Christmas Day

It. Looks. Like. He. Came.

Santa left his trail of sugar plums leading right up to the Christmas Tree.

Wondering where to begin?

Big Sister is large and in charge.

The Belle that Adessa asked Santa for.

Checking out the goods.

Chef John made us a lovely Christmas Gammon. This is a chunk of a pig boiled, then you cut the skin off, and put whole cloves in a lovely pattern in the fat. Very moist and flavourful.

John's beautiful and delicious Christmas Dinner.

Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Eve

And the OCD kicked in :)

We checked into our house in the late afternoon on the 22nd and headed to the store for food and supplies. When we returned from our errands we painted the living room and Adessa and Will's room. Early morning on the 23rd while John had already left for work our bell rang, it was our shipment, air and sea. our things were delivered and unpacked. I raced and worked until I thought I would drop dead. Fortunately, by Christmas Eve we were able to decorate and make some neighbour treats to deliver. Adessa was busying herself with a Gingerbread House while I was decorating the tree and trying to get the rooms arranged. Christmas Miracle! We feel like the Lord answered our prayers this year with the delivery of our shipment and strength to get everything taken care of to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Thanks to all those of you who remembered us in your prayers as well.

The Gingerbread House "Arteist."

John helping me to prepare our traditional Christmas smorgasbord. The food and stores here are very different so we did the best we could with crazy packed stores and a limited knowledge :)

The smorgasbord.

Every year on Christmas Eve Gucci gives us all matching jammies. We always do a picture of each family, the girls, and the boys. Adessa is sporting her fine Eve outfit, while John is cybernating ;)

"He's an angry elf!"

The girls.

The boys.

The Family.

Obviously, it was very different this year. We definitely missed all of the usual Christmas merriment, but it was good. This is the first Christmas that we didn't have a single party, dinner, or event to attend, but we survived as a stronger little nuclear family.

Drivers.....Beware!

This

+

This

= BEWARE!

I did it. A little scary, but I did it.

All Closed Up

We got up early and headed to the Underground to get to the train station and then on a National Rail to church. It was snowy yesterday, but the trains were all running today. Surprise! We arrived at the church house in Orpington only to find that church had been cancelled. What! Today was our Ward Christmas luncheon and we had a baptism scheduled to follow. Not anymore. The snow wasn't anything to a Utah storm that we battle through to get to church, however, people travel much farther here to get to church. So, it was cancelled. We took some pictures of our attempt to worship on Christmas Sunday and headed out.

Adessa was enjoying the snow and can't wait to move in this week so she can finally have a yard to play in.

Our sad "church is cancelled" faces. My especially sad "I have to face the kids on the train again" face. Oh well, let's get out of the cold.

Stick It!

That's right, Ashley is back in business. I have mentioned before that there are a handful of things I want to be buried with; my Dyson, A diet Pepsi in 1 hand, My glue gun in the other hand, and a smudge of chocolate in the corner of my mouth. Pretty simple. Well ladies and gentlemen, I have my new glue gun and she is called "Stick It!" Seriously, they could not have come up with a better name than that....it is perfection. I bought a few things at a department store here called "John Lewis" for Adessa for Christmas, one of which was a really cute Christmas dress. Of course this dress needed a custom hair accessory, lucky for me, the department stores here are also the craft stores. Don't get any big ideas, there aren't really any craft stores, but I was able to get "Stick It!," some ribbon, and some little flowers. Tada, she is ready for Christmas and I am feeling life return to my body. There are some things about myself that will never change, one of which is creating. Can't not create. Sorry, it's just who I am. Hooray for "Stick It!"

Adessa's Christmas dress hair bow selection.

A happy me. Some of you less observant are thinking, "I never knew her teeth were that crooked," others who are more sentimental are thinking, "I miss those crooked teeth," and for the practical ones, "didn't she have braces? What a waste of money."

Handmade Toasted Kentish Cobnut Fudge

Need I say more? We went to Bromley to do some Christmas shopping at the mall and stumbled across this street market. It was like a scene from Dickens "A Christmas Carol." People were selling mulled wine, sausages, sweets, lace trimmings, and other randomly unique items, not to mention the group of carollers huddled together singing old carols. I half expected someone to come up to me and say, "penny for the song gov'ner?" They didn't. At any rate, we found this fudge with Kentish Cobnuts that are only grown in Kent. It was amazing, so I thought I would put in a little plug for them. The true highlight for me was having this cute ginger headed lad ask me where I was from, he told me I had a very strong accent. I laughed pretty hard. He told me that he had a Kentish sound in his British accent and that they sound different depending on the counties they are from. I already knew this, so I just smiled and looked interested :) If you want to check out their website then go for it. The fudge is awesome!

