Winter Wonderland!

Since we are in London for Christmas this year, we wanted to make sure that we really got to see all the Christmas-y stuff here. It has been cold lately so we bundled up and headed to shop and see the windows at Harrods!

Their theme this year is The Wizard of Oz! All the window are completely awesome! The pièce de résistance:

They changed all the lights to green!

After shopping in Harrods for a few hours (much more looking than shopping!), we hopped a bus to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park! I have seen ads for this all over the city and it was really great. It is patterned after a German Christmas Market with stalls selling trinkets and food.

They also had tons of rides. I was never allowed to ride traveling carnival rides as a kid and my parents have firmly instilled the belief that you have about a 75% chance of dying if you do ride them. I still don’t ride them. I do, however have a weakness for giant slides (apparently chances of death reduced to only 25% on giant slides) and those have always been my go-to activity at carnivals and state fairs and the like. This slide did not disappoint and it wrapped around a big silo tower! All the 7 year olds and I had a blast:

The food was great! We had a German sausage and sauerkraut, pretzel, mini doughnuts, and German potatoes!

There was a band playing and to our best guess, they were British men of German heritage, trying to play country music. We laughed and danced and sang along. Eventually, our noses and feet were so cold that we headed home. Yesterday, we went to grab lunch and then walked around to see the decorations at Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden and then walked to look at the Christmas windows at Fortnum and Mason (one of London’s oldest department stores). London is a fun city all the time but the Christmas time is really spectacular.

Go Tigers!!!

One day I was at lunch with some of my friends and somehow the subject of high school football came up. I tried to explain Texas High School Football. The more I talked about it, the more incredulous they were. When I said that the population of my town was 25,000ish and the football stadium holds 10,001 (Ennis’s stadium holds 10,000 so obviously ours had to be bigger) they didn’t believe me. When I said that my parents have had season tickets to all the games for years even when they didn’t even have a child in the high school they didn’t understand. We talked for a long time as I tried to explain it as best as I am able seeing as I don’t really GET it. And despite my not getting it, I found myself cheering for the Tigers at two games and a pep rally this season! The only thing that could lift my anti-school spirit ways?

This kid. Jake is on varsity this year and I knew there was no way that I could come to the states in the fall and not get to see him play football! The treat was that the Tigers wound up making the playoffs enabling me to see two games! And since they made the playoffs there was a city-wide pep rally downtown that I got to go to as well!

My favorite part of the game?

Just kidding! The nachos were second place. This was my favorite:

I LOVE embarrassing my little brother. I loved cheering him on so much that I decided to make him a sign so he knew how much I was rooting for him!!! 17-year-old boys love it when their sisters yell out cutesy nicknames in front of all their football team- true story. (Before you judge me, the whole time I was in high school I had a 7/8/9/10-year-old brother content to be an embarrassing monster all the time- he had it coming.)

The Tigers made it to the second round of the playoffs this year which is better than the last few years! It was a great treat to get to go and support Jake and get to see him play. I forget how grown up he is getting, and when you miss so much the little bits you get to see mean so much more!! Luckily though he will be a senior next year so I only have one more year to feign school spirit and then I can go back to apathy. Until then, GO TIGERS!!!!

A Christmas Story!

This is the story of four friends, Andrea, Tamara, Meghan and Leah.

They decided to get out of London for the day and head to Lille, France on the Eurostar.

The purpose was to explore the Christmas Market!

There were lots of little booths that sold all kinds of Christmas trinkets and treats.

There was a wonderful carousel in the center of town!

And a Ferris wheel on the next block!

We went back to the market in the evening and saw a build your own nativity table!

We were cold and decided to sample the hot spiced mulled wine

Andrea’s thoughts on said beverage- BLECH!!

A wonderful meal that you must get in France- Steak Frites!

Then a last-minute treat on the way to the train home, a Nutella filled beignet! YUM!

It was a wonderful day and I was dead on my feet by the time I got home but I am so glad I went!

Christmas Time Redecorating!!

