Journey Home and Things We Will Miss

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!

Ugly Christmas Jumper Day

Ugly Christmas Sweaters (er, Jumpers) everywhere on the day we flew out: Dec. 18! (Not very many at Charity shops, I think people hold on to them for a long time!) It's an annual fundraising campaign for the Save the Children charity. People are encouraged to "Make the world better with a sweater" and make a minimum £1 donation in exchange for wearing an ugly sweater to work that day. Very festive!  I got this lovely one (it's not really UGLY ugly though, it's kind of cute ugly) on a clearance rack for roughly $10:

Last Day and Bournemouth Market

Here is Ethan with his buddy Aiden on the day before his last day at school. Goodbyes are always so awkward, it's been weird saying goodbye to friends here. 

Our last day here (a Thursday) also happened to be Ethan's class Christmas party so it was a good day to have as his last! 

Hailey and I took the bus to Bournemouth to check out their Christmas market and do some shopping. On the bus we met this lady and her 1.5yr. old that were heading to a "Baby Disco". Haha, too funny-wish we had time to at least peek our head in to see what this was all about (or what I envisioned it looked like). 

Hailey wanted to try on some hats as well:

I meant to get a silver knit hat with a fur Pom on top but I forgot to go back to Oasis to buy it.

This guy and his sons or music students  (I'm guessing) playing Christmas music were so heartwarming. Gave them my last change.

Neat little market stalls.

Hailey was mesmerized by the Nutcrackers:

They even had this huge bar they set up in the Bournemouth shopping area:

I was surprised to see the named Haley featured on a stocking (because it doesn't seem to be a popular name in the UK):

An ice rink near the pavilion:

Ethan's class made him a special goodbye card with minions on it because they knew he likes minions a lot: 

Really sweet notes and drawings from each of the kids:

Margie and her sister and her husband stopped by to say hi and goodbye. Was fun to meet her sister (that looks very similar), that I had heard about. So weird that we are leaving tomorrow.

Feeling very grateful for the opportunity we had to live and travel oversees, for my awesome hardworking husband and flexible kids. And excited to get home and partake in all of the Christmas festivities and see friends and family. 

Ethan's School Nativity Program and Expat Christmas Party

Ethan's big stage debut as a shepherd in the Reception public school nativity program (I was surprised that they can do that here at public school-that would never fly in the US!)! They acted out the nativity and sang different relevant Christmas songs. A few nights before when I was asking Ethan about the program and which songs they were going to sing he said, "We sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in one part and I told the teacher that it was not a Christmas song!" Too funny!

This is his "acting is a serious craft" face:

"Oh crap, where'd my sheep go?"

Then later Friday night we went to the Expat Christmas/Farewell party at Margie and Sonny's place. Margie went above and beyond with all sorts of appetizers, food and desserts! And activities too: Christmas crackers, building snowmen out of play dough, snowmen wind up toy races (Hailey's won!), and party poppers!

These awkward engineers:  :)

Margie made a traditional Christmas English Cake (like fruit cake steeped in brandy and has fondant icing), among several other desserts. I was happy just having a taste of Chris'. Even Hailey, who will eat just about anything, turned up her nose at this fruit cake type dessert:

The U.S. Boeing expat crew:

Ethan does not look amused:

£1 poinsettia from Poundland. Not too shabby, eh? Got 5 as a thank you for the gym childcare staff and decided to get one for us/the Lord and Lady as well:

The kids and I went to St. James' Church (right behind us) to check out the differently decorated Christmas trees as part of their Chrismas tree festival. The kids are in awe of any Christmas tree they spot in general so they enjoyed seeing all of them.

Here is my little packing helper (ok, she is not much help but she is cute):

Snowless England Ski Slopes

On the drive back yesterday I was telling Chris about the snowless ski and sledding slopes in the UK. It's made up of these fabric rings and apparently it kind of hurts when you fall on it. He didn't really believe me. And sure enough, the childcare staff member at the gym was asking me if we had been there. Apparently there is one just over in Christchurch (30min. away) I'm intrigued.

http://www.snowtrax.eu

And 5 in the UK:

http://blog.themountaindepartment.com/uk-indoor-ski/

Apparently we are a lot closer to Christmas than I thought... Pretty much guaranteed that if I am packing things up, things are being unpacked elsewhere. :) I caught her in the act sitting at the table opening the doors and trying to get the chocolates out (they are kind of hard to get out) multiple times! And Ethan was all mad because she ate several of his chocolates on his Minion advent calendar (his chocolates are easier to get out). :)

Almost there though... Shippers come today and we fly home in 9 days-yah!! At first they thought it might be over the limit. It turned out we were over the square footage but at 945lbs., we were under the 1000lb allotment so we were okay. I was up until 1am the night before packing (and 2:45am the night before) so I am exhausted! It feels like a big weight has been lifted though (literally) now that it has been shipped and that part is done.

What are we going to do with this girl? :)

I'm not really a dark chocolate fan but Margie and I were talking about how we hadn't seen a dark chocolate Cadbury bar and then I came across this:

Snow Adventures

Today was another gorgeous sunny day and it was Chris' turn to ski:

Quite the fancy lunch he had at the lodge:

Some maps of the terrain:

Meanwhile, the kids and I walked around town. We came to find out that a lot of stores and restaurants were closed during the week and only open on weekends until busy season starts in a few weeks. We had our hearts set on these bakery doughnuts but it was closed so we walked around until we found a cafe and had this instead:

And Ethan still got a donut afterall:

The kids befriended this 2.5 year old named Sven and I talked to his mom. Ha, they bombard kids anywhere near their age with hellos. They made a little buddies with a little blonde boy in the lodge the day before and were running around with him. It reminded me of when we were in Oia and Ethan was fast friends with this little black boy and was conversing with him across the bus. 

Then we ventured to the alpine activity center near the other lift/gondola and the beginner ski area.

There was an ice rink and 3 igloos! When we got closer we realized that it was inflatable plastic and not ice. 

We sledged down this hill together on our butts several times and they played in the snow together:

We had a pretzel bun sandwich from the store and then warmed up in the Dom Hotel lobby until we met up with Chris to head home. Bye Saas Fee-such a cute little village!

There were all of those really unique looking valleys with Bavarian houses but I couldn't take a photo from the car. Both kids can't kick this terrible cough (and have been sleeping horribly). We are also scared that Hailey is going to puke when we hear her cough (forgot to mention that she puked all over on the car ride to York). Ethan was complaining about his ears hurting. But then they both napped for most of the drive.

Then Hailey's ears hurt on the flight and she was screaming/crying for the last 45min. or more of the flight. Poor girl, that was her worst flight ever, I think. Then we still had to go through customs and didn't arrive at home until 2:45am!