Christmas 2010 Take 1

Well we made it to the US with only a few minor hiccups.  We were very nervous about how our flight would go with all the weather delay issues London had right before Christmas.  The flight home was actually night and day better than our trip over. Brady got a bit ancy, but overall did really well.  Our entertainment for the trip included Thomas the Train stickers, a wooden Thomas the tank engine, Thomas coloring books.  I think you're getting the idea.  Our two small issues were 1.)  The in flight movie system was down on the entire plane 2.) They lost our stroller which we checked gate side and it has yet to be found.  I would much rather deal with those couple minor issues than have had the travel delays out of London that many of our friends experienced.

Our first stop on our trip home was Cory's parents.  Peoria received about six inches of snow on Christmas Eve so we had a white Christmas.  On the way home from Church we had a small situation trying to get up a large hill in the snow.  Cory, Ron, Brady and Grandma Ruth were in the Yukon which of course has 4 wheel drive and had no idea we were stuck on a hill.  Fortunately for us, with some sharp driving skills by Katie and some man power from behind we were able to get up the hill.  I was wearing my new tall boots and had absolutely no interest in pushing a vehicle.  Made for some interesting drama on Christmas Eve, but all turned out ok.  Below is a picture of the snow taken the following day.

Christmas Pictures

One of the Christmas traditions at Cory's parents is Ron creates a Christmas game for the 'kids' to play.  Yes, Cory, Katie and I are the kids.  Eventually I am sure their will be a grand kid version, but for now the adult kids play.  This year the game was modeled after Minute to Win It.  Just to give you a taste of the games watch the video clips below.  Prizes are at stake so the competition level is always very high.

The day after Christmas we took Brady to a Children's Museum in Bloomington.  The museum was really nice and had lots of age appropriate activities for Brady.  He loved it!

Brady also did a lot of singing for us over the break.  One of his favorite songs is O Christmas Tree.  He already has more singing talent than his mother.

Last Minute Packing

While we were doing some packing Brady got concerned that we were going to leave some important things behind.  He took matters into his own hand and added a few things to the bag.  We sure don't want to leave behind Bunny, Blanket, Lego tunnel, train tracks, Thomas, Henrietta or Toby.  He also wants to make sure we bring the iPad on the big plane.

Reflections from the first four months

It's crazy to think that four months have gone by since we arrived in London.  Since we're heading back to the US for a couple of weeks tomorrow I thought we should reflect back on what we have learned, things we have grown to love & things we miss back home.

Lessons Learned:

• Shoes soles don't last when you're logging a minimum of 3 miles a day.
• Visits to coffee shops are appropriate at all times of the day.  The convenience of Starbucks has turned me into a full fledged Chai Latte addict.  I try to limit myself, but they sound good in the morning and in the afternoon.  The 1 minute walk has certainly makes it difficult to resist.
• Don't rely on gadgets (aka Slingbox) to be able to watch local TV.  We are seriously behind on Grey's and Private practice and my Oprah watching has been seriously impacted.
• Always check your receipt to see if a service charge is included.
• The weather is completly unpredictable - Treat your umbrella as if it's your watch.  Never leave home without it. 
• tfl.gov.uk is your friend - never leave home without checking to see what lines are running.
• Program the number to get a taxi into your phone.  Never put yourself in a situation where you could get stranded.

New found loves:

• Pizza Express - it's our equivalent to Chilis or On the Border.  It has yet to let us down.
• Fresh food - this may sound crazy, but Cory and I both ate a lot of Lean Cuisines for lunch and I have yet to eat a microwave meal at work since I have arrived.
• Please no short bus jokes, but we love the convenience and ease of riding the Bus.  There is nothing better than sitting up top of a double decker.
• Multiple free daily newspapers - We get the City AM at the office and on our walk home a man is handing out Evening Standards. 
• Sleeping until 7:30 am on work days.  In KC we were already on our way to work by this time.  Not only do we sleep in, but Brady gets to stay in his pjs and no rushing around the house like crazy people trying to get everyone ready.
• Football (soccer) - Both Brady and Cory have become huge football fans.  Our hallways has been transformed into a practice field for shooting goals.

