It's Great to be Home!

No news to report, other than we have made it home and are happily doing nothing for a couple of days. Will have pix and a full report of our adventures when the jet lag wears off

Nothing feels nicer than sleeping in your own bed!

Christmas Eve

We are queued to get into the carols service at St Paul's Cathedral this afternoon. A perfect place to celebrate Christmas in London!

Tomorrow, we will be lolling about our hotel, as nothing is open Xmas day. Hopefully, there will be a few holiday movies we recognize. We have seen most of our must sees in London, as there's a tube strike set for Boxing Day and we weren't sure we will be able to get anywhere.

My knees are sore today! A day of lounging will be appreciated

Quick Update

We made it to London safely, thanks to Katie's great driving and Pia's navigation skills. Our hotel for the duration is right by Wembley Stadium (nothing happening there tho) and an easy tube ride into the city

Today we took in the wonderful British Museum, it was easy to spend the afternoon there and not see everything. My favorite section is the early British artifacts with all the Celtic art. Gold jewelry never goes out of style does it?

We popped by Trafalgar Square on our way to a candlelight performance of Handel's Messiah at St Martins in the Field church. Beautiful

Tomorrow we hit Kensington Palace, the V & A museum and the Tower of London. We need to pack in as much as we can before the holiday.

Thanks British Airways for the free ticket!

We Love York

We are in Starbucks in York, finally have Internet so here's a quick update

Edinburgh was delightful. We slowed down a tad due to my cold, but toured Edinburgh Castle and the national museum. We discovered most of the good stuff is in the British Museum. Conquerors get the goods

I am in awe of Katie's driving skills. We rented a car and she has successfully gotten us to York! Thru roundabouts, left hand driving. I would have started sobbing in a block and abandoned the vehicle. Pia is manning the navigation. I am in the back seat where I belong

Today we are in York, and it's fab. Lots to see! Tomorrow is Stratford and the Harry Potter movie tour. Then London

Scotland!

We arrived in Edinburgh last night, a bit (or a lot) jet lagged but ready for our adventure to begin. We are staying at a nice little hotel close to the Royal Mile and there's an old cemetery next door (photo is the view out our window). Today is castles and museums!

Cara, I brought your cold with me

Almost Time!

It's almost time for our highly anticipated trip to England!  We leave tomorrow afternoon for Seattle, where we'll bunk down at the Bellevue Hilton (thanks for sharing your points with us, Pooh!), then we take off on Sunday for our trip.

I'm so excited!  10 days of touring with Pia and Katie (I'm going to make them sign a Peace Accord for the duration of the trip, so they won't be fighting on a daily basis...), starting in Edinburgh and working our way to London.  We are renting a car for a few days, which should be an adventure in and of itself :-)  Luckily, no one expects me to drive.

We have some fun activities already planned, including the Harry Potter Studio Tour, Stratford-on-Avon, a candlelight performance of Handel's Messiah at St Martin's in the Field church, a visit to the Dickens Museum, and lots more.  I'm taking the Barrister's Wig of course, and will be posing in it at various Victorian venues.  We watched a show about the royals and the new baby, so we plan to hang out in the street where we were assured Kate will be shopping for baby items :-)  Also heard that Suri Cruise is going to be in England for Christmas, so there's another stalking possibility.

So off to start packing!  Hopefully we will have internet access so I can blog about my adventures!

Happy Christmas to all!

A Perfect Gift

Pam said she had the perfect present for me. She was right! Adorbs!

A Cute Find

I bought a box of old magazines at an auction (note to self: don't bid on line on auction boxes)...and was going through them yesterday.  In a 1939 issue of Home Arts Needlecraft I found this cute squirrel square done in filet crochet.  I think I'll try to make it into a little pillow or something.  Hope Lulu doesn't go cray cray when she sees it, she does NOT like squirrels.

Hahaha!

I'm guessing this photo montage was prepared just after the royal wedding, and kept at the ready for the baby Cambridge announcement:

(check our favorite tumblr  for the rest of the pix!

My Palms are Sweating...

because it's dentist appointment day.  Lord, I dread going to the dentist!  Even if it's just for a routine teeth cleaning, I would prefer to be rendered unconscious.  Unfortch, my dental insurance is of the super-cheap crappy variety and I doubt they will cover general anaesthesia  for this.

Stomach butterflies commencing.

Why Didn't I Buy a Powerball Ticket?

Because I just won a set of Addi "Click" knitting needles from Paradise Fibers!  I've been lusting after a set, but couldn't really justify purchasing when I'm saving up for my TRIP TO ENGLAND THAT I ALSO WON.

Maybe I need to head to the casino on the senior citizen's bus....

A Date with the Twins

Good grief, Alex and Liam are so grown up!  12 years old!!!  But they're both still sweet little boys, the teenage years haven't kicked in quite yet.  In fact, Al held my hand the entire 2 miles of the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving, loved it.  Bet he won't do that on Turkey Day 2013 though :-(

I met up with my fave twins on Sunday for a little holiday shopping.  The boys had a $25.00 Toys R Us gift card from their birthday, so we headed off to hell.  I mean we headed to the toy store.  They were a bit overwhelmed, I think.  But very well behaved, not greedy at ALL.  They were insistent that we not spend any of my money on toys.  We checked out most of the boy aisles, and settled on a big Spy Kit.  Which we all predict will be lost/broken by today.  But they were happy with it.

Next, we headed to White Elephant.  This store is a Spokane tradition.  Guaranteed to warm any kid's heart, with half the store filled with toys, and the other half filled with guns, ammo, fishing stuff, camping gear etc.  Plus the entire remaining stock of "Expo 74" tchochkes. There were a LOT of "big boys" over on the guns and ammo side.  We checked out everything on both sides and they allowed me to make a couple of purchases for their Christmas: Liam got a new fishing reel and 2 packages of bait.  Al picked out a pair of leather work gloves, which he decided to give to his mom for Xmas.  Awwww, sweet.

All that shopping made us hungry so we stopped at McDonald's.  Both boys assured me they could each eat four fruit pies, but we settled for 2 burgers for Liam, 1 for Al, some fries and a fruit pie each.  These guys are such healthy eaters, they didn't even want pop, just water.  And their bellies probably rebelled later on at the influx of grease and carbs.

Next Saturday, it's Mikey's turn for Toys R Us.  He has his catalog all marked up.  Wowie better bring a checkbook...

Merry Christmas 1981 Style

Pia needed a picture of her with Santa for some school thing.  I dug up this one, pretty cute gal.  She doesn't appear to be terrified of Santa, what's the deal with that?