Christmas Gifts
Just a forewarning, there will be a few posts coming rapid-fire so that I can catch up on the last month. I have too many pictures as usual—I might even add some more pictures after I send out the post, because I don’t want to drown your email but I do want to make sure I keep a record of all we’ve seen and experienced. This is our personal journal and you’re just along for the ride! So here goes…
In our previous message, we shared all the light-filled and beautiful things we got to experience here in England in the month of December. Even with all of that, leading up to Christmas, we knew that it would be hard to be far away from our family, especially because we also knew that all of our children and grandchildren would be in Utah together at Christmas and we wouldn’t be there!
The Area Office was going to be closed for the week from Christmas to New Year’s Day, and even though we would still have some responsibilities to keep up on during that time, we decided to take advantage of the time to travel somewhere that would otherwise take longer than a quick weekend. We also knew we would need some kind of distraction from missing our kids. So we decided to visit Devon and Cornwall, which is the beautiful Southwest peninsula of England.
In the summer, this area is swarmed with “holiday-makers” at all the coastal villages and beaches. The narrow (really narrow!) roads are crowded and what is already a long drive takes even longer because of the traffic. The winter is considerably less crowded, though you run the risk of having windy, wet and cold weather. Just a few weeks before Christmas, Storm Darragh blew through the area causing massive power outages and tree damage from the heavy winds and rain. But we decided to hope for the best and be prepared for whatever weather we might have. Thankfully, we lucked out with calm, mild weather! Not a single puff of wind other than our very last day, and only a few bits of misty rain on a couple of days. It was a Christmas gift!
I did tons of research and asked around the office to find out about all the places we needed to see so that we could maximize the time we had in this beautiful part of England. Everyone sighs longingly anytime you mention Cornwall, so we had high expectations for what we would see. This was our route:
Let’s just say that everywhere we went lived up to all the hype! And if it was this lovely in the winter, we can only imagine how beautiful it would be in the spring or summer.
Our first stop on Christmas Eve day was Stonehenge, which isn’t too far away from us, but we hadn’t been there yet. I hadn’t been particularly keen on needing to go there—it seemed like just a “pile of rocks” and I knew you couldn’t get that close to them, so add a pile of tourists to a pile of rocks and it didn’t seem very appealing. But I have to say that I appreciated it more than I thought I would. There’s something about the age (almost 5,000 years old!) and the mystery (lots of theories) of these massive rocks in a circle out in the middle of pasture land that seems to draw your interest and curiosity. It’s fascinating to imagine who and how and why these stones were put there.
Next stop was nearby Glastonbury (of the festival fame), but more historically the Glastonbury Abbey is the supposed site of King Arthur’s tomb back in the 1100’s.
We finished the day at Exeter, where we attended a traditional Christmas Eve Carol Service at the Exeter Cathedral.
The service was a mix of Christmas hymns sung by a choir (joined by the congregation occasionally) and gospel readings in a beautiful candle-lit cathedral. They even did an arrangement done by Mack Wilberg, the conductor of the Tabernacle Choir. And the final carol of “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” was soul-stirring! It truly felt like we were singing with angels as we joined the choir at the end. There was no photography or video allowed, but I will admit to doing a little one minute audio recording of part of this song. I couldn’t help myself, I needed to preserve a memory of this amazing sound. So I’ve put a few pictures to the music, here it is:
Being a part of this beautiful Christmas Eve service and focusing on the Savior’s birth through the beautiful music was a gift!
We arrived at our AirBnB in Teignmouth, had a dinner out at a “Mexican” (suffice to say we have yet to find a truly good Mexican restaurant here in England) restaurant and then talked to a few of our kids. It was dark and foggy when we went to bed, but we awoke Christmas morning to a beautiful view out our window and the most glorious sunshine. Another Christmas gift!
We got up and went for a walk on the beach and then drove to Torquay, a nearby beach/resort town.
We had planned ahead for food that day, knowing that not many places would be open. We had brought food to make sandwiches for lunch. And we had previously made reservations for dinner at one of the few nearby restaurants that was open on Christmas day. Or so we thought. In spite of their website saying they would be open, and in spite of the fact that they took our reservation online, we got a text message late Christmas Eve telling us that they were closed on Christmas Day. Oh no! All the grocery stores were closed by then, no other restaurants were open (not even McDonalds haha), and we only had a few remaining provisions that we had planned for lunch. But as we were walking around Torquay that day, we found one little mini-mart (really, it was more of a liquor store with some food items) that was open. That was going to have to do! So we got some packages of Swedish meatballs, some plain rice, and combined that with a few pieces of bread (no butter) that we already had to make what will go down as our worst Christmas Day meal ever, but also our most humorous. We just had to make the best of it and laugh!
Later that day we were able to FaceTime with the whole family in Utah. It was so wonderful to see them and we were grateful that they were all able to be together. It was great to see them strengthening their bonds as siblings, and to see the grandkids having fun with all their aunts and uncles. But, man it was hard not to be there! I needed to feel the sadness for a little bit, but then had to choose to appreciate what we were seeing and doing and appreciate that my children love each other enough to want to be together. That was a gift!
From Teignmouth, we spent the next several days making our way around the coastline, staying in Plymouth, Penzance and Lynton, with lots of stops in between all of those places.
We spent a day in Dartmoor National Park—again, a few hours of glorious sunshine above the fog line. And a “fog bow”! And wild ponies! More gifts!
These two pictures deserve their own space, such incredible beauty:
Finally, we welcomed 2025 in with a bang—we had a view of some epic fireworks in the little village we stayed at in Lynton on New Year’s Eve. A local pub does an amazing 15-minute fireworks display every year and we got to watch it from our window while staying nice and warm.
This area is truly one of the loveliest places we’ve visited in England. The coast reminded us so much of the Northern California coastline and gave us a little taste of home when we were missing it the most. We hiked every day, logging 8-10 miles a day, and visited quaint seaside villages and met delightful people.
During our trip, we went to Church in Helston, which is the ward where a colleague at the office grew up and his parents and brothers still live there. We met his family, and they were wonderful. I was even recruited to play the organ shortly after stepping into the chapel. The chorister was the sweetest elderly woman who told me right at the beginning that she had no idea what she was doing but that she always just stood up and did her best. I was ready to take the lead on the organ, expecting her to simply wave her arm and follow along. But as I played, I found myself moved to tears. She might not have known the technicalities of leading, but she led with her heart. Watching her face as she sang, it was clear she wasn't just singing words. She was pouring her soul into every note, sharing her love for God with everyone in the congregation.
This Christmas will definitely be remembered as one of our most unique. It was hard in some ways, but wonderful in so many others. We didn’t have a single gift to open, yet we have wonderful memories as gifts that we will always treasure. And most importantly, we felt gratitude for the gift of our Savior and His life. And for the gift we have to be His representatives in this beautiful place.
♥ Until next time, we love you! Cheerio! ♥
Meatballs and rice from a liquor store for Christmas Eve dinner…how memorable!
Love you guys!
I loved reading about your Christmas adventures and seeing the pics. Definitely a different Christmas for us as well.