London

We got to see Cole at the visitor's center in London. One of the highlights of the year for me.

Keeping to our tradition of spontaneous road trips, we took an overnight bus on Sunday night to London. 

I had some Christmas gifts I needed to deliver to the LDS visitor's center/mission home for my brother who is serving a mission for our church there-so we figured this would be a good time to go!

We first arrived, a little delirious and tired from the trip, and we walked out of Victoria Coach station with absolutely no idea where we were. Thank goodness for Mcdonalds and their free wifi!

We found our way, figured out the tube system (which is absolutely amazing) and found the Visitor's center where we went to deliver the gifts. I must admit, it felt really cool to know my brother was so close! It made London feel like home. We delivered the presents, and before we knew it we found out we would be allowed to say hello to my brother, and he was on his way to the visitor's center at that very moment. I was so excited. It was so good to see him. He was so focused in the work he was doing, and was just so happy! It was a quick visit, but it lifted my spirit significantly. 

We spent two whole days exploring all that London has to offer. We experienced lots of rain and wind, pigeons flying into our faces (inside a building!) and having the tube doors close on us, ha! I guess you could say we got the full London experience! I loved all of the Christmas decorations and lights everywhere, they really went all out with the decorations!

London is such a melting pot of people and cultures. For the first time since living here in England, I didn't feel judged for being an American, and I think we heard Portuguese more than we heard the English accent! 

We really fell in love with this place. I can't wait to go back!

O Christmas Tree

 

Every December I can ever remember there has been a real Christmas tree in our living room. Whether we went and chopped it down straight from the mountains, or picked one out of a tree lot. It was always an adventure tying it to the top of our car and driving home while singing Christmas carols, eating candy canes, and every few minutes asking my mom and dad, "is it still up there?" All of us would be so giddy and excited bringing the tree home and getting it ready to decorate. Together as a family we would play the Christmas music loud and start decorating our tree. One tradition my parents started when they were first married, was to get a new ornament every year for our tree that represented that year for us (Daniel and I have started this tradition for our little family as well.) It was always fun to find "our" ornaments from the years we were born, and reminisce about the past Christmases- "this one is from when dad was deployed, this one is from the year we got our first puppy Samson." Covered from top to bottom with our collection of handmade ornaments, and those ornaments that we had grown up putting on the tree every December, and the tree topper is always a paper angel I made when I was in Kindergarten out of a paper plate and glitter. The result is always the most perfect and beautiful tree that we've ever seen.  This is our first Christmas that we won't be with family. It's hard for me to think about not being with them during this season, but as soon as we brought our little tree into our flat and that familiar scent of pine filled the air-I felt at home again.

Thanksgiving

First time cooking a turkey! It turned out perfect. We got the turkey fresh from the butcher down the street.

Was lucky enough to find pumpkin puree at TK Maxx in Durham! I was so excited to know I would make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. I also made homemade whipped cream, but since we don't have a mixer, I shook it up in a jar and it worked great!

This year, thanksgiving was a little different than usual, seeing as we are halfway across the world from our fellow turkey-eating Americans. Daniel and I are no strangers to being away from our immediate family for thanksgiving. The last two thanksgivings we have had as a married couple have been spent on the east coast in DC with my sweet aunt and uncle and cousin-since it was just a short drive down from our home in Pennsylvania. Those two thanksgivings will always have a special place in my heart, and we always had so much fun in DC with family. This thanksgiving was a little different though, since we didn't have any family to spend it with. We decided to get together with some of the other American student-athletes, have everyone pitch in, and have a nice thanksgiving dinner together. 

