Where in the World is Rebecca Today?

Friends and Family,

We hope this post finds you all well and enjoying the holiday season with your families. Our holiday season was disrupted this year by a family tragedy. Rebecca’s Aunt (in America) had a stroke two weeks before Christmas and passed away a few days later. Rebecca flew out to the US to be with her family.

This year, in lieu of sending cards, we have decided to make a donation to the Stroke Association in memory of Barbara A. Ohlinger, to aid others who suffer from a stroke.

We wish you all a happy holidays!

Love,

Tim & Rebecca Lockley

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Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends! I’m currently watching the Annual Thanksgiving Parade on WGAL courtesy of USTVnow after being stuffed with a traditional Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggies, and cranberry sauce topped off with a slice of pumpkin pie. UK friends when finding out what we were having commented with “kind of like Christmas”, and so the idea for this post was born.

Just about the only thing Thanksgiving has in common with Christmas is perhaps, the turkey and it’s fixings. I always have looked at Christmas as more of a nuclear family kind of thing, as in parents and their children (whether single parents, step-parents, half siblings, etc.) and Thanksgiving was always more of an extended family kind of holiday where you saw aunts, uncles, and cousins you rarely saw.

For many Americans, Thanksgiving is the start of the holiday season as well with Christmas only a few weeks away. Many people use Thanksgiving as the marker for starting their Christmas shopping or for putting up their Christmas trees. Growing up, Thanksgiving always meant a road trip from our home in NJ to my aunt’s house in PA. My aunt and uncle would drive to our house for Thursday dinner, and usually I’d get to go back with them when they left and my parents would follow on Saturday because my family did our big dinner on Sunday.

What is Thanksgiving? There are many stories about the first Thanksgiving, but the one that we are taught in primary school is that the Pilgrims were so grateful for surviving their first year they invited the Indians to a feast. I’m afraid the real story is probably not nearly as romantic or nice. Holding Thanksgiving in November didn’t start until 1863 with a proclamation made by Abraham Lincoln. Thanksgiving continued to be held sometime around the end of November with no set annual date until 1941, when it was decided Thanksgiving will be held on the last Thursday of the month in November. Thanksgiving has been both a religious celebration and a harvest celebration, but in recent years it has become more of a family oriented holiday and a time where you “give thanks” for what you have, and many people give to the less fortunate on Thanksgiving by donating food to local food pantries, or providing meals at a local soup kitchen. I spent several years helping out at my aunt’s church for their annual community dinner.

Even though I now live in the UK, I want to keep some of the American traditions alive. This year, due to Tim’s work schedule and Sunday being my MIL’s birthday, today it was just Tim and I for a noon-time dinner. I’ve been not feeling well lately, so it almost didn’t happen, but I’m glad I pulled it off. It was nice. And now I’m watching the parade and talking to my mom. Who knows? Maybe some day I will get to be in the US for Thanksgiving.

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

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It’s that time of year again. Fortunately, I did a lot of our Christmas shopping in October and Tim and I are just buying each other Kindles, but we were totally stumped on something to give his mum this year.

I ordered our Christmas cards (super early) from VistaPrint and inside the box with the order was an offer for a FREE wall calendar…our problems were solved, as his mum has been really concentrating on decorating her house with family photos.

If you’d like your free calendar, just go to http://www.vistaprint.biz/special2011. VistaPrint has tons of other inexpensive and free deals, such as 10 free Christmas cards, 250 free business cards, and even free photo mugs and mousemats.

Order early though. If you want to opt for the inexpensive shipping, it can take up to 21 working days for your items to get to you, but when I ordered my stuff, it only took about 2 weeks.

[I am not being compensated by VistaPrint for this post.]

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

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I was on BBC Lincolnshire last week talking about Halloween with William Wright. He asked me to come on as an American to talk about Halloween, since it’s not celebrated all that much in the UK.

Here are a few guidelines for having an authentic Halloween:

-Wear a costume. If your child is going to go trick or treating, they need a costume. You don’t have to go out and spend a lot of money on this, either. One of my favourite costumes was made on Halloween out of things we had in the house. I became an Absent-minded professor with a button down shirt open over a t-shirt, an untied tie looped around my neck, a pair of boxers (I wore tights under for warmth), and one slipper and one shoe.

