Well
this is our last post from the States. We leave for England on January
8. It's been a great few months back with family and friends. Here's
what our Christmas season looked like. First was Christmas in the Valley
at our church. I was asked to coordinate the volunteers for the event.
This is a 3 night event with 400+ guests each night. I've been working
the behind the scenes in the kitchen since I was 12, so it was great to
have such a prominent role. It was a lot of fun and everything went
really well.
After
our trip to Michigan, we drove through the night to get back to
Connecticut for Christmas tree hunting. My brother, his girlfriend, and
our best friends (Evan & Michelle Brunetti) all went out to a
Christmas tree farm and cut down trees for our houses. We used to do
this ever year with the Brunettis, so it was a lot of fun to have the
chance to do this again. The decorating was also up to us. My brother
and his girlfriend did the lights on the tree, we did the garland, and
put up all our ornaments. It's always fun to go through the ornaments
and memories.
Some
other highlights from Christmas, include seeing the Bright Lights show
in Springfield, MA. It was a huge drive through light show. Lots of
baking (80+ sugar cookies, red velvet cake, coconut-lime cupcakes, etc).
Christmas eve with the Brunettis. A white Christmas morning! We also
saw A Christmas Carol at the Hartford Stage and the Trans-Siberian
Orchestra, what a great show! Owen hiked Mount
Washington in New Hampshire with a friend (will post pictures when we
get some). And Owen's little sisters (Tore & Virginia Dowling...now
you're famous ;) ) visited for a few days just after Christmas. He took
his youngest sister on an overnight backpacking trip in the snow and we
all went to Boston one day.
It's
been a great time back in the states for these few months. Thanks to
everyone who hosted us, made time to visit, and provided a great time
for us. We will miss everyone but are looking forward to the next
chapter and all that London has to offer. Stay tuned for the London
adventures!
For more pictures, visit our Picasa album
Stateside
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| First Snow |
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| Christmas in the Valley |
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| Christmas trees with family & friends |
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| My best friend |
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| My brother and his girlfriend |
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| The finished product |
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| Bright Lights Springfield, MA |
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| The Griswold House (video on the picasa link) |
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| Christmas eve and nurf guns |
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| White Christmas! |
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| Trans Siberian Orchestra |
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| Huge tree in Boston |
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| For Tore Dowling....hope this makes you famous ;) |
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| Heading out for backpacking |
We finally we able to get out an enjoy London a bit over the weekend. On Saturday we headed to the centre to see the main tourist sights. It was a very cold day, so we eventually ended up in the National Gallery (Owen's favorite) to get warm. We started off heading to Waterloo Station to see the London Eye and the Parliament building with Big Ben. Then we headed to Westminster Abbey, which unfortunately was closed, so inside pictures will have to wait for another trip. After that we headed to Buckingham Palace. It was afternoon, so no changing of the guard ceremony, but we will go back for that (when it's a little warmer!). Then we were so cold we headed to the National Gallery for a bit and met up with some friends from the island who are studying at Wexham Park, north of us. We walked around the gallery and then around the town a bit. We eventually split off to head back and walked through the main shopping street, which had countless stores, mostly high end stuff, including a 2 story Apple store. It was cool to walk around there at night, with all the lights on the buildings (see pictures below).
