Happy New Year

Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

Not sure who wrote this, but I have always liked it.

Cheers!

Posted New Pictures for all of December

VW Birthday

We made VW a cake and had pizza on his Birthday. Here are pics of the cake and the kids the next morning.

VW and I also spent a night out going to a hockey game and dinner. We saw the Coventry Blaze. They are an the English pro hockey team, mostly Canadian and US players. They recently made a rule that 10 players on each team need to be British. The stadium is about the size of a high school arena. Our guess was that the level was around D2 or D3.

They won by the way: 4 to 3.

Fairy Party, just because

We made fairy skirts to take home, wands for them to decorate, and had wings and headbands for each girl. They seemed to have a great time. We started with wand making (huge success, they all did two a piece and asked for more,) then they ran around a bit, had biscuits (cookies for the yanks), listened to Alice the Fairy book, played more and headed home.

Most of the mums stayed and had coffee and tea. X was most definitely overwhelmed by 7 little girls and their giggles. I think he is used to being the loudest. VW was home early that day and was able to enjoy the party as well.

S and VW sneak out

They slipped out for a treat.

Christmas Bazaar at S's School

S and her Teacher.

Abby Park

We spent a lovely Sunday, at Abby Park. It has a pet zoo, playground, café, train rides, lake and dam. We ran around kicking footballs (soccer for you yanks), had lunch and hit the playground. We will save the rest for next time.

They think it is cold here. Around 35 F. If they only knew!

We have spent most of the last several weeks trying to get better. Someone always seems to be sick. Currently VW is the latest victim. And X has a runny nose. I think there is a whole string of bugs here we aren’t immune to getting.

Shhh, don’t tell the Toddlers

X and I attend a playgroup. There is usually around 80 or so people that attend on any given week. It is held in a church hall, with games, books, puzzles, toys, scooters and playdough. Each year the organizers plan a Don’t Tell the Toddlers party. It was a great Saturday night, with just the ladies, a dj, games and appetizers. It was a sold out event with 80 mums. We whooped it up until 12 am. It is those moments I know that I will cry when we leave because I will miss my British friends.

Poor Baby

Xander fell at the store, he has a huge fat lip. There was blood!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was truly our best meal in England. The B family really welcomed us. The turkey was divine, I loved the soup, the Banoffee Pie was to die for, the seasonal vegetables oh! I ate three days worth of food. I have included the menu they laid out (it lost its formatting.) I thought you should see…

L. and J. welcome you to
Chez Baker
Thanksgiving Day Dinner

Aperitif
Perfect Turkey (cocktail)
Roasted Hazelnuts with Thyme

Entrée
Cinnamon Spiced Squash Soup
Served with Cornbread
Wine: Californian Pinot noir or Californian Pinot Grigio

Main Course
Roast Turkey with Pork, Cranberry and Chestnut Stuffing
Thyme and Bacon Chipolatas
Roast Potatoes
Grandma Bernie’s Sweet Potatoes
Creamed Corn
Seasonal Roasted Vegetables
Accompanied by Cranberry Sauce and Brandy and Redcurrant Gravy
Wine: Californian Pinot noir or Californian Pinot Grigio

Dessert
Banoffee Pie
Pecan Pie
Wine: Chevalier du Pastel d’Yvon Mau

Cheese Board
Somerset Brie with Walnuts
English Cheddar with Black Olives
Stilton with Figs
Wine: Special Reserve Port

Coffee & Chocolate Brownies

Remember Someday

I have been writing about the fun or interesting things of late (at least from my point of view.) But I want to remind myself someday of all the normal things of life. Sunday we stayed home, I cleaned all three bathrooms, did laundry, washed dishes, cooked and picked up groceries. VW watched the kids, made a nice breakfast and worked. I am still doing laundry. I have so much laundry hung around the house right now to dry, I am not sure where I will put the next load. And I didn’t let it get away from me, I just didn’t do any on Saturday and all the sheets, towels and rugs also needed a wash.

