Super Bowl in the UK

Last night we experienced our first Super Bowl in England, and I am going to be paying for it all week.  Our friend Bob Hartman was in town staying with us again, and he is from Pittsburgh.  Needless to say, he is a huge Steelers fan, so we knew we would all be staying up to watch the game.

We thought about actually having a Super Bowl Party, but it is hard to be too festive when the game starts at 11:30pm.  We did invite another American from our church, Steven, who is from N.C. and who manages the new Hollister here in Brighton, but he had to be at work at 6:30am the next morning.  Unless it is your team playing, it is hard to be that dedicated.  I wasn't sure I would make it the whole game, but I was willing to give it a shot. 

Everyone knows that one of the most important parts of the Super Bowl is the food, but it is a challenge to think of snacks that sound good that late at night.  I decided to make The Pioneer Woman's Mexican Layer Dip, and we ended up eating it around midnight.

• I must take a minute to diverge from my story to pledge my love and devotion to Ree Drummond - The Pioneer Woman.  If you have never heard of  her, click on the link above RIGHT NOW and check out the Pioneer Woman's Cooking Blog.  Ree is a big-city girl who now lives on a cattle ranch in Oklahoma, and all of her step-by-step recipes use simple ingredients that I can actually (usually) get here in England.  I have Ree's cookbook, but I love reading her blog because she is hilarious and her food is yummy!

OK, back to the Super Bowl...the dip was a hit, and it wasn't too terrible that late at night.  Even though the Steelers didn't look good there for a while, we all had a feeling they were going to make a comeback.  Bob did his best to rally the team by waving his "Terrible Towel" (a very nice Big Ben version by the way), and it looked like it was going to work there for a while.  Unfortunately, I could only make it through the third quarter - 2:30am was my limit.  Keith and Bob actually made it until the end of the game (around 3:15am).  That is dedication.

Getting up to get the girls to school was extremely difficult this morning.  I decided to go back to bed for just a few minutes, and I ended up falling back to sleep until 11:00.  Even with that extra sleep, I am dragging today.  It feels a little bit like the time I took Sutton to see the midnight showing of Harry Potter.  It really did take me a week to catch up on my sleep - I think that is a sign of getting old.  We will see if it really does take me all week to recover this time.