Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day in our traditional way... as a family.  It wasn't very romantic, but there was plenty of love!

The girls went a little over the top with their Valentine's spirit.

We can't get Mangia's heart-shaped pizzas anymore, so we had to make our own.

Valentine's Sweeties

Keith's Valentine's present from the girls - the mustache mug.

Sutton's Valentine's present - a hula-hoop.

Snow

In February we had a our first snow of the winter.  We actually have had a really moderate winter this year (especially compared to last year), so it was a bit of a surprise to get a cold snap with snow.  Most of the city only got a dusting of snow, but we were lucky enough to get enough snow to cover the ground and look pretty.

Computer Issues

I am still way behind with the blogging, but I have been motivated to get caught up because we have been having computer problems.  Last week, our computer died, and it is scary how dependent we are on it. 

Keith made some phone calls to Dell, and they were pretty convinced our problem was the mother board.  Of course, Keith had to investigate it himself, so after spending a while on the Internet, he was convinced the problem was a faulty chip.  That all sounded fine until he told me he was going to take the computer apart to fix it with the hairdryer.  Guess what?  It worked! 

It is just a matter of time before the chip gives out completely (Keith has already fixed it twice), but for now it is still working.  That is why I thought I better get to blogging.  We have everything backed up on an external hard drive, but I know it will be a process to transfer everything to a new computer.

Christmas

As usual, I am a little behind in my blogging.  I am going to have to go back to last year to get you all caught up.  Sadly, I can't even remember what happened yesterday, but I am going to do my best to tell you about our Christmas.  At least I am going to show you some pictures because remember...a picture is worth a thousand words.

To be honest, we didn't do a whole lot for Christmas.  We all were just really glad to be off work and school, so we did a lot of hanging out, baking and movie watching.

Sloane was a shepherd in our church's Carol Service.

We made cinnamon rolls and peppermint bark for our friends and neighbors.

Christmas Cookie Decorating Party with Friends

Traditional Mexican Food for Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning

Christmas Dinner

Thanksgiving

I think Thanksgiving might be the hardest holiday for us here in UK.  It is really strange to be the only people celebrating a holiday that is so important to us.  Thanksgiving is also a difficult to celebrate when you are so far from family since Thanksgiving is all about family.  Thankfully, we have really good friends who feel a bit like family who helped up celebrate.

Sutton started lobbying early to stay home from school on Thanksgiving again this year.  She even prepared a very detailed PowerPoint presentation to argue her case.  I guess it worked because both girls got to stay home and enjoy a day off. 

We invited our friends the Maskells to come over for dinner for a traditional Thanksgiving meal.  They were totally game to try some different foods like cornbread stuffing and sweet potatoes with marshmallows.  I was a little nervous to cook for Pam because she is such an amazing cook, but everything seemed to turn out well and everyone got stuffed.  I guess that means it was a successful Thanksgiving.  All we were missing was football and a long weekend off.

The Move

The New House - Wayland Avenue

Now that the hectic Christmas holiday has come and gone, it is time to try to catch up on the blog.  It looks like we need to go back to the beginning of November to fill you in on our big move.

As most of you know, we loved the house on Coventry Street that we had been living in for the past year.  The house was a Victorian terraced house, and it was so different from what we were used to back in the States.  For those of you who don't know what a terraced house is, it is a row of houses that are right next to each other, and you share a wall with your neighbor.  Our house was narrow and tall (4 levels).  All of our rooms were pretty small, and we didn't have much storage.  On the plus side, we loved our neighbors (thankfully because we were so close), and we were close enough to walk into town and work.

Coventry Street

Unfortunately, in August our landlord informed us that he needed us to move out because he lost his job and needed to move back into the house.  We had just signed a year extension on our lease and could have held him to it, but we decided to do the right thing and look for another place to live.  The rental market in Brighton is tight and we had a narrow area to look in because of the girls' schools, so our search seemed pretty gloomy for a while.

I guess it only takes one right house to change everything, and thankfully, we found a house that we all agreed on and the landlord agreed on us (and Lucy!).   Here is a link to a map that shows you where our new house (point B) is in relation to our old house (point A): Map.

Our new house is on a wide, quiet street that is a little further from town.  All of the houses are larger and detached with garages and large gardens.  It feels a little more "American" and similar to what we are used to.  In fact, this house reminds me of our house in Waco when Sutton was a baby.

