Thursday November 25 was the first day that there was actually a bunch of snow on the ground and apparently it is tradition that after the first snowfall there is a big snowball fight before the session…and there definitely was! Lot of snowballs flying at me and somehow one ended up in the pocket of the vest I was wearing. Not exactly something I normally do on Thanksgiving but to everyone here it was just another day.
On Friday, November 26, evening I baked my first batch of Christmas cookies, sugar cookie cut outs with frosting. I kept some for us to eat but the main reason for making them was to sell at the Common Ground Christmas fair taking place on Saturday. Sadly when I went to help set up for the fair there was a sign on the door saying that the Christmas fair had been cancelled due to the weather. I was a bit disappointed because I had spent time making the cookies and I could have been doing something else but at least we got to eat more this way! I went back to the flat and we headed out to do the shopping for the Thanksgiving dinner we were cooking for the Kids Kabin staff, the other volunteers on the west side of Newcastle and the sisters and brothers….in total about 20 people. So needless to say that was the biggest craziest shopping trip ever!! Wow! First of all it was just super expensive and the amount of food we had to bring back was incredible as well (a massive turkey, and ingredients for stuffing, corn, green beans casserole, rolls, spinach, cornbread muffins, pumpkin pie, apple pie, ice cream, jello, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes). Times like this make you appreciate having a car and just piling all the groceries in the trunk! Since we had already gotten a bus pass to go grocery shopping, we went into town to see the Christmas market and maybe get some Christmas shopping done as well. The Christmas market was neat but not nearly as big as the one in Cannes. Also, when we walked into Primark they looked like they were closing up even though they were supposed to be open for another hour and a half…we were told that the buses were stopping early so the stores were closing early. Darn! Snow just changes everything here! We also gained a leak in the living room ceiling…but luckily Sr. Sylvia stopped by 20 minutes after we noticed it because she was bringing us a cool advent candle that has 1 to 24 listed on it and you are supposed to burn down one number each night. So we were able to tell her about the leak and she is going to have someone come over to look at it.
On Sunday November 28 we didn’t go into town for Mass at the chaplaincy like we normally do because we didn’t want to get stuck in town if the buses stopped early again…they ended up running as normal but there was no way to guarantee they wouldn’t stop early like they did the night before. We like going to the chaplaincy instead of mass at St. Anthony’s across the street for many reasons but will go to St. Anthony’s from time to time. The music is MUCH better at the chaplaincy! At St. Anthony’s the song lyrics are projected onto the wall behind the altar and the music is played off of a recording and half of it sounds like elevator music! Also, we don’t agree with most of the messages in the homily at St. Anthony’s…the priest has very conservative old school views on many things and we can relate to the messages at the chaplaincy! Abby made the pumpkin pies and I made the apple pie on Sunday as well.
Tuesday November 30: In the morning I went to Common Ground but I am told I missed all the fun back at the flat! An inspector came from the council with Sr. Sylvia to look at the leak in our ceiling. Right before they came the gutter fell off the back of our flat and was blocking the door. So Melissa or Abby went through the back gate and moved it so the back door could open. And then Sr. Sylvia almost went sliding down all the steps in the back when she went out with the inspector guy to look at the gutter situation as well. Yikes!
Thursday December 2 was our rescheduled Thanksgiving celebration! Not nearly as many people were able to come but it was still yummy! I went in to Kids Kabin early so I could put together the cookie turkeys before heading over to Common Ground. I had already made my pie and put the jelly (what we call jello) in the fridge the night before so all I had to do after Common Ground was make the green bean casserole. I missed an epic turkey carving and lots of other fun preparations while I was at Common Ground. The cookie turkeys were a big hit and it was fun to see some reactions to the various food. There weren’t too many complaints but one guy had never had spinach and after one bit he made a green bean fort around the spinach on his plate so it wouldn’t contaminate the other food. Haha! The only other complaint was another guy said there was a spice in the pumpkin pie that reminded him of bad childhood memories, interesting. Otherwise everyone enjoyed the meal and Sister Jill was pleased with her gluten free mini apple and pumpkin pies we made her. We had a lot of leftovers because for some reason or another even though we knew several people were not coming we still made the same amount of food we had originally planned on making. After a busy day and all the work on getting the meal ready it was nice to come home and relax and chat! We got to hear about Flannery’s experiences so far and we watched “Love Actually” as well. 
Friday December 3: We got the day off! The school group that normally comes in around 1 cancelled because they didn’t have school because “the weather was too bad”. This was nice because then we were able to take our time showing Flannery around Newcastle and we were able to just stay downtown instead of going into town, back to Kids Kabin and then back to town for dinner out. On our trip in town we walked by Fenwick's Christmas window. They have Christmas music playing and a north pole themed window display. Pretty fun! We finished off the night with SET, Bananagrams and another movie. I was excited that Flan knew how to plan SET and wanted to play because I had wanted to play since putting it in my suitcase! It was a ton of fun having someone visit!!! 
Saturday December 4: We put up our Christmas tree! It is the first fake tree I’ve had but it was super easy and no one has to water it every day or so and there won’t be any needles to clean up. This being said, I still prefer a real tree! I just don’t have a clue where you would get one around here and I like that the fake tree was free (aka in our storage closet upstairs)! It is also weird having a tree with so many of the same ornaments! There was a box of silver snowflakes and a box of gold balls and 3 random ornaments….not like our tree at home at all! We all have our own collection of ornaments and there are not many plain colored balls found on our tree! I am planning on making a few new ornaments for our tree.
This past week was just a normal week. Since it was so snowy lately there have been very few donations coming into Common Ground and the food drawers are almost all empty! I felt bad when I was giving out the food this week because half the drawers were empty and then sometimes they didn’t want what was in the drawers that did have some food in them (No oil, sugar, tea, coffee, pasta, rice, tomatoes, fruit, soup…some toiletries, vegetables, meat and baked beans). I really hope this week brings some donations!
It has been really interesting listening to everyone talk about the snow and cold weather! It seems completely normal to me but it is so out of the ordinary for this time of year in Newcastle! We got a decent amount of snow (6-8 inches??) but it was over 5 days so this would be no big deal in MN but when there aren’t many plows and people are not used to the snow it causes major problems! People on benefits were getting “cold payments” to help pay for the extra heating costs because it had been cold for a certain number of days. I wouldn’t have guessed that “cold payments” existed but I guess they do! On the bright side, it created fun woodwork projects: sleds (or sledges as the English call them)! Also, many kids were being pulled around on sledges instead of being pushed in their usual strollers since the sidewalks were covered in snow…it was super cute!
Sadly over the last two days the temperatures have returned to normal for this time of year and almost all the snow has melted! It is so strange seeing grass! It seems like I fast forwarded to March or April. I really hope it snows again before Christmas so we have a white Christmas! But if the weather is back to normal we might not see snow until January which I am told is when it normally starts snowing.
Wellies have been my lifesaver during the snow! They keep your feet nice a dry but do nothing to keep them warm! As of yesterday I have fleece wellie socks to put inside my wellies and they will help my feet stay warm.
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