Here we are at the airport with all of our stuff! Felt so good to check most of it! Miraculously, we are heading back with the same amount we came with. Gave some away and accumulated some new. Heck, several of these suitcases are filled with chocolate, tea, English snacks and Christmas presents! Not bad, not bad...
We got there early enough to take advantage of the members lounge. I felt like we got the royal treatment! Check out part of the help yourself booze:
We hit the lunch buffet and it was pretty good! Gumbo, rice, salad bar, pastries and quite the assortment of foods. Glass of wine... Ahhhhh... Some strangers (one that said she was practicing to be a grandma) even entertained our kids for awhile and looked through their Frozen activity books with them. Very nice people (and its a good thing because our kids aren't at all shy-they crawled into their lap). They were loving it though, it was a win-win.
We felt kind of guilty having our young kids in Business class. Ha, thank you Boeing! These kids have no idea how lucky they are.
They settled in quite nicely and did pretty darn good. Ethan pretty much binge-watched movies and was quite content. Hailey is in her "mommy, mommy, mommy" phase so she kept wanting my attention to show me things or get me to repeat things like "Peppa" after she said them. She did pretty good though.
Ethan fell asleep like 20min. before we landed and hadn't gotten any other sleep so he was a crying mess when he was woken up and hurried off of the plane and through Customs, etc. But, he adjusted the best out of any of us when it came to switching back to US time. He slept clear from 7 or 8pm until 8am. Hailey, however, was up for good at 2am the first morning (which meant we were as well), and then 4am and then 5:30am for several days. It took a full week to get us all back on track. And was a super busy week as well (the week leading up to Christmas). The very next day we went to pick up Sydney and see Santa at Molbaks and then the following day we went to cut down our Christmas tree. And doctor and dentist appointments... Decorated the house for Christmas so it would feel festive and like a normal Christmas.
Living in England has made me realize some additional things I am thankful for that didn't used to come to mind. England is not a third-world country by any means and living here has been a great opportunity that I am very thankful for. But it makes me appreciate certain things in the US that I took for granted:
1. A big separate washer and dryer! (All washers and dryers here are a small two-in-one and take HOURS for each cycle. (And we just don't use the dryer because it shrinks everything.) I have to do laundry every day and hang Each.and.every.thing to dry which takes a long time and means there are always clothes drying everywhere!
2. A dishwasher (I have been so spoiled but I really dislike washing all dishes by hand).
3. The USA! England is great and all but I really do love the US. Things like the flu shot which should be simple became an overcomplicated mess. (Ha, there are a lot of things like that here and it really makes me appreciate the efficiency and processes/systems in place in the US and a customer service-oriented attitude.)
4. My awesome husband that is such a hard worker and an excellent dad!
5. His good job that provides for us and enabled us the opportunity to live and travel overseas and have a great adventure!
6. My kids! They have also been such troopers!
7. Our dog Sydney! Although a bit neurotic, she is a sweetheart and we miss her snuggles!
8. Gyms and classes with childcare that are closeby and have friends attending as well! And a car to drive there. Walking two miles each way to the gym here has been great exercise and I enjoy walking but bad weather means we get drenched or skip it!
9. The extensive food options in the U.S.! (And pumpkin flavored things!)
10. My network of friends and family! It has really hit me how much I appreciate/miss having a "village" and people around me all the time to vent/help out/have play dates and outings with. We have a few friends here but it really just doesn't come close to the community that we love so much at home! (And they really don't have moms groups here at all with MNO, etc. They have playgroups that meet once a week but there isn't that camaraderie.)
We are also looking forward to Ezell's, Clay Oven Indian (I know it's supposed to be phenomenal in England but everything we had still didn't quite measure up to Clay Oven.)
Things we will miss:
1. Excellent fish and Scottish Cold Smoked Salmon (lochs)
2. My favorite Tesco cereal with the clusters and yogurt covered fruit bits
3. Walking everywhere! I really do enjoy getting everywhere on my own two feet. Just running when I am running late. Easily doing errands back to back with the kids in the stroller and not having to take two kids in and out of car seats multiple times. Works great for Hailey taking naps on the go as well (walking, train, and bus).
4. Free school and hot school lunches for Ethan
5. Caffe Nero-I have grown to love that place and was a regular.
6. Food with not so many pesticides and preservatives.
7. Those yummy little itty bitty strawberries.
8. PoundLand!
9. Traveling all over Europe and cheap weekend getaways on budget airlines (ok, Ryanair I won't miss but the cheap flights and accessibility is nice!)
10. Driving a new BMW (okay, I don't really drive here but Chris does)
11. New adventures all the time.
Ok, here's to the next adventure back home! It's been a good ride! Cheers!
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