When I started to post pictures of our Christmas tree and all that jazz, I realized how much our living room has changed since I put up the first pictures of it well over a year ago. Some of you have seen some of the changes because you have been here but some of you haven’t.

It used to look like this:

We liked it and it worked but in trying to buy more subtle colors to replace all the crazy brights we had in Dallas, I started to feel like we lived in the Easter aisle at Target. I am just not big on pastels… or beige. Little things happened and we got a new sofa cover (yay IKEA!), got rid of some of the clutter and then we got rid of those horribly uncomfortable chairs and bought a sofa that has a sofa bed. We have had these changes for a while but I never posted pictures. But in the last couple of weeks we have done a lot of changes an it really looks different!

While we were in the states I asked Jeanne about going discount fabric shopping because I wanted something more winter/Christmas appropriate for curtains. (Our windows are so tall we have to have curtains made or special ordered and that gets $$$ pretty quickly!) She suggested using banquet length table cloths and said she had a few of the same red pattern that she found on sale. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to get them home, and I love them! When we were trying to figure out a place to put the Christmas tree Mike suggested something that would mean we would have to rearrange the whole room including the tv cabinet. I was hesitant because it was going to take more work and moving stuff that involves that many cables makes me nervous, but we did it and love the new layout. The last thing that we did was buy a rug. Now that the couches were facing each other and we had a defined floor space, it looked empty. So we did some comparison shopping at the bizarre store near the tube that sells everything from shampoo to furniture in a teeny tiny store and then went to the Sunday Market behind Sainsbury were you can buy everything from bootleg dvds to counterfeit handbags, to old electronic equipment to rugs- and some Jamaican jerk chicken to eat while you browse. We left with a rug! Here is our finished product:

New rug up close:

I think it is a pretty big difference! I also think our tree looks much prettier in person! We had a good time decorating while we watched Christmas movies. I love putting up the tree every year and I really love that Mike likes to help!

Hope everyone else if having fun decorating and getting in the spirit of Christmas!!

In the Land of Milk and Honey

In the Old Testament, after the Israelites had been wandering the desert for 40 years, they finally came close to the promised land. They sent 12 spies to check out the land and even bring back food from the land. The spies went out and came back and told them of a land flowing with milk and honey. They brought back fruits and told of the great bounty in the land! To these wandering Israelites, who had been living off of manna and quail, the variety must have truly seemed like heaven. Well, ladies and gentlemen we have been to the promised land and we bring back good news of a land flowing with fajitas and Whataburger. And just as the Lord instructed, we brought back pictures.

We love Ozona and got to go one night with Ben and Jeanne. It is such a fun restaurant with a great patio and amazing food. I usually eat their fried jalapeno strips until I have holes in my esophagus and their spinach salad will forever change your views on spinach salad. What they are most famous for is their chicken fried steak. It was voted best in Dallas by DMagazine. I hadn’t had chicken fried steak in over two years and this was a welcome delight. They do it right too. The gravy is perfect, the mashed potatoes still have skin on them (yum) and the toast is golden and buttery. It is on my list of things to try and make over here because I don’t think that we should wait another 2 years!!

These little babies are fried pickles from a wing place called Pluckers! I LOVE fried pickles but eating the fried pickle chips makes me sick after about 3 because they are always so greasy. These fried spears from Pluckers are just right and their Ranch is amazing! Pluckers is at Greenville and Lovers in the big shopping center- you should go because their wings are amazing and they serve their sweet tea in a Mason jar!

Sweet Potato chips and steak quesadillas at the Blue Mesa in the airport on the way home. Trip for travel- eat a good meal before you get on the plane so you can bypass the “dinner” they give you. Your intestines will thank you.

Fajitas at Pepe’s and Mito’s. There are no words. Just go. And as for extra tortillas- trust me.

