Happy New Year!

Here we go again, another year over and a new one just beginning. What are you hoping for this year? I don't know what the New Year will bring, but we have had a nice time finishing off the old one, with a visit to Tilgate Park, Beachy Head, Arundel, and more, we have had a nice time on small day trips. We hope that you have a wonderful New Year!



Tilgate Park.
Our Super Christmas tree

The coldest day EVER, and standing on a cliff with freezing wind at Beachy Head

The top candle I lit for all of the family at Arundel Cathedral

Arundel Castle

Arundel Castle and the town. We had a wonderful breakfast at The Moat

Just before Christmas

Before heading off for our respective destinations Mike and I visited with my dad. Mike has just discovered playing video games, and here he is explaining to his grandfather how you play Lego Batman.

The first outing after touching down in the U.K. was a trip to Brighton. We walked the day away, starting early from Brighton Pavilion and heading down to the pier. The weather was quite nice, with a bit of a breeze, but far from the icy bitterness that the east coast of the U.S. has been like, I still found use for my favorite cowl that Karen V made me for Christmas. We got some coffee and hot chocolate at Starbucks, and my feet were absolutely killing me, dispite being footed in Easy Spirit boots. It became quite clear that sneakers would be necessary.


We went into a really nice store with clothing and craft goods and found the most adorable little craft project. Bear in a Bag! I am working on knitting him now and it helps me a lot with my missing the little man. I hope that I can finish it before I see him on January 19th.

Monday evening we went to London to see Phantom of the Opera. Neil was working so he was already in London, and I had to find my way in on bus and train. It was very straightforward and there was no problem at all getting there. We walked through Trafalgar Square, where the tree was set up and I snapped a pic of Neil. What you can't see is that Big Ben was illuminated some distance behind. It was very pretty.


The show was good. I had never seen the show or the movie so I was not familiar with the story. It wasn't the best performance of it though, and Neil said that it wasn't a good performance of Phantom, but the show is a good one. Some of the characters were very good and I was very impressed with the set management, lighting, and costumes though, and the show was worth seeing. We had a nice time, and did our usual "snapshot at the theatre" pic.

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What's Blooming - December

In order to familiarize myself to a new climate and growing seasons, as well as learn about the plants that are available in the U.K., I have decided to focus on one plant per month. I thought about waiting until January to post one, then I realized I would probably FORGET to do it! Now that the foundation is laid, look for monthly "What's Blooming" posts.

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What's blooming: Helleborus Niger (The Christmas Rose)

Legend has it that a young shepardess named Madelon was tending her sheep when three wise men happened to cross her path. They were bringing gifts to a newborn Saviour and Madelon wept pitiously as she had no gift to give. An angel heard her weeping and landed before her to uncover the freshly fallen snow and reveal a beautiful flower. That flower was Helleborus Niger, commonly known as the Christmas Rose. This flower is prized for its December blooms and easy care. It blooms from late fall to early spring, in an evergreen perennial, and grows from 12 to 15 inches (30.5 to 38cm) high, and are hardy from zones 4-8. The Helleborus Niger is poisonous, and some historians believe that Helleborus poisoning was the cause of death for Alexander the Great.

Last week in Highlands

Michael's last day of school.

Getting slaughtered in Bunnies

My cousin Dawn and the kids

Dawn's 37th Birthday!

Packing is almost finished and things are very busy in the U.S. right now! Mike and I have done the rounds and visited the family, all of the things are packed and Grandma is visiting right now. Michael is going to West Virginia tomorrow, and will spend 4 days with his grandparents before they drive him to Virginia for his Christmas break on their way to Florida. Meanwhile, Neil has been spending little time at home while he has been busy with work. Not much to share on his front as he has had no leisure time since returning to the U.K.

Entertaining ourselves

One of the most exciting aspects of spending time together has been discovering the forms of entertainment we gravitate towards. I have a great interest in games. Neil has a large collection of Killer Bunnies, and I have owned a copy, but had not had the opportunity to learn and play the game. We played Killer bunnies twice with the neighbors while Neil visited, and it was very enjoyable. We also played Uno, Pop Belly, Top Trumps, Guess Who, and Carcassone with Michael. We added Monty Python Fluxx to our collection and had two riotess nights of playing together. I introduced Neil to Settlers of Catan, and Memoir 44, and we found that when we had some extra time on our hands we were both quite keen to play a quick game.

We also got to spend some time watching some TV. Neil shared Xmen with me, and I really liked it and look forward to seeing the last episode. We watched a few British comedy series (Monty Python and League of Gentlemen ) and I couldn't get enough of the characters. We browsed comics, made dinners, listened to music and talked (as usual). You can see some clips of League of Gentlemen on the right hand column youtube link.