I am a big fan of tradition, so I was a bit nervous of how homesick I would be on thanksgiving. I was afraid it wouldn't feel like thanksgiving here, and that the food wouldn't taste the same (almost NOTHING tastes the same here as it does in the states). Our boiler mysteriously stopped working the night before thanksgiving, so we woke up on Thursday to an extra chilly house. We wrapped up in some blankets, sat on the couch, and began to tell stories of thanksgivings past, and traditions we loved as kids. I think we will make this a new tradition for our family. Talking about these memories made it actually feel like thanksgiving, and made me excited for the rest of the day. I was in charge of the turkey, gravy, rolls, green bean casserole, and the pumpkin pies. Basically the most important and delicious things, that I didn't want anyone else to mess up! haha. We picked up our fresh 12 pound turkey that morning from the jolly butcher down the street. He told us it had been butchered on Tuesday, so it was about as fresh as a turkey could get! Doing a turkey for the first time is a daunting task, but thanks to my mom putting up with my constant texts, the turkey turned out to be something my mom, and all my grandmas would be proud of! After a full day of baking, we got together with our fellow homesick Americans, and had a thanksgiving dinner that we will always remember. The food tasted so close to the food we would of had at home. It was a blessing! There was about 16 of us and we all ate a ton and there was still tons of food leftover, so I'd say it was a success. There is nothing better than Thanksgiving leftovers. Even though this Thanksgiving was a different one, we will always remember our little thanksgiving in England. 

Newcastle vs Norwich

On Saturday, some sweet people from church invited us to go watch the Newcastle vs. Norwich match in Newcastle. This wasn't just an ordinary football game though…thanks to the company that our friend works for. We not only got to sit in the posh VIP section of the stadium with it's soft chairs and carpeted floors, but we got to have a 4 course meal beforehand (you know, the kind where you have like 4 forks, and the butter is shaped like flowers), as well as listen to a player from Newcastle speak to us. There was even a dress code! Daniel and I were like giddy little kids, we kept saying to each other, "is this real life? How cool is this!" I didn't even bring my camera, because I just wanted to enjoy the evening, and of course had to play it cool you know? The game was wild, the stands packed with Geordies who literally worship this Newcastle team, and we watched some of the best soccer we have ever seen. During halftime we got to go back inside, where hot chocolate and fancy cheese and crackers were waiting for us at our table. And after the game we went back in to have more food and drinks and listen to another player speak. 

This was not a bad way to see our first premiere football match! It was fun to be treated a little like royalty for a day. We felt so blessed that these friends chose us, two americans, out of all the people they could of chosen.  It's going to be hard to go back to watching a football match any other way! 

USA vs Scotland

As soon as we found out the US was playing Scotland in Glasgow, we knew we had to go. It would of been a sin not to, since we only live 2 hours away! I was a little bit nervous about wearing US colors in Glasgow..it's a pretty rough city and they LOVE their football, so I didn't quite know what to expect. We stood in line for what seemed like forever...got our tickets for the American side, and sprinted to our gate, since the game had already started 5 minutes before. What we saw when we got to our seats, brought tears to my eyes. Red, white, and blue EVERYWHERE. Guys with their shirts off with USA painted on their stomachs, little kids all bundled up with USA scarves and hats, and an awesome biker guy with a cut off bald eagle shirt and American flag do-rag. What a sight for sore eyes I'll tell you! As soon as we started chanting "USA, USA" more tears came to my eyes. I felt at home again! We were able to yell and cheer as loud as we wanted without having to worry about people hearing our American accents...and oh how nice it was to hear the American accent again! We struck up conversations with random strangers, asking them where they were from-Michigan, Minnesota, Texas..and more. Not to mention, we were in awe that we were actually watching the US soccer team play! Beasley, Jozy, Tim Howard, Eddie Johnson, Brek Shea-they were amazing! And Jozy Altidore is massive in person! I knew DaMarcus Beasly was a crazy hard worker, but WOW he is so good, and Brek Shea comes off the bench and fires up the team! I could go on and on, Daniel even more so. Daniel was like a little kid on Christmas day, and had a sparkle in his eye the whole night! Aside from the amazing football we witnessed, I realized something. All of these US fans sitting around us at the game, were all in the same situation as we are...they all miss their home land just as much as we do! There were students, military families stationed there, and people who just had to relocate for their job. It made me feel warm inside, and comforted! Don't get me wrong, I love our little England home to death, but I miss our home country sometimes, as anyone would. It just felt good to relate to people, and know that we are not alone in living abroad. 

I'm SO glad we went to this game in Glasgow...and not just for the amazing soccer.