Devonian White Christmas

I was very nervous to spend Christmas this year away from home, family, and the warm California Christmas weather I’ve grown up with. It was indeed very difficult to be away. But Alun and Devon made my first English Christmas an enchanting and magical one, full of much cheer and incredible food!

This December has been the coldest on record for England and, as you can see from a previous post, there has been plenty of snow. Devon received a heavy dousing of snow right before we arrived and it remained the whole week we were there, creating a magical wintery setting. The roads were icy, restricting travel and forcing us into a lovely, leisurely Christmas.

Christmas for me, like most of us, is full of hustle and bustle. And Christmas Day is usually even busier, driving here and there, between parents’ houses, in-laws, church, etc. This year, in the village of Bishopsteignton, Christmas was a much different pace. We were still busy preparing for meals, shopping, cooking, decorating, and visiting lots of people, but there was a steadiness or slowness to the pace, maybe because everyone lives down the street from each other, maybe because the cold snowy weather restricted excessive travel, I don’t know. But it was certainly a peaceful, intimate, English village Christmas.

We cut our own 4 foot tree from a lot in Newton Abbot. We drove to the South Hams and picked up a goose from a family whose children used to be Alun’s pupils. I purchased a pair of Wellington Boots (Wellies) so I could properly tromp around in the snow, and we took several stunning walks around the village through the snow on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. We took in the stunning views of Dartmoor covered in snow during a cautious drive. We enjoyed midnight mass at Shaldon, and sipped on homemade eggnog afterwards with Nick and Alun in front of a roaring fire. We feasted Christmas morning on Buck Fizzes (mimosas), homemade cinnamon rolls, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs while entertaining several visits from friends of Alun. Later we went to the pub up the road for a pint with the neighbors. It was time for the goose in to get in the oven, and while Alun worked on the feast, Ryan and I took in the majestic views of our snowy walk above the village. In the evening, Bob, a sharp witted, kind 90 year old man joined us for an English Christmas feast of goose, ham, roasted potatoes and parsnips, brussel sprouts, cabbage, applesauce and goose gravy! It was a magical meal, filling us all with merriment and an overwhelming sense of blessing. My Christmas pudding finished off the night with a success!

We finished the weekend with an enchanting walk on Boxing Day along the Exe estuary, along blanketed icy fields, surrounded in a thick hazy fog that made the whole experience rather ethereal. It was magical and the perfect ending to a weekend full of great meals and great company, all at a pace that allowed for the blessings and spirit of Christmas to be fully appreciated. My lesson this Christmas: Tis a gift to be simple—with a full belly in front of a roasting fire!