Destination: Bruges, Belgium

A couple days after Christmas, we decided to get out of London for a few days.  So we hopped on a short flight across the English Channel to the quaint little European village of Bruges, Belgium.  

So picturesque and charming! 

Bruges is a great place to wander the streets and canals, absorbing the old European architecture and the smells of chocolate.  However, when we were there it was pretty cold outside which made it a bit tough with the girls (and for myself as I'm a big baby when it comes to cold) for walking around for longs periods.  Fortunately, we found a few various museums in town that we popped into throughout the two days we were there which nicely provided an opportunity to temporarily thaw out.  

Taking a break and warming up in the Chocolate Museum

You don't have to twist my arm.  I'll gladly keep eating more chocolate to protect my teeth!

Cooking up some fries at the French Fry Museum

Fully decked out for Christmas

If you needed chocolate, this is your place.  There were chocolate shops on top of chocolate shops throughout the town

We didn't spring the money for a fancy carriage ride, but the girls got plenty entertained just seeing the horses everywhere.

Enjoying a true Belgium waffle  

I have to say that the waffles we had there were the most amazing waffles I've ever eaten.  I was expecting the plain waffles we purchased to taste like the ones that come out of my waffle iron.  Oh boy was I wrong.  So moist. Just the right sweetness. Sooooo good.

Oh what fun it is!

Now that Christmas is almost a month behind us, it's time to share what we were up to the month of December.

Olivia had a Christmas party with her classmates at a local pizza restaurant where they all made their own personal pizzas which was followed by a visit from Father Christmas (as the British people call Santa) who delivered gifts to each child. 

She was all smiles and laughter until I whipped out my phone to take a picture of her

At Olivia's school, the reception and pre-reception classes (that's kindergarten and pre-k for you Americans) put on a Christmas performance and her class sang a song about being the happiest Christmas tree.  Yeah yeah... I know none of the kids in the photo below actually look happy but they were pretty cute.  I was proud of Olivia. She gets overcome with stage fright/nervousness easily at these type of things and usually just freezes and stands there.  This time she actually sang the song which is a huge improvement over her last school performance back in early summer.  We've still got some work to do on the accompanying hand actions, but I'm happy with baby steps.

Our Elf, Andy, made a return appearance to our house for about a month.  The girls, especially Olivia, loved waking up every morning and going to search the house to see what Andy was up to.

On Olivia's first day of her Christmas break, I took the girls to a theater in the West End for a Christmas performance of The Stickman, a popular children's book.  It was Ashton's first theater show and she did great!  Olivia loved it too as the show was filled with fun music, dancing and audience participation.

Special ice cream treat after the show

One of my friends from my playgroup hosted a super fun Christmas party at her house that involved making gingerbread houses.  Olivia loved helping me "design" the house and putting on all the candies.  It was quite tricky getting all three of us and a gingerbread house back to our home via a taxi without the gingerbread house getting dropped or breaking apart, but I'm happy to report I successfully managed.

Ashton's involvement?  Eating the candy

Geoff and I had a date to the Royal Albert Music Hall to see Handle's Messiah performed.  It was performed by a choir of over five hundred people!  My favorite part was when the entire audience rose to their feet and stood while the choir majestically performed the Hallelujah Chorus.  Hallelujah, indeed!

On Christmas eve, we took the girls to see their first official movie at the cinema.  They've both been to the cinema before for the annual Halloween parade/movie event we've done, but that's a little different.  We went to see Paddington at the cinema in the basement of Selfridges, the famous London department store.  Since most of the movie was filmed in London, we were hopeful the girls' attention would be held by all the London sights that are familiar to us.  They did OK for the first two-thirds of the movie.  The last third, they both started crying and both wanted to sit on my lap.  Nevermind the fact that Geoff's lap was completely capable and open.  Of course, that's the point when my bladder was completely full and they insisted on sitting right on top of it with all their weight.  We/I survived until it ended and now Olivia gets excited anytime she sees anything Paddington related.  

Happy Christmas Eve!

 Opening their Christmas jammies

Happy Christmas!

Celebrating our Savior Emmanuel's birthday with a birthday cake.  Chocolate, of course, because I'm pretty sure chocolate is Jesus' favorite

On New Year's Day, Geoff was in Austin for a friend's wedding so I took the girls to Kew Gardens to see a big Christmas lights display they had going on there.  Despite the cold temperatures, we had fun checking out the lights and riding a few of the rides. 

