Ho Ho Holiday Part 1

There is nothing like being home for the Holidays. I love my family so so much. Andrew and I arrived in DC late last Thursday, Dec 16th, and then went right to Roanoke, VA Saturday morning. With the move, we hadn't seen my mom's family since the wedding! 

I have a beautiful Godson, Coleman, and he has turned into such a little man! We used to roll around on the ground playing ninja turtles and going on missions, but now he's on to Ben 10 and iphone apps and other big boy games. With a little insider information, I was able to get him a Ben 10 game for wii that got a "Thank you very much Stephy!" in an almost soldier-like, snapping into a straight up and down salute! It's amazing how wonderful and loving he is since he was so little the last time I saw him and we were best friends almost instantly! 

And then there was Ben. At our wedding, Ben was barely a couple weeks old. He's a mover and a shaker! I'm convinced that I'm a bit of a baby whisperer because kids tend to like me, and really quickly. Within 10 minutes, Ben was in my arms and not wanting to go to anyone else! Granted, his mom and dad weren't there, but I choose to ignore that fact. It's so fun to see kids be their own little people. Whenever Ben got upset, if you took him outside for a few minutes - just holding him - he was revived. Amazing!

Ben and Coleman are my cousin Alissa's kids. Lissy is my long lost sister. We both have the "Goober" gene which causes us to humiliate ourselves over and over in grandiose, and often self-injuring, ways. It was so great to see her and her hubby Keith, who was a big trooper since he celebrated his 40th birthday rather enthusiastically the night before. Then Aunt Conchita came, and Natty and Matt, and Mikey and Sam! It was just like the good old days, minus Jesse. And that's a really big minus. 

Mikey and Sam brought Aunt Cris and Uncle Wayne electronic Catch Phrase. After a disgustingly huge dinner full of our favorites - black beans and rice, turkey, ham, Aunt Conchita's famous broccoli casserole, and more - we played several hours of Catch Phrase, Boys vs Girls. There were some really funny highlights including Matt's clue of wavelengths bouncing off prisms, trying to get his team to guess "color" and Jack's interesting way to get his team to guess "mixed". We girls really struggled with our timing and the boys kept winning over and over. I was really enjoying the plethora of red wines, and the vino combined with my competitiveness was not bringing out my best side. I walked away from the game with a sour taste in my mouth! 


We ended up leaving VA fairly early on Sunday morning so all the boys could get home to watch the Ravens game. I made everyone watch Elf in the car to get us into the Christmas Spirit. There's something about Will Farrel as Buddy the Elf that really completes the Christmas experience. It's definitely one of the most quotable movies out there! We stopped in Charlottesville on the way back, at a Best Buy, to pick up a cable so that Andrew could hook his computer up to our TV at home to watch the Ravens game (being from a predominantly Redskin town, we'd already found out it wasn't being shown on regualr TV) via Andrew's NFL gamepass. While in Best Buy, I found Despicable Me! I'm really lucky that my husband doesn't tell me "no" very often :) 


Jack, Andrew and I watched Despicable Me for the last leg of the trip. Hands down, one of my most favorite movies I've ever seen! It's sad when you are almost 27 years old and identify most with an animated 5 year old. The part where she sees the unicorn at the amusement park and screams "it's SO fluffy I want to die" really got me, on more than one level! I can't WAIT to watch it again! 


So our trip has started off with a bang! I can't wait to see what happens as we get closer and closer to Christmas. 


Side Note: Christmas Dinner part 1 at Aunt Cris's, we were still sat at the kids table... I'm not sure that we'll ever graduate!

Santa!! I know him!

In the spirit of the holiday season, I popped in Christmas Vacation yesterday. If Clark Griswald doesn't get you into the Christmas spirit, you are dead inside. It has inspired me to totally holiday-ify myself from this point forward by watching all the Christmas movies I own and listen to nothing but Christmas music and make Christmas cookies (again, because I totally botched the first batch but I guess thats ok because I ate half the dough before baking anyway) and finish my Christmas shopping and do all the Christmas-y things in London :) 

I have pretty much finished my Christmas shopping, but I am in the middle of the epic battle (I really like the word "epic" right now so apologies because I deliberately find ways to use it...and often) I have with myself each time I approach this holiday season... I keep finding little things for myself along the way! I know that you should not buy things for yourself around Christmas, that it's better to give than receive, but I really can't help myself sometimes and I really do feel guilty having people spend money on me... 

