Christmas Lights & Teddies

Sunday evening I was playing with my flute choir at the lights of Christmas. Every year they dress up this Christian Summer Camp group with lights. It's actually mesmerising and slightly sickening how many there are. I haven't got any versions of the concert to post, I do have fairy light photos! I also visited the 'Teddy Bear' Suite at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, so there are photos of that lower down. I also went to enjoy some indoor 'snow' at "Pacific Place" one of the shopping malls in downtown Seattle.

 

 

I saw three ships go sailing by...

Saturday was another day for Christmas outings. In order to make a profit during the winter period, ahem, I mean in order to spread Christmas spirit and Charity, one of the ferry companies in Seattle host a Christmas Ship. They have musicians and a dinner on board and sale around the many lakes in Seattle. The just run a couple of times, they do this basically everyday through the whole festive period, granted Seattle has a lot of water, and they call in at different beaches and broadcast the music for the assembled crowds. The park department sets up bonfires and the local community groups usually rustle up cookies and hot chocolate. People with boats, from canoes to yachts, follow behind the Christmas ship sporting Christmas lights. I went along to a local(ish) beach as they aren't visiting my local park till after I leave. It was a mild night so pleasant to sit and listen to the SATB choir on board (that's a Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass or high and low women and high and low men choir). The choir sung for about 20mins and were very good. Here are the not completely fuzzy photos and at the end a few videos (apologies for the background noise), I hope they play for you!

Our first decorated boat, spotted on the way to the beach. 

The Christmas ship itself

The bonfire

Some of the ships who were tagging along

This video is "Caroling Caroling"

These two are "The little drummer boy" which was my favourite due to the rhythmic men's part.  

This one is "Good King Wenceslas"

Frozen Fountains and Gingerbread Houses

This year I didn't get to see the tree lighting up at Pikes Place Market, something to do for next year, but I did go for a visit on Friday to have a look.

Last Weekend we were in the middle of a cold snap which led to some beautiful works of physics and chemistry in the shape of frozen fountains. For a damp city Seattle has a lot of public water features which are amazing when they freeze.

Another fun thing I did after work this week was visit the Gingerbread Village at the Sheraton Hotel. Which raises money for the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). I wonder whether I can convince someone in Bristol to have a go at this. The theme is nursery rhymes and so we have "hey diddle diddle"....

 

"I saw three ships..." is that really a nursery rhyme? 

"London Bridge is falling down" with "hickory dickory dock" in the background.

Jack in the Bean Stalk...

 

And here's another shot of Pike's Place Market...  

Christmas in Seattle

The tree on the space needle

 Christmas has come to Seattle and the tree is set on to of the space needle, the cranes are decked with Christmas trees, and the streets are lined with lights, time for some pictures.

Last Friday the 6th I went to the Figgy Pudding Contest.

Contrary to what it sounds like this isn't a pudding eating contest, America doesn't do Christmas puddings or mince pies, although I have now found a source for gingerbread lattes so all is not lost. The Figgy Pudding contest is in fact a Carol singing contest.

There were about 40 groups of singers competing, they close off a couple of streets and all the groups have a place allocated to set up. You then wonder between the group listening. There was a whole mix of songs, modern, traditional, one group of guys were singing in Latin, and one group were tap dancing!

It was rather crowed and very cold

The tap dancers

And here goes with some videos...

The tap dancers:

Traditional carols...

And because even Christmas time should include rap...

Then it was time to catch the monorail over to Seattle Centre for the Nutcracker Ballet. This is something of a specialty of the Seattle Ballet and if you are ever here in December you should try and see it. It cost $25 for the cheapest tickets which is about £15 (at the moment). The set, costumes, music, and dancing were all amazing. Yay, I'm excited just thinking about it!

This is the stage of the Nutcracker, we were right at the back but it was still amazing

If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all...

...maybe that's a bit harsh, If you don't have anything interesting to say don't say anything at all might be nearer the mark. I've been quiet for a whole month, did you notice? I didn't even know what I'd been doing for the last month but it turns out I have been quite busy so here goes...

I don't think I put up any photos of the pumpkin carving I did with my housemates so here we go... I decided that when in rome and all that so despite my reservations I would join in with Halloween. It is a curious fact that many Christians in the UK avoid Halloween. The Anglican tradition is that one makes a mockery of the dark forces by imitating them in silly costumes (basically) but lots of Christians I know avoid it all together or have a light celebration instead. In the USA everyone celebrates Halloween it's primarily a kids holiday but you see adults in costume going to work. My joining in with Halloween was possibly a little half-hearted but I just joined in with my house mates. We had a total of about 10 trick-or-treaters who my housemates had brought candy for, I didn't dress up, and I carved autumn leaves on my pumpkin (old habits die hard). In the end I think I'll take the pumpkin carving and leave the rest when I return across the pond. I wonder whether part of the difference between the US and UK is that we celebrate bonfire night and this gives us our pre-Christmas the-nights-are-drawing-in party fix.

These are our freshly carved pumpkins

with proud owners

in situ

As you can see I went for an ever so scary autumn leaf design.

  I celebrated bonfire night with cheesy jacket potatoes and Catherine Wheel biscuits for work. Lots of people are more aware of fireworks night here than they were thanks to the movie "v for vendetta". It did get me thinking, I know full well that I celebrate fireworks night because of I like fireworks (that's about as deep as it goes). Historically we as a country celebrate Guy Fawkes night as the night those 'dastardly Catholics' failed to blow up the king and parliament, and got their just deserts. For many it's a reminder of one of the many unsavoury moments of our nations past, one only has to look at Guy Fawkes' 'before' and 'after' (on his confession) signature  to realise that he was pretty brutally tortured. The Americans believe that we now celebrate Guy Fawkes night as a celebration that someone actually had the guts to have a go. I'm not sure that is true at all, but it is curious that in a Christian culture that is fairly anti-Halloween we don't have more to say about Bonfire night.

This Flute Choir term has come to an end. Below our links to videos of our slightly out of tune end of year concert. I'm hidden behind the bass flute on the right!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmxkTmrzBXk&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHG9R9hrYE4&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsynM5-MoUo&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdStfZAn8Yo&feature=youtu.be

We have one rehearsal of Christmas music then a Christmas concert too.

Of course Thursday was Thanksgiving so I had Thursday and Friday off work. I spent the day with Laurie and John watching the parade, enjoying movies, and having a great meal at Salty's.

Yesterday I helped decorate my church, today my landlady and me have been decorating the house...

Add caption

The lights in the city are all up now too...

Oh look I found something to say after all! It's been a long month which has gone past very quickly and I guess I have been busy, roll of Christmas. As well as looking forward to the birth of Christ our Saviour this year I am looking forward to hugging my family, visiting my church in Bristol, spending pound coins, eating fish and chips, drinking pumpkin lattes, and indulging in lots of good old Cadbury's chocolate... roll on the 20th of December, but not too quickly I have lots of work to do and Seattle Christmas traditions to enjoy!