My car needs an oil change, our furnace keeps losing pressure and not heating the house and my bank card isn’t working.

It is so dark here most of the time, it is light only from 7:15 am to 4:00 pm.

X won’t wear his winter coat because it doesn’t have a hood and he hides whenever it is time to poo. S loves school and her friends one day and cries the next.

Life can be just as mundane here as it can be at home. But as I tell S, if you spend your time worrying about what you miss or what you don’t have, you don’t have time to enjoy what you do have.

Falling in Love again

X has developed a fascination with ties. First, anyone who is wearing one is going to work (of course.) Yesterday he said to me, “Mommy, you buy me a tie at the store.” “Yes, dear I will.” I told VW last night about our conversation. This morning (running late) VW and X came down the stairs in ties and white shirts and blazers. Oh were they cute and X was sooooo happy. We took pictures and danced around. Then X kept saying, “I am going to work.” Oh, oh , the disappointment was going to be a killer. He couldn’t actually go to work. VW ran upstairs to finish getting ready. Then came down scooped X up and took him for a drive. When they came home, X announced, “We went to Leeds.” It is those very moments, I fall in love with VW all over again.

A side note, he recently made S a “mixed cd” of girl songs. Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Daughters, What it feels like for a girl, etc….

What a great dad. I love him so much.

Anniversary of Sorts

We have lived in England 6 months today.

Lanzarote Pictures

Pictures posted in November for our Canary Islands vacation.

London and the British Museum

We decided to spend another Saturday in London. We drove down, parked and took the tube into town. We spent the whole of the day at the British Museum.

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London, England. Its collections, which number more than 7 million objects,[3] are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present.[a] (from wikipedia)

It was really beautiful. It is very overwhelming to think and see the number of different cultures and histories represented in one place. There is some controversy around returning items to their home country and I see some validity to their claims. However, it is too great a gift to have so many treasures in one place, for so many to glimpse and appreciate others histories and cultures. So, I think it would be a tragedy to let anything leave despite the capture or stealing of the items 100 or 200 years ago.

S liked the jewelry, X loved the swords and VW liked the knives and intricately carved metal. I liked reading the history behind things and then realizing I know about that person or event or wishing I did know about it. Some things that struck me were several items from Emperor Jahangir, of 17th century India/ Mughal Empire, builder of the Taj Mahal (written about in the The Twentieth Wife.)


The Rosetta Stone:

The Rosetta Stone is an Ancient Egyptian artifact which was instrumental in advancing modern understanding of hieroglyphic writing. …carved text made up of three translations of a single passage: two in Egyptian language scripts (hieroglyphic and Demotic) and one in classical Greek. It was created in 196 BC, discovered by the French in 1799 …during Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt.

We also really liked the mummies. I also like the miniature carvings.

The museum is free, which is amazing. However, I understood how it could be free when we paid $45 for bad sandwiches at lunch.

We ate dinner at a little Italian restaurant off the Covent Garden Tube stop. It was mostly an underground winding tunnel of bricks. It was a fine meal, however X’s glass broke while he was drinking. It scared me half to death. We walked around a bit. X loved an out door musician playing Chinese music. He danced and danced.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving with the UST Gang

We missed our first Thanksgiving ever with the Brady UST plus friends party this past weekend. It was very difficult to miss it, as I look so forward to it every year. We were with them in our hearts. The same holds true for next weekend on the actual Thanksgiving. But we have a the great blessing of spending Sunday with the B family just outside of London, thanks to their kind inclusion of us.

Halloween Pictures

trick or treating


costumes

Downtown Groby

The town consists of a pharmacy, a bakery, a veggie store (all extremely small), mini market, fish stand, hair salon, newsstand, 2 banks and 2 pubs. It all fits over about 3-4 blocks.
Library above
Town Hall below
The Post Office is also a gift shop with cards, toys, office supplies.

Downtown Leicester