There were many other food highlights that I didn’t get good pictures of. We had a great Fake-Thanksgiving at Nana and Honey’s with all the traditional foods. The food at John and Ashley’s wedding in Palm Beach was amazing. I got to have my favorite Mediterranean food with Tawny at Ali Babba’s, delicious grits at Roy’s with Honey and I think I went to Whataburger at least 6 times in 3 weeks. It was truly a whirlwind of delicious food and even better company!

The story I loosely referenced in the opening is actually a wonderful story with a great lesson in trusting the Lord. Find it HERE. I pulled a Joel Osteen and used the just fluffy part to suit my own needs.

It Takes a Village

Not being home on Thanksgiving isn’t fun. Not being home the day after Thanksgiving SUCKS. The Friday after Thanksgiving (TFAT) is my favorite day of the year- and it has nothing to do with shopping. You couldn’t pay me to go to a mall on Black Friday. I love everything about TFAT eating leftovers, sitting around talking, making a run to WalMart for more Christmas lights, putting up Christmas trees, listening to the whole family yell at the Aggies, and eating pie at pretty much any time of day I want to. This year I was lucky- I got to do one of my favorite TFAT activities while I was home- put up my Christmas village.

When I was very little Nana started a tradition of giving me a Christmas music box every year. We put them up at her house but she said that one day when I grew up I would take them to my house so I would have Christmas decorations of my own. When I was in 7th grade (I think) she gave me the music box that goes to the Dickens Village (Department 56) and asked me what I thought about starting to collect the Dickens Village. I was ecstatic and we began adding to it over the years. Even though I am a grown up- sort of- and have my very own house we still put it up at Nana’s and I wouldn’t have it any other way! Putting it up with Nana every year is one of my favorite parts of getting ready for Christmas!

Confession: collecting this village has made me a Christmas village snob. No tacky glitter, iridescent snow and multicolored lights in my village. I can’t get over the detail in each and every piece. I love detail!

Before/Boxes out:

Finding a place for everything and being thankful that Honey is willing to drill holes in his beautiful furniture so Nana and I can plug everything in and hide all the wires!

Some of the pieces:

Andrea, Nana and the finished product!

It gets prettier and prettier! I am so glad that I got to put it up this year! Thanks for everything Nana!

New Goal in Life

I have a new goal in life: to raise daughters who do not act like complete ninnies at the movie theatre.

*

Just as everyone with a XX chromosomal makeup did this weekend, my friends and I went to see New Moon. It came out on Friday and so we decided to go during the day. We bought tickets for the 11:45 am show for the SPECIFIC purpose of avoiding all the giggling yelling teenage girls. We were sorely disappointed. It was full of teenage girls who decided that the movie theatre was the perfect place to scream for no reason, cry out “team Edward” or “team Jacob” every time one of them came on-screen, and yell random comments to the screen. I thought the girl in front of us was having a freaking seizure as soon as the title of the movie came on-screen. She did not have a seizure; she is just crazy and apparently did not have a mama to teach her better- bless her heart. Of course then the Shhhhh wars started between groups of people. One group would be loud then the another group would shhhhhhh them and then the aforementioned loud group would shhhhhhh right back whilst giggling. I wanted to stab so many people I thought I would lose it. Then I remembered why I didn’t have very many friends in high school.

What did I think of the movie? First, it was a 100% improvement over Twilight. (According to my mother, it had to be.) The quality was far better than the first and I thought that it was as good as it could be with the material. The scenery was great. I loved the part in Italy because they somehow managed to cast actors who are way to good to be in the Twilight movies to play the Volturi.  Taylor Lutner (who plays Jacob Black) was much better than I hoped (side note: he is also 17, please calm down crazy 40-year-old ladies behind us). Bella wasn’t nearly as annoying as in the first movie. And whoever picked out that charcoal suit for Edward is now on my Christmas card list. I am sure I will see it again. I am sure I will own the DVD.

