Wrapping Up

Hello, yall all the way over there! Welcome to 2010! I'm going to miss having double-0's in my years from now on.

Yes, I am still in England, but only for another 20 hours or so, sad though that is. I love being in England, cold and damp though it is, and I will miss it when I land back in the States, but at this point I am really looking forward to coming home tomorrow. It'll bring back the reality of a lot of things, like the fact that my grades last semester were a little bit less than what I'd hoped they'd be, but the new year will quite literally bring me home.

What can I say about the rest of my time here? Christmas Day was oodles of fun! The kids woke me up at 8:00 on the dot and dragged me out of bed to open stockings. They wrap the gifts in stockings here, so we sat around Neil and Anne's room opening the little presents in age order.

I spent the day lounging around in my new christmas socks (I am my mother's daughter!) and I played games with the little ones. I sat in the kitchen and I watched my Uncle Neil prepare the Christmas Dinner, and I enjoyed having a quiet day with the family.

Christmas Dinner saw us all wearing those silly paper crowns that come in crackers and digging into a meal comprised of turkey with all of the trimmings... roast potatos, brussel sprouts (I ate one), red cabbage (which was surprisingly good), and stuffing, among other things. My tummy was very happy! We brought out the Christmas Pudding (on fire, of course!) and ate that with some brandy butter and rum sauce. We opened presents (in age order again! We ranged from 10 to 89 here) and sat around drinking good wine and talking. The kids got a Wii, which they immediately handed to Duncan to have the task of setting up and have literally not stopped playing it since. I had a blissful moment of being better than them at Mario Kart, but when I got back from Helen and Paul's (more on that in a moment) three days later they had already unlocked nearly everything and are winning nearly everything. I never had the talent of gaming, though.

On Boxing Day, Duncan, Pippa, Dad and I were up early (7:30, eew!) and out the door within the hour. One of the more sneaky things that we had done with this trip was to surprise Pippa's parents by showing up for Pippa's father's birthday on the 27th. We made our way to Devon (on the other side of the country) and picked up Tom on the way and four hours later (can I just say that I find it incredible that we could drive from one side of the country to the opposite side in four hours?) we found ourselves at Helen (Pippa's sister) and Paul's house walking through the door and hoping that Pippa's parents don't have heart conditions! The look on their faces as we snuck in through the back was priceless. It was worth all of the hush-hush secrecy (they knew that Tom and I were in the country but they didn't know about the other three) and the call on Christmas when we told them that we were having a warm Christmas at home with the Stewarts, and all of those other evasions of their offers to take Tom and I for a day or two. They had no idea that we were coming and it was so wicked that I honestly look forward to the day that I may be able to trick my own mother like that. (Muah ha ha! Expect me when you least expect me, Mom!)

We ate like KINGS at Helen and Paul's place. We had another dinner the size of Christmas dinner (which was really just leftovers - but a lot of leftovers) and we watched movies on TV (Crocadile Dundee, which I've actually never seen before! And Australia the next night) and when we left on the morning of the 28th to drive the four hours back and to the wedding! The "real" reason that we came.

Our cousin Marcus (the eldest of our lot) married Rebecca in a really sweet (and traditional) ceremony. The reception was held in a beautiful hall down the road from our hotel, and so we were able to walk there and walk home at the end of the night. There was food, champagne, beer, and dancing, of course!

The following days consisted of trying to hunt down presents for everyone (we found some great ones!) and a lot of being beaten by the kids on the Wii. New Years Eve last night was actually a quiet affair - Dad and Pippa went to bed early (they're sick - poor things) and Neil retired early as well... so at midnight, we turned on the TV, popped the bubbly and welcomed the new year between Duncan, Tom, Ali, Jacqueline, Anne and me. The little kids had some champagne too, (we start them early over here...) and we all went to bed.

Today, we are all packing up and getting ready to leave bright and early in the morning. Well, it won't be bright (the sun won't have risen yet) but it will be early. A cab is picking us up at 5 tomorrow morning. So when you're going to bed? Think of me waking up.

Tonight we're hosting an Indian food dinner, and inviting some people over. The smells wafting up here into Anne's office are amazing! I will post some pictures when I get home (and all of them onto Facebook as well). See you on the other side!

(I will write my New Year's resolution blog when I am home! But I do have resolutions for you!)