Our Mission home Christmas Party and a "Dickens of a Day"

This past week, we were hosted at the mission home for a Christmas party.  We were served a delicious ham and turkey dinner complete with Christmas Crackers ( a fun English favor).  Each district in attendance performed a skit.  We did the Shrek version of Nephi gets the plates.  Only, in our skit it was an area book.  Craig was Lehi and Laban and I was the Angel.  It was our elders idea.  It think it turned out pretty well, considering how little time we had to rehearse.   We each received a cloth gift bag, hand embroidered, with some small gifts and treats inside.   We did a gift exchange and watched a movie,  Ephraims Rescue.  Our mission president and his wife host  ten of these parties for 24 people each day the last ten,  week days before Christmas.  They were so kind to do this and they made the day feel almost like being home for Christmas.
Saturday we went to Lymm,  a picturesque little English town that hosts a Dickensian Festival every year before Christmas.  There is a parade and  many of the citizens dress up in victorian costumes.  There are also lots of booths selling crafts and gifts and good things to eat.  The parents of a young woman we have been working with invited us to go with them.  We had a nice time.  In the evening we took two sisters in our ward and went to see a musical version of the "Christmas Carol".  It was put on by the Liverpool Stake and it was very enjoyable.  It was performed to earn money for a local charity.  A  large number of people put in many hours to put this on.  We had a good turn out from our ward.

Our Mission Presidents wife and her friend cooked a great dinner for us.
Sister Preston is on the left.

Craig at Christmas dinner.

Here we are in Lymm with Hannah

We see these canal boats often on our drives.

The canal is so pretty and peaceful

The white house in the background was built in the 1700's

A Dickensian Mayor

Elder Whitehead is arrested for preaching.

The Morris Dancers