What we miss:

• Target - nothing compares to pulling up in your SUV, pushing a cart around Super Target and having everything you could ever want at your disposal.
• Fountain pop with lots of ice - We seriously don't think people understand what they are missing.  Tesco should take some lessons from Quick Trip and add a fountain beverage section that includes multiple ice selections.
• Colby Jack cheese - This may seem silly, but the only shredded cheese we can find is Cheddar or Mozzarella.
• Coupons - I was on the verge of becoming a true bargain shopper and the move has resulted in a bit of  a setback.  I just can't seem to find good deals.
• In and out restaurants - Dining in London is not designed for toddlers.  We had become accustomed to going to places where you can get in and out in 30 minutes.  Sometimes it takes 30 minutes to get your bill.
• Sports Center - This is actually what Cory misses.  I could probably also put this on my list of what I love as I don't have to listen to it every night before bed.
• Our Pillowtop mattress.  Our bed here simply does not compare.

It's been a good four months.  We are looking forward to making the most of 2011. 

Winter Wonderland

Each winter there is a Holiday festival in Hyde Park called Winter Wonderland that has rides, food, shopping, Santa, etc.  We actually had decent weather a couple of weeks ago so decided to check it out.

I think everyone in London decided to check out the Winter Wonderland the same weekend we did because it was  packed.  Cory would say the crowds help with the 'holiday spirit'.  I don't mind crowds in general, but it makes navigating the streets a bit of a challenge.

We mainly just took in the sites and sampled some roasted almonds.  We would have done some serious damage at the foods stands, but we had just eaten lunch.  The food section is Bavarian themed and they had tons of stands selling brats, cheeses filled breads, hot drinks, cold drinks, desserts and anything else you could probably imagine.

I got a kick out of some of the rides.  I don't think you would see a double decker bus at a carnival in the US.

We stopped to see Santa Clause, but Brady had fallen asleep in his stroller.  One thing I learned is that when you visit Santa Clause here you go to his 'Grotto', which basically is a cavern.  I have never thought of Santa's place as a cave, but hey why not. 

The weather outside is Frightful...

Today was an interesting day.  We set out on the 189 to go to Brent Cross Shopping Centre.  When we left the house it was lightly snowing, but nothing that either Cory or I expected to impact our journey.  Brent Cross is about 5 miles north of us so it's a little outside of Central London.  It's a traditional mall so it seemed like a better idea than walking through the sludge and wet roads on Oxford street.  We made it there with no problems and went straight to Pizza Hut for lunch.  Mid lunch we hear an announcement, "Brent Cross will be closing at 1pm due to extreme weather conditions".  Ok, so now we're thinking we rode the bus for 45 minutes to eat Pizza Hut.  If only that was the whole story.

Continue eating, next announcement, "All buses will discontinue service at 1:30pm."   We finish lunch and head outside to find ourselves with at least 250 other people waiting for buses, traffic backed up and not moving at all and to top it off it's snowing outside.  We made a judgement call to walk to the Holiday Inn that we could see in the distance.  We get to the Holiday Inn and find more stranded people.  At this point I seriously was hoping that the Holiday Inn had rooms as the buses were suspended, we couldn't get a taxi service to answer our calls and I certainly was not walking 5 miles in the snow, pushing a stroller, wearing my non-waterproof Uggs.

A little luck came our way and the hotel had a complimentary shuttle that would take us to the nearest tube station.  Cory arranged the shuttle, but I didn't realize he hadn't told the guy we were not guests and I blurted out in the car that we had made a bad decision to go to the shopping centre.  Woops, I guess I let the cat out of the bag that we were not hotel guests.  I remedied the situation by giving him a very nice tip.  I knew that everything was ok when the man says, "Thank you so much, very generous, thank you!". 

The tube line we were dropped off at is about the least convenient tube line to get back to our house.  We didn't care.  At least we were heading the right general direction.  A couple of transfers, all seemed to be going smoothly until we got to Baker street and the Jubilee line (tube line to our house) was apparently so severely delayed that it had been sitting at a stand still for over 20 mins.  At this point, walking could have been an option, but an undesirable option.  We decided to head above ground, check out the situation and drop into some tourist shops since we got no shopping done at the mall. 

Did a little shopping, Brady's now sound asleep, and headed back underground.  Trains seemed to be running again so we FINALLY made it home.

