open their presents then so we did it early.  It was really fun to watch the joy that is in little children on Christmas.  Around 1pm I headed off to the train station to go into London and Meet my good friend Sam Wilson (pictures of the two of us together coming soon.)

We had a chill afternoon mainly walking the streets of London and through Hyde Park. 

We had some hot chocolate together, and then went to visit the famous department store "Harrods" 

It was super huge and even more expensive.  I couldn't even afford to buy a bar of chocolate! We then parted ways (Sam had to bike home and wanted to do so before dark.)  On my walk back to the train I walked by the Wellington Arch.  I don't exactly know the significance of it, but if looks famous enough....

I also walked by the famous "Ritz" hotel which I thought was pretty cool. 

By the time I got back to the train station in Sevenoaks, it was dark and slightly creepy as I walked home on the footpaths between the hedges (it reminded me of the scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

Since it was Christmas Eve, we had the missionaries from our church over for Christmas Eve dinner.  

Since presents were opened on Christmas Eve, I slept in on Christmas morning and had a slow morning.  We went to a family friend's house for Christmas lunch.  Since they were English, we had the "traditional" English dinner. There were loads of different types of meats, potatoes, and vegetables.  

 This is where it gets confusing, because we then had "pudding" which is essentially dessert.  The main desserts that we had were trifle and traditional Christmas Pudding. 

The Christmas Pudding was essentially a large fruitcake.  Inside were all types of coins wrapped in foil that you got to find (and hopefully not swallow) as prizes. I found 20 pence in my piece.  We also pulled poppers (or crackers) that had little prized and paper crowns in them. 

After that we then had "dessert" which was an assortment of fruits, nuts, and chocolates.

After lunch was over we all sat down to watch the Queen's Christmas Speech (which is apparently some kind of law) Later that night I skyped my family, which was the perfect end to Christmas day :)