We also had a lot of fun playing Rock Band. We each took turns at singing, drums, and guitar.

Neil is back in the UK now and there are a few busy weeks ahead of both of us before I am visiting over Christmas. I am really excited about the visit and probably will not be posting til sometime while I am there.

Past four days

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our neighbors. Originally, we were going to my Aunts house, but as luck would have it my car broke down on Wednesday night. The lower ball joint cracked, making it undrivable. So that made our plans much more localized and that was okay, because the Al, Karen, Daniel and their gang are really fun people. We had Turkey, ham, stuffing, little onions, green beans and SO MUCH MORE! Neil was delighted with his very first taste of Key Lime pie. Key Limes are specific to the Florida Keys, they are very tasty and make a great pie. We played Killer Bunnies and Ticket to ride before heading home with a crying, tired little boy.

On Friday, we had Batman day. Batman day started with a letter from Batman Himself and a few presents! Mike read the letter from Batman and then opened the presents. Mike got two Batman lego sets and a Batman watch and Bat signal. He was very very pleased with his Batman gifts. It was the best day of his life!

On Saturday, we took a walk to Laura's pancake house and had some late breakfast, stopped at the fishmarket and grabbed some lobster for dinner. We went to the mall on Sunday and did several laps around it. We played some Monty Python Fluxx, Uno, Carcassonne, and Guess Who over the weekend as well.

Beaches and Batman

On Saturday Neil arrived. It happened to be the coldest day of the year so far, with temperatures below freezing and a biting wind. Needless to say, we were very excited to finally see him!

I have been anticipating with great excitement Neil's first taste of pumpkin pie, and he has decided that he quite likes it. He was also very happy with my banana bread, which is a great thing because I like making it a lot.

On Sunday we took a walk in the morning. We walked down Bay Avenue and stopped at Veterans Park for Michael to play while we sat and had coffee/hot chocolate. It is a nice little park, and the weather was much milder on Sunday. Afterwards we did a bit of shopping, on the neverending quest to find Lego Batman sets. No luck. We stopped at Amy's Restaurant for lunch, had burgers, (Mike had chicken) and headed home before going to Al and Karen's, house for a dinner of chinese dumplings and a night of Faces and Rock Band. We had a great time singing and playing and rushed home to get Mike's bath in before bedtime.

Monday Mike was back at school, so Neil and I spent the day together before collecting him at 1pm. We went to Target and got a great deal on some shoes and a pair of Batman pajama's for Neil. At 2:15 we had a parent teacher conference, and Michael is doing quite well in school. Afterwards we picked up Daniel and went down to the beach for some outdoor playtime (Brrrr!!!!!) They had fun writing in the sand with sticks, running, jumping and skipping rocks.

Today we dropped Mike at school, went shopping again! FOUND Lego Batman sets!!! Checked out the comic store, had a diner breakfast, did our shopping and collected Mike.

Pajamas and Pies

Today was Pajama day at school. Mike wore his Wiggle PJs and was so excited to go to be participating in the fun. Even Mike's teacher wore pajamas! It was a fun day for everyone. Note in this pic, Michael is showing off his first missing tooth! He got a sparkly dollar from the tooth fairy.

This evening we made pumpkin pie together. Michael even mastered egg cracking! He is quite the baker. Now the pies are baking and the house smells delicious.

Observation

Today was observation day in Michael's classroom. Mrs. Davis read a story about animals and what makes them alike or different. The children took turns pointing out the similarities and differences.

Mrs Davis called on Michael and asked if he knew of similarities, but Michael was busy inspecting his finger, and announced that he had a bruise on it. Mrs. Davis pointed out how disappointing it was that he had such a bad bruise on his finger that he could not pay attention to the story, in fact, it must be so bad that Michael would have to miss out on the craft project. "Oh no Mrs. Davis, it is not THAT bad!" Michael assured her, and quickly changed his focus to his lesson. Afterwards, they made bird feeders before rushing off to gym and playing tag, and doing the chicken dance.

It was nice to be able to go to a school function for Michael, he was very pleased to see me there.

Highlands is such a wonderful school, and the view from the classroom is absolutely stunning. It is elevated and looks out onto Sandy Hook bay and the Atlantic. You can sit on the swings and look out across the ocean and it is so peaceful and beautiful. The bad part is that when winter comes the wind gusts endlessly for months, and it makes it feel like it is sub zero. There really is no describing the bitterness of winter on the Jersey shore, but trust me, it is not anything you should ever feel sorry missing.