I love this quote I read recently:  "The business of life is the acquisition of memories".  I think we successfully acquired a lot of new, fun memories this Christmas season!

2014 in Review

I thought it would be fun to do a review of the last 12 months of our lives.  As I look back over the highlights of our year, one thing sticks out.  Travel.  Lots of it.  We had plenty of ordinary, boring days too, but geez, our suitcases and passports got plenty of use this year.

As for 2014, here we go...

January

In January, Olivia start playing football (that's soccer for all you Americans) with some of her school classmates. Come to think of it, I'm not what they they did really qualified as "playing football".  More like run around in a gym and occasional kick ball arounds.  

We also tried to stay warm and dry as January 2014 was the wettest in the UK in 250 years!  

February

On the 19th, my sweet baby turned 1.  We celebrated with a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed birthday party.  

March

Spring started to tease us into thinking that summer was right around the corner.  However, in my two years here, I've learned that weather that doesn't require a jacket and scarf doesn't regularly show itself until practically July, so I tried my best not to get fooled. 

April

Geoff put his running skills to the test in the Paris Marathon, finishing with an outstanding time of 2 hrs, 55 min. While there, we once again enjoyed taking in the sights of the beautiful city. 

Thanks to the month long school holiday that Olivia was on, our Paris trip was quickly followed by a long weekend trip to Istanbul, Turkey.

May

The big event in May was our trip to Greece.  Loved, loved, loved Greece and I would go back in a heartbeat.

June

We hit up the beach scene in Nice, France and the lovely French Riviera for a few days.  

At the end of the month, we had visits from both my brother Stephen and sister Emily. 

July

Home sweet home happened in July when we returned to the good ole' USA for three weeks to see our families and visit friends.  It was so good to be on US soil again where everything is familiar and you don't have to think about how life operates because you just already know. 

August

After practically suffering from heat stroke while we were in Texas, we returned to London only to experience an early arrival of fall.  So on the 10 days of decent summer weather we actually got this year, we made sure we enjoyed every moment of those days.

We threw in a last minute trip to Norway and the stunning Norwegian fjords.  My jaw is still slack 4+ months later from the incredible beauty we saw there.  Definitely one of my favorite destinations we've visited so far.

September

Olivia started full-time school in early September when she started pre-reception (pre-k).  She goes to a British school up the street from our house and with the British accent she's acquired, she fits right in!  It took all of us a couple weeks to adjust to the new schedule, but she absolutely loves school and it's been a great year so far.  

The start of school was followed by Olivia's 4th birthday when we celebrated on the London Eye.  

October

October was CRAZY.  I think I'm still recovering from October!  

I snuck in a 40 hour whirlwind trip to Paris to spend a day and a half visiting the city with my brother.  

Our Halloween activities included a little lamb and Cinderella participating in a neighborhood Halloween parade. 

I ran the London Royal Parks half marathon and finished with a new personal best of 1 hr, 45 min.  It was a fun course that included running by Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Thames River, Kensington Palace and then all over Hyde Park.

My mom came to visit us for a week and boy, did we cram in lots of activities. 

We capped off the month with our holiday all over Italy where we dined on endless pasta and pizza for 8 days. 

November

After spending the first six weeks crying during the bulk of each of her swim lessons, Olivia finally started enjoying herself and making progress!

Lots of Frozen and Let It Go clips were watched on YouTube.  I think out of the 300+ million views that the Let it Go song from the movie has on YouTube, my girls have watched around half of those.  

December

In December, lots of baking happened and my little ladies were there right beside me (very literally) to make huge messes help.  Glad we were making memories together though.  Or at least that's what I kept repeating to myself over and over again as I cleaned up the disaster areas.

We had a super fun christmas party with our friends that involved making fun gingerbread houses.

Sandwiched around holiday activities, we found out that Geoff will be starting a new assignment at work early next year.  His new assignment will again be based out of London.  So we're calling London our home for another couple years.  It's what we wanted so we're excited!

We stayed in London for Christmas and didn't have any family make the trek over to see us for the holidays.  So just our little family of four celebrated Jesus's birthday with presents and birthday cake.  Blog post recapping our Christmas up next.

We concluded 2014 with one final trip.  This one over to Bruges, Belgium, a charming old European town.  Bruges highlights coming soon!  

Thanks for following along on the adventures of our lives this past year.  We are excited for what's to come in 2015.  Happy New Year!!!