My good friend Vale has a really cute blog where she has been posting things she'd like Santa to bring her, so I am taking a page out of her book with this post in the hopes that talking about some of my new obsessions will get them out of my system :)

I really thought I was growing up because I am struggling to find things I can tell my family to get me for Christmas, and that the "giving" part of Christmas was all that I was thinking about. And then I walked into Warehouse today (one of my new fav stores in London) and had to walk right back out because I was falling in love with 20 different things!! In my defense, one said item IS on my teeny tiny Christmas wishlist that I sent to Andrew (since he never knows what to get me), but I know for a fact that he did not get this particular one for me. I am a terrible person and cannot help myself when it comes to surprises. I have insanely stealth and effective detective skills when needed. 

I also have an ugg sickness I am fighting. I realized the other day that I have had my classic short sand colored uggs since I was 20! That's going on 7 years. They are currently gross and stained and in my mind, that warrants a replacement. This means I cannot stop thinking about the super cute short ugg Bailey Button boots, and of course, am seeing everywhere! But while looking for them, I stumbled across the Knightsbridge boot, which I am REALLY loving too... But I already have 3 pairs of uggs... replacing one pair I can justify, but buying a fourth pair... Andrew would kill me!  It doesn't help that Miranda Kerr has them and looks super cute in them!! I think I'd want them in gray. I don't have gray boots... does that make it OK?!?!

So the venting - I don't think it helped! At least I have a busy week so hopefully that will keep my mind busy and not obsessing over silly things like boots and capes! Instead, I should really be asking if anyone has a good idea as to what to get an 18 year old boy about to go off to college next fall, yet hasn't decided on the exact college currently, because I would love to hear it!! It's sad to think I was leaving for college 8 years ago!! I feel old...

Bailey Button Boot

Knightsbridge boot

The Winter Wonderland

London is gorgeous at Christmas. I feel like I'm living Love Actually! And to fully experience the London Christmas season, I have been researching fun things to do!! One such fun thing was the Winter Wonderland taking place in our very own Hyde Park! 

Hyde Park is really close to us, and I made Andrew go with me :) We bundled up and headed over, Starbucks in hand! The first thing I saw was the "Wheel of Excellence!" It was the same ferris wheel we saw in South Africa at the World Cup! Right next to the wheel was Santaland and all the games! There was an archery game that I needed to try immediately. For those who don't know, I was the archery champion of my Middle School in 6th, 7th and 8th Grade. The game was to pop four balloons arranged in a little cluster with five arrows. My first shot went in between two of the balloons. Balloons that where literally touching each other! My accuracy was pretty impressive, in my opinion, because all my arrows ended up in a tight little circle. My first attempt at the archery game, I popped two of the four balloons. I'm not going to lie, I was a little disappointed with myself. I'm pretty sure I was supposed to get a prize for popping half of the balloons, but unless it was the large giraffe that you get for popping all four, I did not want a prize. 

So then we checked out the rest of the festival, venturing into Santaland! It was fantastic and totally oriented for younger kids, so naturally I was in heaven! I suppressed the urge to yell "Santas coming!!" and "you're not Santa, you smell like beef and cheese!" as we walked through :) After that, it was off to the grown up side of things. 

The whole Wonderland was German market inspired. There was lots of mulled wine, and brats and spicy sausages and little Chalets everywhere. There were a bunch of Carnival rides too, but they were all "spinning" rides, so there was NO way I was getting on - the spinning and the fact that those rides are broken down and put back together who knows how many times... 

My phone died after Santaland so no pictures after that. I will be going back to document more because there was an ice skating rink and a blow up restaurant in the shape of an ice cube and a haunted house ride and market stalls... tons of good stuff!! We ate a brat and then tried archery again. Again, my arrows were tight, but I only popped one that time! Andrew tried this time too and popped one as well. The lady attendant gave him a glow in the dark necklace. hehe. 

I felt like a kid, it was so much fun! Apparently it's really nice at night. I'm really looking forward to going again!! The giraffe will be mine.

Cupcakes and Snow and Visits from the States!

I can't believe how close Christmas is! We are going home to the states next week so I've been a busy bee getting myself together. I also got my first job last week! I'm decorating cupcakes for/working at a bakery in Kensington. It's called Buttercup and is owned by an American lady, Donna. I'm fairly certain the only reason she chose me was because I have design experience since she kept asking me during my interview that if she hired me, would i be willing to design some stuff for her. Otherwise, why else would me - who has zero bakery experience - beat out a girl with 15 years in a bakery?? 

I've only worked a few shifts so far, but it's nice to get out of the house a bit. I get a free cupcake every shift and let me tell you, that perk is going to be a VERY bad thing. I've only given two of the cupcakes away... I've eaten all the rest! I REALLY love the banana cupcake, it's like banana bread with cream cheese frosting! And the lemon cream cheese is to die for! I had a flavor called Banoffee, which is banana cupcake with butterscotch icing and caramel curls covering it. I couldn't eat that whole cake because it was too sweet!! 

