Last weekend, we went to the Big Ben annual dinner. Big Ben is a British social club, and we were invited by friends from church who are members. Us and our friends Sarah and Tom were the youngest, by kind of a lot, but it was so much fun. It was a great excuse to celebrate Annie's birthday (the vicar's wife - I'm going to try to use as many British terms as possible in this post), get suited and booted (dressed up), and experience a proper, English meal. We had stuffed turkey, roasted veg (they say veg), sausages, white sauce, trifle and Christmas pudding. What I was looking forward to the most was Christmas crackers. Here we are, hand over hand, breaking the crackers, which brings about the crack sound they're named for. There's a sort of firecracker inside, and when they're pulled apart, it's set off. I obviously don't know how to describe this proces... maybe you can google it. They're all filled with bits and bobs (again, English)... namely, paper crowns and little gifts. Mine had playing cards and Ryan's had little scissors. Jackpot!
Here are some scenes from around the table. And of the birthday girl - check out the candle! I bet she was dead chuffed (really pleased).
After dinner, we had a bit of dancing. People called the music "swiss" but Americans would have called it polka. And it never let up, so it was a little hard to dance, but we still managed.
After working up a sweat on the dance floor, we hit the balcony to check out some snow.
Here are some other British phrases we've been learning that I couldn't quite fit in... nick (to steal), cock it up (mess it up), and gutted (disappointed). Here we go - we were so NOT gutted the night of Big Ben. No. That doesn't really work.
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