Tuesday, January 31, 2012

New Years Eve

Drew made it in to London on New Years Eve Day for his visit, and he did AMAZING the whole day with his jet lag! We didn't get back to the hotel until about 2am that night, and he was a trooper throughout everything. We dropped his luggage off at the hotel, then headed to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park where Drew had a yummy bratwurst - he talked about how delicious it was for days! :) 

We then met up with my friend's who were in London to see a show that day. We had dinner and then headed out to find a spot to watch the fireworks. After a looooot of walking, and a little bit of rain, we made it to a spot along the river Thames where we could see the fireworks display over the London Eye at midnight. While we waited we had some entertainment, a "friendly" (aka drunk) gentleman from Australia who was fascinated by us and our stories from the States, and a group of people who thought that climbing on the porta-potties would be a great idea. We kept waiting for them to fall in/topple over, but alas they did not. Last year the fireworks in London were spectacular, and I'm sure that they were this year as well...if you were on the opposite side of the river where the wind wasn't blowing all of the smoke towards you. We ended up being able to see only about 2 minutes of the show before it was too smoky to see anything. I was pretty bummed because I wanted Drew to see it, but he said he had a great time, so all in all the evening was a success!

Drew and I on the tube
Harrods


Ice skating rink at Hyde Park
Safety precautions for New Years Eve ;)
London
Our dinner date for the evening, The Ashcraft's
Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square - given to London every year by Norway
Big Ben...still a couple of hours away from midnight
Happy New Year - 2012!!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Happy Christmas!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!! Me, Zoe, and Max spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at Shannon's house. We went to Midnight Mass (complete with screaming baby and all), opened one present Christmas Eve, and spent Christmas eating (A LOT), opening presents, watching movies, and napping. I finished the day off by Skyping with the family back home and opening presents "with" them; all in all it was a nice day!

Me and the dogs after Midnight Mass
My present from my craft exchange partner :)
Max opening his Christmas cracker from Reece :)
The countdown chalkboard I made for Shannon
Max's new Chuck-It, now I can throw it way further for him!
New Christmas collar
I crocheted Zo a new sweater hehe
She hates wearing clothes though :(
Zo's new Christmas collar
Merry Christmas!
2nd breakfast
Family Christmas picture!! :)

Monday, January 9, 2012

American Cemetery

On "Wreaths Across America" day, we went to the American National Cemetery in Cambridge. It is the only American cemetery in the UK, and it contains 3,812 of our fallen heroes. It is a seriously beautiful location, and such a great tribute to the men and women who gave their lives for our country. The chapel at one end of the mall was amazing - it had a giant map with the military missions of WWII, many of which originated from East England.

The mall, with the chapel at the end
Wreaths Across America
Map inside of the chapel - East England missions

Unknown soldier

Friday, January 6, 2012

Dickens Christmas Market

Shannon and I took a day trip to Rochester England for the Dickens Christmas Market. Apparently Rochester was the inspiration for a lot of Dickens' work, so there are places around the city that commemorate that, along with the Christmas Market. It was the first market I've been to, and it was awesome! There were people around dressed up in Dickens period clothing, or characters from his books. There was fake snow, lots of food, crafts and shopping! I had all of my Christmas shopping done, so I was just enjoying the experience, but I did manage to find a Christmas ornament to personalize for me and Thomas. Afterwards we found an American diner - it was delicious and authentic! :)

Christmas carolers

They looked prettier than they tasted ;)
Beautiful city



We found an American diner afterwards - I got a chocolate milkshake, YUM!
Our new ornament :)

Monday, January 2, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Reece loves turkey :)
Thanksgiving with the Gerwicks
The Gerwick Family
Shannon and I
The dogs' Thanksgiving dinner :)