Working has helped me be busier in my down time too. Like today, I made a mini quilt for Maeby! We are teaching her to sleep in her puppy bed NEXT TO our bed instead of in our bed with us or in her crate. I feel REALLY bad making her sleep in her crate because I know she doesn't like to and she looks so pitiful every time its time for her to go in there. She's done really well with the learning, only a few problems: a)she wakes up REALLY early and I have to make her go back to bed, and b) she snores REALLY loud. If she falls asleep before we do, it's a long night. A condition of her sleeping in her own bed is that we have to cover her up. She's a burrower. I've been using my bathrobe, but I had a lot of pretty fabric so I decided to make her her own little blanky! It's the closest I've come to really completing an entire project start to finish. All that's left is sewing the edges somehow. I didn't really know how to make a quilt, but i figured it couldn't be much more than sewing a bunch of  squares together. And I used jersey material for the back so it would be nice and snuggly :) So the edges - not really sure how to finish them off, but I'm sure a quick google search will help me figure that out.
 
Chris Bloch is in Europe at the moment. He stayed last Wednesday and Thursday with us and then he was off to Germany for this week. He's back on Friday and will be quite happy that the heat in the room where he's staying is working again! It was literally like sleeping outside but I found out today per the plumber that the valve was jammed. So all fixed! Doesn't help that he was with no heat when all the snow came...

London winters are supposed to be fairly mild. London weather is supposed to avoid the extremes. Well, last week we got six inches of snow! London is really pretty in the snow, even if the trains get all messed up and traffic comes to a complete halt. It was pretty to watch through the windows at the bakery while I was being trained! But the snow had perfect timing, it felt really festive! I even tried to make some sugar cookies to really get into the holiday season, but it was an epic failure.... never use "i can't believe it's not butter." The cookies turn out all puffy and more like scones than cookies! I put some raspberry jam on top and all was not lost! They were actually pretty good. Not quite the Santas and Gingerbread men I was hoping for though...
 
And then it rained on Friday. The snow was gone. It's just incredibly COLD now. *sigh* At least we'll be going home in a little over a week! Can't wait! 

Thanksgiving is HARD!!

Last year, Andrew and I missed Thanksgiving because we were on our honeymoon! This year, my mom made a great Thanksgiving dinner while we were home in October, BUT I didn't want the day to go by here without participating! Since Bernie and Alison hosted us for Halloween, I thought it would be a good idea to invite them over for Thanksgiving dinner. Bernie is one of our extremely few American friends (well, friends in general) so we wanted him to come. The Aussies Johnny and Corinne came and Andrew's co-worker Kenna, and her partner Neal also came. 

I cooked the ham and chocolate cake the day before because I was worried about having enough time to cook everything else on my massive list. I just wanted everything to be like my Thanksgiving at home! I would also like to remind the readers, that our teeny tiny kitchen here has  a teeny tiny oven so logistics were a must. 

The day of Thanksgiving, we put the Turkey in bright and early and then it was prep prep prep. My menu consisted of Apps - veggies and hummus, and Johnny said he was bringing Tzatziki so Andrew wanted to grill and cube chicken to go with that as well (because my veggies weren't good enough) and added BBQ and Buffalo sauce to the trio; Mains - turkey, ham, stuffing, pineapple casserole, mac & cheese, asparagus, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce; and the Dessert - brown sugar and coconut cookies, homemade chocolate cake and raspberry icing with raspberry toppers, and some cakes and Christmas pudding that Bernie and Alison brought. 

It literally took me ALL day to cook everything, right up until an hour before I was planning to serve dinner (which was at 7 pm!). I was "knackered" (as Johnny called it). The turkey came out GREAT! I was a little disappointed that with my one small oven, everything else was a little bit on the cool side when we served, but people went back from seconds so I think that was a good sign!! 

The best part was, that everyone in the group got along so so well!! There are a lot of big and great personalities in that group, and for the few hours everyone was here our living room was full of laughing and stories. It was great! Bernie and Alison, and Kenna and Neal left around 10 pm and Johnny and Corinne stayed and chatted until almost 11. 

I was really happy with our Thanksgiving! Not too bad for my first shot. The stuffing came out particularly well :) Andrew and I ate leftovers all day Friday. I was exhausted all day Friday as well. I have learned that Thanksgiving is a collaborative holiday and that next year, I am DEFINITELY delegating!