Here are some of the things we like most about our new home:

• A Big Garden
• Quiet Street
• Free and Ample Parking
• A Garage (Lucy's Kennel Doesn't Have to Be in Our Living Room Anymore)
• Separate Laundry Area
• Nice Neighbors (including a 10-year-old girl next door)
• Heating and Windows that Work

Here are some pictures:

The Front of the House

Entry

Living Room

Another View of the Living Room

Dining Room

Master Bedroom

Sutton's Room

Girls' "Party Room" (Off of Sutton's Room)

Sloane's Room

Laundry Area

Garage (It's Not Much to Look At, but It is Nice to Have)

Back Yard



Now I don't want to make you all jealous, but our new house has an extraordinary feature that I am guessing NONE of you have at your house.  It is very European...

Our "Salmon" Bidet
You Can't Really Appreciate Just How Strange a Color
This Is, and Yes, Our Whole Bathroom is This Color



Nana and Grampy's Brighton Visit

Now that we have made it through our big move and Thanksgiving, I thought it was time to update the blog.  We have to go all the way back to October for our last big event - my parent's visit to Brighton.  My mom and dad came to visit us during the girls' Autumn Half-Term break.

My parents flew into Heathrow on Thursday, 20 October, and they took the coach from London to Brighton.  I picked them up and we had quite a time fitting the three of us plus all of their luggage into our tiny car.  Luckily, the girls were still in school, and I was the only one who came to meet them.  After flying all night and arriving in London early in the morning, it was a challenge keeping my parents awake until Sutton got home from school.  Sloane was on a school trip that week, so she didn't get home until Friday.

On Friday, I took my parents into town to see a little bit of Brighton.  We went to the Royal Pavilion, King George IV's pleasure palace, and even my dad enjoyed it.  He did go through it so fast that my mom and I lost him, but somehow he got all of the information because he quizzed us all afternoon.  After our tour of the palace, we met Keith for lunch at Bill's in town.

On Friday evening, our church had a church social at Gloucester Place.  The hall was transformed into a "youth club" for everyone, and there was ping-pong, pool, board games, wii, and even a tuck shop (candy and sodas).  It was a great time for my parents to get to meet lots of our friends from church.

We decided to do a little exploring on Saturday, but we also realized that all five of us would not be able to drive anywhere because we couldn't all fit in our car.  Based on the bus availability, we decided to go to Seven Sisters Country Park which is on the coast and situated in the South Downs National Park.  It took us about an hour to get to Seven Sisters on the bus from Brighton, but it was worth the trip.  The park is named for the chalk cliffs that run along the coast, and they are amazing.  The cliffs at Seven Sisters have actually been used in some (false) advertising for the Cliffs of Dover because they look so similar, and they might even be more beautiful.  It was quite a hike down to the sea and the cliffs, but everyone persevered (it helped that we had a little picnic halfway). 

On Sunday, we of course went to church at One Church, and my parents  got to hear Dave preach.  They were really impressed and were happy to get to worship with us and our new church family.  After church we took them across the street to the Open House Pub to get a proper Sunday Roast.

Monday we sort of hung around the neighborhood because Sutton had a birthday party we had to work around.  On Monday evening, we had our church small group at our house, and my parents got to join us for that.  It was a nice time for them to get to know some of our closest friends.

On Tuesday we woke up early for our road trip to Hampton Court Castle.  Keith had to work, so I drove my parents and the girls to Hampton Court which is just south-west of London.  It was the furthest I have driven since we have been here in England, but thanks to our sat-nav, we made it.  We spent the entire day exploring the castle that was most famously once the home to King Henry VIII.  

Keith took the day off work on Wednesday, and we all went down to the Brighton Pier.  The girls love to go to the pier, and they couldn't wait to show Nana and Grampy all the fun games and rides.  They were also excited to get the "best" fried rice in Brighton, but somehow it wasn't quite as good as they remembered.  After hanging out at the pier for a while, we took Nana and Grampy to do some shopping in The Lanes. 

It would be a major understatement to say we were sad to see Nana and Grampy leave on Thursday morning.  We love living in England, but the one thing we will never get used to is living so far away from family.  It was so fun having Nana and Grampy visit us, and it was really special to get to share with them what our new life in England is really like.