Chelsfield

John hadn't seen the house yet, so we ventured to Chelsfield to pay a visit to our soon to be home. This is a picture I took across the street from where we will be living. If you google "Chelsfield station" and then click on images or maps, and then click terrain, you will see what it looks like where we will be living. This area is mostly country and home to Hever Castle, where Anne Boleyn lived. It is really picturesque.

Don't Take Me to the Riot

The day after the big huge student protest/riot, I headed out to our usual station in Westminster with the piggies. This is what we found.

The Underground had been tagged all over. Oh, with naughty things no less.

Things had been burned on the steps of the many statues and the bases of many of them had been tagged as well.

The windows in all of the iconic "red phone booths" had been shattered and the booths tagged as well.

Street signs tagged.

Walls tagged.

The Supreme Court Building tagged and all the windows on the main level had been broken out.

I can understand being upset about something, but what happened here was wrong. I was shocked at the extent of the damage and vandalism. I felt like I was entering a war zone. This once beautiful area surrounding Westminster Abby was now desecrated and damaged. So sad to see, I hope it was worth it. I understand their anger but have a hard time empathising when I myself and most of my friends have student loans for their educations. Debt for education in the States is just a way of life for us, here, not so much. I marvel at the opportunity to have my University education paid for by the government. Amazing. Which is why I can understand being angry about having something great and then having it taken away. In the end, looks like the students will have to join the rest of us and enter the world of student loans.

Mother Daughter Date

Each day as we walk through the Underground Adessa sees the billboard like poster for "Megamind," at which point in time she would always say "ouch my big blue head" and then laugh as we walk on. Last weekend John selflessly stayed home with William the Conqueror while Addie and headed out to see the poster she loves to quote on the big screen. We had to run all the way to Westminster station and then change trains midway while running the whole way to make it on time for the movie. Leicester Square is the theatre district of London and the host of "Megamind." Adessa and I ran up to the window and bought our tickets which were £16.00 for Adessa and £16.75 for myself. That would be like spending $25.00 US dollars per movie ticket. Aaaagh! Oh well, it was worth it for Adessa to have some good 1 on 1 time in the American fashion she is accustomed to :) I figured what the heck and bought a large soda, popcorn, and candy for another £10.00. The movie was in 3D and the theatre was like the old school movie theatres where it has a beautiful gold curtain that lifts up when the previews begin. The movie was cute and Adessa thoroughly enjoyed herself. "Harry Potter" and the many other movies we want to see will have to wait until they come out on DVD, with the exception of "Tangled" of course.

Adessa wanted to be sure that I got the characters from "Tangled" in the picture with her.

Best mother/daughter date I have had in a long time!

Scooter Wills

The kid is a freak. Anything sister can do, he can do.

My Most Precious Gem

Last night I read Adessa a book called "The Twits." This book is a classic over here and was written by Roald Dahl author of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "James and the Giant Peach," "The BFG," "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" and many others. Even though the Twits were, well...twits, Adessa did not want anything bad to happen to them. Adessa kept making up reasons why they were still good even though they did bad things. When the book was finished we watched "A Christmas Story" as a family (minus William). I had forgotten about the bully and again Adessa was terribly upset that there was a bully who was being mean to other children. It didn't make a difference when Ralphy went to town on the bully, she was angry that he had hurt the bully even though the bully had been bothering him all year long. There are many things that frustrate me about Adessa, the kid is not perfect, but I feel so blessed to have a sensitive, and caring child. I don't think Adessa has 1 intentionally mean bone in her little body. I am sure she will be taken advantage of in many ways in this life because she is so kind, but I would prefer this over being indifferent to people and their feelings. Today I am reminded of the importance of caring deeply for each person and their personal happiness. Sometimes it takes the purity of a child to remind us just how sensitive and compassionate we need to be.

Student Tuition Fees Protest

This protest took place on Nov. 24th. Today's protest was bigger and angrier which is why we didn't go very far today. The protest is at Westminster Station/Abby, which is right by our house. All we have heard all day is the sound of helicopters and when I did go out there were 4 of them hovering over head. Pretty crazy day.

The Dead and the Wish They Were Dead

Today was one of those days where we were supposed to do one thing, but ended up doing something else. The day started by me getting us on the wrong train. A trip to Oxford Circus to shop landed us in Piccadilly circus at a Bar to use the restroom. You know what it is like when you are cruising around Target and your kid has to pee...right NOW! Yeah, that was us on the TRAIN. Adessa had to wait until we got off at the wrong stop to find a public "toilet," which isn't easy to find. I sneaked her into the bar because the public toilet was closed. Bar vs. pee puddle? I choose bar.

