Strange Bird Early Thanksgiving Celebration

This morning, Ethan wanted to take a few Matchbox cars in the stroller for Hailey. I said, "oh, she already has one." And he replied, "But she is extra special and she is my buddy." How can one argue with that? :)

When Chris ordered the turkey, he called back to specify that we needed it on Tuesday (since we were celebrating Thanksgiving on Wednesday). The butcher was supposed to call and update us with the time it would be ready for pickup. After hearing nothing, Chris called to check in and the guy said, "Oh, I can't get that until Wednesday afternoon. Is that going to be okay?" Well, not really but what can ya do. In true English form, this kind of thing happens all the time here. No time in the afternoon or offer to call us right when it arrives... 

We joked about having our midnight turkey. It turned out that it was fine, we got it and cooked it for a few hours and had Thanksgiving dinner at a normal dinner time.

Turns out this funny looking 8lb. bird that looks like it had some bruised legs and still had its scaly ankles attached was inadvertently a free range organic sort and cost over $60!!

Look what we noticed outside the Poole Museum (across the street) when I went to pick up Ethan from school:

How cool!!! We will have to post a letter to Santa from this post box! And maybe we will get a reply?

We did our Christmas crackers as part of the Thanksgiving festivities. Turns out the cheapie £1 for 6 variety might not be fused as well (most of them didn't pop when you pulled them) but we still had fun with the little toys and crowns that fell out and pulled on the fuse afterwards for it to make noise.

Chef Chris on Turkey duty:

We had ourselves a nice little Thanksgiving meal: Turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and hot fruit with brandy.

Corfe Castle and Flu Shot Rejection

Today we took the Breezer Bus to Corfe Castle. 

Hailey hit the puddle jackpot:

Fun times storming the castle:

Charlie's mom told me awhile back that there was a pub with a beer garden next to Corfe Castle that they really liked. After determining which one it was, we found out that it has recently shut down for good. The volunteer at the castle said it was a popular locals pub too. Apparently it was the oldest pub in Corfe Castle, circa 1568! Such a shame that it is shutting down after all these years!

So we opted for lunch at the National Trust Tea Room instead. Some tea and sandwiches (we contemplated the soup of the day Carrot Corriander but after seeing the yellowy orange color, decided against it). 

After getting Ethan from school, we headed to the Adams Practice by the hospital, for our flu shot appointments. I told Katrina on the way there that I would not be surprised if something ELSE came up. And sure enough...

When I told the receptionist that we had an appointment (after a brisk walk to get there in time), she said said "oh, didn't they call you?" No, no they didn't call me.

Maddening, just maddening. Even after them checking TWICE (when I called initially and when I went in to pick up the forms to fill out beforehand) to see if they could give us the shot, price and which paperwork was needed. Now, however, they decided we needed signed notes from our doctor and additional health forms (with questions that were mostly irrelovent). They do realize we're talking about a FLU SHOT, right? I'm done, I'm not going to any more lengths for this, we'd probably have to wait another two weeks for another appointment anyways and by then we might as well wait a few days more and just get it in the USA. Unreal!

In other news, Hailey randomly decided all on her own that she wanted to go poop on the potty. Sure!!

I'll spare you a picture of her huge poop. :) I think we praised her too much afterwards though, because she lost interest after she realized that this was something we wanted her to do. Guess it's not time to run and buy pull-ups quite yet. Will probably just wait a few weeks until we get home anyways. There she will have her little potty and potty seat and won't have to worry about falling in!

London-Old Spitalfields Market, British Museum and Landmarks

After a large traditional full English breakfast at the B&B, we made our way to London. This took probably an hour and 20min. to take the free bus to Heathrow and then the train into

london and transfer to another line in the Underground. After arriving at Liverpool station and grabbing a sample of Chapstick at Neal's Yard Remedies, we headed to the Old Spitalfields Market, a huge crafty handmade goods market. We perused the market and grabbed some crepes for lunch and then discovered there was a whole other section that same size. I found several Christmas gifts, there were some cool unique things there!

Then we headed over to the British Museum so we could view stolen artifacts from countries around the world. Kidding. Well, sort of. 

There is quite a raging debate about whether some of these things should be showcased  in the country that they were found in. Especially the pieces of the Greek Parthenon since they now have that huge nice museum (that we recently visited) where they now have copies of some of these originals! You can tell it is a touchy subject since they had this displayed (and also a brochure explaining both sides of the argument for where the pieces belong):

When we saw this sign we jokingly said, "It was a gift, I'm taking it with me." (From "Wedding Crashers")

Some of these pieces are amazing (and huge!):

A portion of the Rosetta Stone. I was stuck in selfie land and couldn't get a picture of it without some annoying person in the way:

The Egyptian Mummies Exhibit was fascinating!!

Little baby mummy. There were also cat and dog mummies and other animals.

Mummy of Cleopatra. Only 17!

After awhile we got museumed out and sick of the crowds and ventured about to show Katrina some of the big London landmarks. 

Look at these cute siblings at the London Eye!

"Hello? It's me"... Ha, that Adele song seems to be our theme song lately and is stuck in our heads, especially after the hilarious SNL Thanksgiving skit featuring it:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e2zyjbH9zzA

And then we grabbed Mediterranean food. Katrina and I shared the mezze for two and the dishes seemed to keep coming! Delicious! Chris got a kebab that cost more than it cost for our whole family to eat kebabs in Greece. :)

Ethan is looking a little disgruntled--perhaps he should have been the guard instead: 

Windsor with Katrina

The welcoming committee for Aunt Katrina! (Although, Chris and Ethan were in the bathroom when she came through. She got through customs faster than we anticipated!):

I did enjoy watching all the happy people embracing when they arrived at the airport. It reminded me of "Love Actually". Ha, especially since we were at a London airport (Gatwick). 

We dropped our things off at the B&B by Heathrow and headed to Windsor to explore. Check out this cool passageway:

Can you tell that royals live in the nearby area?

Ooo, the ROYAL shopping center. Makes you wonder if the royals ever run over there to grab something with their bodyguards in tow. Ha, they probably send someone to go get whatever it is they need.

Steep admission but a very cool castle-probably the fanciest we've been in so far. Makes sense, since the royals still live in this one and all.

The well manicured grounds:

Just look at those lines!

Chris' contraband photo (before I reminded him that we weren't supposed to take photos). In his defense, there were people all around us taking photos.

It was pretty cold out today (that wet cold that goes to your bones) and Hails was looking a little cold/cranky here. They predicted snow (it was JUST cold enough) but we didn't see any.

The guard looks very serious here but we did see one crack a smile when they changed posts. I can just imagine what he was thinking, "I'm off!! It's Saturday night!!! I can stop frowning now!"

We had some mulled cider and mulled wine and dinner at the nearby Duchess of Cambridge pub. We really liked this pub-really cutely decorated with Union Jack buntings and good food and friendly service (get outta town!). With a name like that, it couldn't have been around for that long-what like 5 years? We headed back to the room and had our lemon cake for Katrina's birthday and gave her the adult coloring book. We had one spoon so we took turns having a piece of cake. Katrina had candy and Christmas gifts for the kids so they were all excited. Ethan was over the moon about the how in the dark planets and the world map puzzle--he put it together that night of course! His two loves-maps and puzzles.