But because I can not seem to just tell you what I think about a movie without half of my world views, here it goes:

The Twilight books are the literary equivalent of eating a gallon of chocolate ice cream. alone. at midnight. in the dark. It tastes good, it’s bad for you, and most of all- you don’t want anyone to know. I devoured the 4 books in about as many days and will NEVER admit to the number of times I have actually read them, but now that they are so popular everyone wants to celebrate this guilty pleasure together. And it’s just WRONG. The dialogue in these books is so corny and cheesy that it hurts, but when you read it by yourself on the couch under a blanket it seems so beautiful and romantic. When you see that dialogue on the big screen being said by actors you just want to cringe and hide of embarrassment for you, the actor and the world at large. So there is no way that any of these movies is going to be any good to movie critics or anyone really. So I think I probably won’t ever really like the movie but I can’t give a good opinion on it until the DVD so that I can watch it alone, in the dark, with chocolate ice cream.

*All these ladies would like you to know that I forced them into this picture so I would have a visual for the blog. They are all mortified.

I Lied.

I do that sometimes. I told you that I would post at least once a week and I lied.

I love new spirals, notebooks, diaries, journals, notebooks notepads etc etc etc…. I always have and chances are good that I always will. I have started so many diaries in my life and I would write faithfully for a week and then forget to write for a month. My next entry would then begin like this, “Dear Diary, I am soooooo sorry I haven’t written in random length of time but I was sooooo busy and just forgot! I promise to do better.” The diary would get a couple of these apologies before I would discard it in favor of a new diary that I was DEFINITELY going to keep up with forever and ever. This blog is by far the longest kept and most thorough diary that I have ever had. I also promised myself at the beginning that I would not be constantly apologizing for lack of posts. And I haven’t and don’t plan on starting now. I know I haven’t posted in over 3 weeks. But you see I was getting to do/eat/hug all the things/food/people that I talk about missing so much so I don’t feel guilty about throwing myself into that experience and waiting until I am home in London before I jump into posting again. I do have some pictures and stories to tell about our trip and I will probably start sharing them up here this week. But there may be an entry or two that have nothing to do with our trip; please give me a few days to wrap my head around the trip. Coming home is always a little overwhelming and I came home with an evil voice stealing virus that I am just now beginning to triumph over.

There will be a real post in 24 hours. I promise, and I never lie.

We Don’t Have the Swine…

…but we do have something. We’re getting better but neither of us have much energy. What little energy we do have today is reserved for getting packed so we can drag ourselves out of bed and into a minicab at 6 am tomorrow. We are both excited to be coming to Texas, but neither of us are excited about flying. The flight from London to Dallas is tolerable at best but couple it with a hacking cough and sinus pressure, it’s pretty much just going to suck. I am sitting on the couch right now making myself think of dinner at Nana’s to try and make myself get up and go pack (no, I haven’t started, don’t look at me like that). I will keep blogging while we are in Texas but probably only around once a week. If you’re a London friend, we’ll miss you and see you again soon. If you’re a Texas friend call/email/facebook me and we’ll go get some Whataburger!

See you soon!

Lookie What We Got!!

This is now about 250ish yards away from our door! There are already Domino’s all over London but there is not one that will deliver to us. Until now! There are other pizza places that will deliver to us. We LOVE Firezza and we get fresh artisan pizza cooked in a wood burning oven and topped with things like feta cheese, buffalo mozzarella, pancetta, rocket, etc etc. But sometimes you just want some pizza pizza. Does that make sense? Of all of the American pizza chains that have made it over here (Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Papa Johns) Domino’s tastes the most like what we would get in Texas. So by the time we get back it should be up and running. “When we get back” you say? Where are we going?

We’re coming to Texas for 3 WEEKS!!! We leave next Wednesday at dark thirty in the morning and fly non-stop (praise Jesus) to DFW! Mike hasn’t been home since last Christmas and we are both counting the hours until departure. We would also like to take this time to apologize to everyone that we are going to visit. We won’t get to spend as much time with anyone as we would like to. Please don’t hate us for it. 3 weeks is a long time, but we have two full wedding weekends, Mike will be working the whole time, and we have a list of people to see/places to go/fajitas to eat that is a mile long.

Although now that we don’t have to go to Domino’s, we may have some more free time.