-Trick or Treating is for kids. The general cut off IMHO should be the lower teens, unless you have a younger sibling or babysitting charge to take around. Groups of 19-20-yr-olds begging for sweets just isn’t cool.

-If you are escorting a younger child, don’t expect candy for yourself. Some people will only give candy to the little ones, but it helps your case for candy if you put on a costume.

-If someone doesn’t have candy, that isn’t an excuse to throw eggs or do other vandalism. Some people just don’t like Halloween or forgot to plan for it. Be gracious and thank them for their time before leaving their property.

-If the light is out, don’t knock. A common undocumented rule in the US is to leave your front light on if you want trick or treaters and to turn it off if you don’t.

-Trick or Treat only on Halloween or your town’s designated night. Trick or Treating is one night. Some towns designate a different day for Trick or Treating other than Halloween, but it is always just one night. If your town is doing Trick or Treating on the 30th, don’t go out on the 31st, too!

-Be polite and say thank you. Loads of kids would come to my door in the US and some wouldn’t even say “Trick or Treat” let alone thank me for the candy. A little manners goes a long way!

-If you’re giving out candy, remember to only give out wrapped candy. Unwrapped candy isn’t safe, and neither are home baked goods. Save the home baked goods for the people you know directly and not the strangers. Small coins are also sometimes given out in the US by people who either don’t want to give candy, or have run out. When I was younger we also occasionally would receive a small bag of pretzels, crisps, or even a pencil.

-Likewise, parents please go through your children’s candy before they start eating it. Check to make sure things are still in date and that wrappers are secure. Throw away unwrapped candies or home baked goods, unless you know the person who gave it to your child.

-Halloween does not have to be scary, and in fact, can be fun and even silly! The producer at BBC Lincolnshire told me her child was terrified of the skulls and spiders decorating the nursery he goes to. You don’t need scary skulls and spiders to decorate for Halloween. Witches, black cats, mummies unravelling, even just plain pumpkins and coloured leaves can be a nice Halloween decoration.

-Please remember that just because you see something OTT on an American TV programme, that doesn’t mean it’s something done by middle-class America. This note applies to Proms as well! When in doubt, do some internet research or find an American friend to ask.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!!

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The contents of this post, including images are © Rebecca J Lockley and Tim Lockley unless otherwise stated and should not be reproduced without permission. If you are not reading this on http://blog.beccajanestclair.com, my facebook page, or the RSS feed(s), please notify me.

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Due to work and family illnesses, Tim’s mum invited us over for breakfast on Christmas Day, and dinner on Boxing Day, leaving us on our own for most of Christmas.

We purchased Christmas Crackers (poppers) and I made us a turkey with all the trimmings. A few days before we found fresh cranberries at ASDA, so I made up a batch of cranberry sauce for us to share with his family.

At home, I usually woke up around the time that Mom would get up to put the turkey in the oven – sometimes as early as 6. Surprisingly, even though we weren’t having our turkey until the evening, I was awake bright and early on Christmas and had to wait for Tim to get up!

A few weeks before Christmas, I decorated a stocking for Tim (with a train on the front!) and filled it with candy, (US) railroad pins, and a pair of novelty boxer shorts. Tim took his cue from me, and I had a stocking filled with candy (he filled anything “hollow” like a coffee mug and a make-up bag with chocolate!) and other small items. Tim also gave me a few books, but the best present of all came in a little tiny box from H Samuel. Tim gave me a beautiful ring with a butterfly on it! Apparently he almost didn’t have the ring to give me. He had to have it sized and was told to pick it up on Christmas Eve. He went into town before work to pick it up, and the store was all locked up with the gates down! Fortunately, they took pity on Tim and let him in since he had already picked it up, or he would have been pretty upset on Christmas!

After we exchanged gifts, we headed over to his parent’s house for breakfast and to bring over the gifts we had for them. To my surprise, I had a small pile of gifts to open! Tim’s parents gave me bedroom slippers, a pair of pajamas, and some bath products. His grandparents gave me a purple handbag (that I LOVE!), and I also received chocolate, some Doctor Who related items, and a Pashmina from his other family members. I really appreciated everything they did to make me feel a part of things.