3 hours
4 inches of snow

£7.20 in fares

1 pair of ruined Ugg boots
1 sleeping toddler oblivious to the predicament

The feeling of stepping back in your flat after a miserable day = Priceless.

I need to remind myself that it could be worse.  Our friend Tina was flying back to the US today and spent 9 hours on the tarmac before her flight was cancelled.  I cannot even imagine.

Bath, United Kingdom

Choo-choo Thomas coming, as Brady would say!  We set out on another weekend train adventure to Bath in our pursuit to ensure that we get out of London and see various parts of the United Kingdom.  Bath is known as a visiting spot for the who’s who of the UK, home to the Roman Bath Spas, residence of Jane Austen for many years and is known for excellent Christmas markets. 

We of course selected Bath for the Jane Austen bit.  Quote from Cory, “I’ve never heard of Jane Austen.”   I say, “She’s an author.”  Cory, “Oh yeah, she had something to do with Pride and Prejudice right?”  I really shouldn’t give Cory too hard of a time as although I have read a couple of her books, I certainly can’t tell you anything meaningful about the books.  Despite the lack of literary knowledge on our parts, we did make sure to get our picture taken with her outside of the museum. (Yes, I do have a black eye in the photo if anyone notices.  Going on 2 weeks of a black eye due to a Brady head collision.)   However, we couldn’t fit the tour into our busy schedules.   I will tell you that Miss Austen was quite the productive young lady.  She actually wrote 6 full novels, had 2 unfinished novels and countless other short pieces and most of them were written when she was in her teens, 20s.  Her life was cut very short due to what they believe to be Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the age of 41.

In all seriousness, the primary place we wanted to visit was the Roman Baths.  Very cool to think that hundreds and hundreds of years ago the Roman’s worked out a sophisticated spa setup.  Despite living in a time full of hard manual labor and lack of modern conveniences, the people still made time for relaxation and spa treatments.  Brady was not too interested in learning about the Romans and keep insisting we go see the “BIG, HOT Swimming pool.”   We raced through the 2 hour self guided tour in a record 45 minutes.  Brady keep saying “Brady get in.  Let’s go swimming Mommy, Daddy.”  You are actually not allowed to touch the water, I think it’s a bit on the toxic side.  Fortunately we were able to keep Brady out of the water.

After the Roman Baths we visited the Bath Abbey.  Something pretty cool that they do during the Christmas season is have hourly 20 minute Christmas services.  We decided to attend and about 5 minutes before the service started Brady informed us that he needed to go poo-poo and proceeded to do so standing in the aisle.  The good news is he is still in diapers, the bad news is there were no restrooms in the Abbey and they were closing the huge doors to get in the church making it difficult to get out.  Brady and I snuck out, and managed to get back about 5 minutes into the service.  He then decided to announce very loudly that he needed his BANANA and needed to go get it out of the stroller.   Lesson learned, do not attempt to go to a church service without being properly prepared.  I guess what was I to expect from the little guy since he had nothing to read, play with or eat during the service.

We may get some boos from the crowd for this one, but Saturday night we opted for TGI Fridays for dinner.  Cory and I both enjoy our chain restaurants and are really missing US food.  The only US places that we have been since arriving in London have been Subway & McDonalds which don’t really count and Chipotle which of course is awesome.  When we saw the TGI Fridays we couldn’t resist.  It was AMAZING.  I think the amazingness partially goes back to us missing US food, but in all seriousness we had really good food and some of the best service we have had since arriving in the UK.  In general the people in Bath were quite friendly and helpful in comparison to London.  We had a 15 minute chat with a security guard who apparently is a huge Obama fan.  He was so excited for us to have Obama in office and is thinking that it will be really great for the US.  I didn’t have the heart to tell him I didn’t fully agree so we just played along and then chatted about the weather and the high cost of living in the UK.  (weather and cost of living are always good conversation bits).

Hotel fun after dinner.

On Sunday we enjoyed a few historical sites and then set back for home.  We had a nice weekend and crossed another UK city off the list!

ABCs

Finally caught the full alphabet on video.  Not sure if everyone can understand it as well as we can, but he said his full abcs with no mistakes.  We think he's pretty smart.  :-)