After crying on the train, and while we were lost on the streets, and becoming ever so very frustrated, William decided it would be fun to pull my hair as I hauled him around in the backpack. Not cool Willie, not cool.

Our confusion landed us on the steps of the British Museum. The British Museum is hosting a big Egyptian "Book of the Dead" exhibit, but Adessa was only interested in seeing the dead....so was I. Straight to the mummies we went. This particular person was buried and preserved so well that you can still see the skin which is now like leather and the blondish curly hair on parts of the head. Where the skin is missing you can see the bones and you can also see the teeth. The pottery is what belonged to the man and what he chose to be buried with. Now you can picture me lying there spooning my Dyson can't you :)

This burial technique was like that of drying flowers. They put the person on a wicker basket and surrounded them with sand. This pretty much dried them up.

This was Adessa's favourite actual "mummy." I found it fascinating that they have the actual X-ray shown below the mummy with the bone structure perfectly in tact. Those Egyptians were pretty brilliant. Adessa liked this one because it is draped with a beaded net of turquoise, she thought it was pretty :)

I could have wandered around for hours, but William was still screaming and I was tired of ALL the dirty looks I had received all day long. It was off for home, that is if we could find our way home. We did, and of course at the end of our day William fell asleep on the train. The first piece of silence all day. In the end we saw the dead and by the time the day was over I wished I was dead, for a while. I think we will be heading back to the British Museum on Saturday to see the Book of the Dead and the Rosetta Stone. This time I will have John with me for directions and back-up.

The Wedding of Robert and Addie

"You may kiss the Bride!"

Crappa and Addie have this game they always play when the two of them get together, it is called "Robert and Addie." When Crappa and Gucci were still together they had some baby dolls up in their play room. One day Addie went up to the play room and brought the baby dolls down for she and Crappa to play with. Adessa asked Crappa what their names were? Digging deep into his creative mind he blurted out "Robert and Addie." The names have stayed, and so has the game. Crappa's latest visit included the Wedding of Robert and Addie performed by John. Yep, we had a doll wedding :)

Walking down the isle.

John performing the Wedding ceremony.

After Robert and Addie said their "I do's" we put on Lady Ga Ga and danced around to "Poker Face." What would a wedding be without dancing? Willie had no idea what was happening, but he likes music, and dancing, so he didn't really care. Thanks Crappa for being a good sport!

Creepy Santa at "Winter Wonderland."

Couldn't get this to embed on the blog before, but this was the creepy Santa we saw at "Winter Wonderland." Even Adessa was creeped out by him, which led to many questions about Santa.

Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park

We were beyond thrilled when Crappa had a training meeting in Milan because he was able to fly on up and be the first visitor at the Talbot Bed and Breakfast, and the only person to get to stay with us downtown. I planned out the 2 days that we would get to spend with him, this is what we did: Day 1- Lunch at Upper Crust at Victoria Station, show dad John's office, "Winter Wonderland" at Hyde Park, Natural History Museum, and Fish and Chips for dinner. Day 2: Tower of London, Covent Gardens Marketplace, dinner at our flat. We had a great time. I forgot to bring my camera on Day 2, so I only have photo's for day 1 at Winter Wonderland.

This was a talking Reindeer above Santa's chair. Santa didn't come until after we had left the park, but Addie thought the Reindeer was pretty cool.

Crappa and Willie John, at the park. It was the perfect day to go to "Winter Wonderland" because it was snowing just enough for it to be festive and not wet.

The three of us since Will is hidden behind the cut out :)

They had the most amazing food booths here; most of which were mulled wine, beer, Brats, fish and chips, and candy. The whole thing had a German feel to it.

Finally someone got it right. Do you see it? 2 ladies and 1 gents.

I let Adessa choose one ride, is there any guess as to why she chose this one?

I bought us tickets to the Christmas Circus. It was a lot of fun, Addie and Will just stared fixated at the performers the whole entire time. I must say that the costumes were perhaps a bit revealing, but we are in Europe right? Right!

More candy than I could ever dream of, and yes, I did dream of it ;)

Crappa, Willie, Addie, and Santa

Dear Santa, please don't bring me a miniature version of yourself for Christmas this year....it's creepy.

The day was a lot of fun. Amazingly, the kids were behaved, Crappa was behaved (aside from a few jokes that I won't share), and I was behaved. Good Times. If you ever happen to be in Hyde Park around Christmas time, I would add this to your must do list.