Later in the evening, Tim and I opened a box of wine and popped our crackers. We sat in front of the fireplace and watched the Christmas Doctor Who special, the Wallace and Gromit special, and a few movies before heading to bed.

My new ring!

For more Christmas photos: http://photos.beccajanestclair.com/uk-trip-2008/christmas-2008

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I decided to make Thanksgiving dinner today. Originally, Tim’s mum was supposed to come over, as today is her birthday, but Tim’s dad has been in and out of the hospital and needed to go in again today, so I was just cooking for Tim. And boy, did I cook A LOT. He’ll be eating this stuff for weeks!

This wasn’t the first time I was away from home for Thanksgiving Thursday, but it was the first time I’d be away from home for Family Thanksgiving. My family celebrates the holiday on the Sunday after and we try to get as many people of the family together as possible, so on the Thursday I’ve sometimes gone to a boyfriend’s family dinner instead of spending the day with my mom and aunt. This was, however, the first time I’ve ever cooked Thanksgiving dinner on my own…or really, ANY of the dinner other than the vegetable!

I used an assortment of sites/people for help – some of my friends gave me great advice, my mom gave me her stuffing recipe, and I used google to find recipes (that I wound up adjusting/tweaking!) for today. Obviously, the centerpiece of today’s meal was turkey. At first, I wasn’t sure we’d find one in Tesco…we were in the “fresh” meat section and hadn’t seen any turkey and I had finally let Tim pick up a whole chicken when we found Turkey crowns (breasts) in the frozen section.

I did most of the cooking yesterday. Tim doesn’t have the type of oven/stove you expect to see in a US kitchen. He has a counter-top oven that has two burners on top..and, you can only use one burner while the oven is on! I knew it would be a challenge, but I was prepared and with making notes and a schedule I had it all figured out. Good thing we now have things like microwaves so I was able to make a lot of things last night and reheated them today!

The oven was, obviously, being taken up by the turkey, and while the turkey was cooling I cooked the pan(s) of stuffing – that I had put together the night before.

I wanted mashed potatoes (though Tim says mine are what he’d call “creamed potatoes”), and since I knew that would take up a burner for a long time, I decided to hunt out a way to do them in the crock pot. Surprisingly, I found a very simple recipe and started the potatoes before we went to bed, so in the morning I was able to mash them and leave the crock pot set to warm.

I started to combine a few Thanksgiving traditions from my family and I made sweet potatoes (usually made by my Aunt Beatie for Sunday dinner) and glazed carrots (usually made by my Aunt Janie for Saturday night dinner). The carrots were made on Wednesday, and put into the microwave for heating.

The other vegetable I chose to make was brussel sprouts, because I found a recipe online for Golden Encrusted Brussel Sprouts, and Tim and I both thought that sounded good.

Rounding out the plate we had gravy, which I wimped out on and made from granulates, jarred (not canned!) cranberry sauce, and cranberry orange muffins.

For dessert, I wanted to make pumpkin pie…but I couldn’t find a pumpkin, so we bought a butternut squash instead and I followed just the filling recipe from this website. The recipe said the pecan/graham layer was optional, but I think it would have been better with it because the pie needed to be a lot sweeter. If I follow that recipe again, I’ll either add more cinnamon and sugar, or I’ll add the optional layer. For a crust, Tim found me pre-made puff pastry sheets and for a pie plate, he bought a shallow cake tin, so I dubbed it “Deep Dish Pumpkin Pie”. We also had a pre-made apple pie made by a company called (mom, you’ll love this) Aunt Bessie’s. The apple pie turned out to be crap though, as despite it being in the oven for the full 50 minutes and the top browned on it….the bottom never cooked and when we dished it out it was stringy dough! Sadly, the apple pie was to be the back-up if the pumpkin pie didn’t turn out well, so we wound up not having dessert.

Tim’s gone off to work (2-10 shift today), and at some point I need to put away our leftovers!

for a vegetarian who has never cooked a turkey before on her own, looks pretty good!

The Deep Dish failure

Ready to eat!

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