Christmas Festivities 09'

This Christmas was truly the best! We spent a week in freezing Utah with my family. We stayed with my sister Haley and her husband Lance in their cute new house! On Christmas Eve we all slept over at my brother's house. That night we helped wrap last minute gifts, and the boys put together a fun dinosaur toy for my nephew Carter. It was really fun to be on the other side this time. In the morning the kids didn't wake up until 8! I was grateful for the extra sleep! We watched them see their toys all lined out from Santa and waited for my parents and my Grandma to come over. They opened up the rest of their presents and then we headed over to my parent's house to eat a delicious traditional Christmas breakfast. My sister Gretchen and her daughter came over and we opened up our gifts from my parents! My other nieces and nephews came over and my sister Clarissa. It was a crazy, fun, busy day! John and I left early in the morning the next day to drive back to CA. That night we opened up presents from John's parents! We were very spoiled this year from everyone and we are so blessed to have such wonderful family in our lives. We are taking it easy this week, then on Monday we move into our new apt. in Calabasas. Happy New Year everyone! (Click on the pics to make them larger...)

Just a little update...

I just wanted to say how nice it is to be back home in America! I truly had missed it even more than I had thought! We got back the night of the 17th, then went to John's parent's house and went to bed. The next morning we woke up and repacked a new bag to take to Utah. We left with John's mom to Vegas to attend his cousin's new baby's funeral. It was a very special, emotional funeral and it was nice to visit and be with John's family for a couple of days. John and I headed out on Saturday afternoon to drive to Utah to be with my family for a week. We have had a great time here seeing all of my family. I love them so much. I am looking forward to Chrismas. I hope you all have a great Christmas. Remember to always be thankful for the little things you enjoy daily.

Final Thoughts on London...

The time has come to part with this lovely place! John had his last final today and he is halfway done with law school!!! Yeah for John! We fly back to CA tomorrow. As I sit back and think about all of our adventures here, I am very thankful. I realize that we were so very lucky to be able to come here. I've had an amazing time and I wouldn't trade it for anything! Today it finally snowed here! I have compiled a list of my TOP 10's. Top 10 things I will miss about London, and Top 10 things I will not miss and am looking forward to that America has. Thank you for reading our blog and keeping up with us while we've been out here. I am looking forward to spending Christmas this year with my family in Utah and moving forward with our lives! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

TOP 10 THINGS I WILL MISS ABOUT LONDON:

1. I will miss how pretty everything is here. It just looks different than the States. It is so much older and that's why it looks so much cooler. I love all the cobble stone roads and alleyways. The buildings are just neat. There is so much history here.
2. I will miss being able to just walk or hop on the Underground to wherever I need to. There is a grocery store and a pharmacy within 3-5 minute walk of our flat.
3. I will miss all of the cute accents everyone has. Well, most people. There are actually more people than you would think that don't have a British accent. I also love certain terms or words that they say here. i.e. CHEERS! It means something different here. People say it all the time after you're done talking with them. I love it!
4. I will miss their red mail boxes, red telephone booths and big red buses. They must love the color red.
5. I will miss being able to spend so much time with John.
6. I will miss being able to travel around the world.
7. I will miss not having to work! Haha... Although I did feel guilty about that a lot.
8. I will miss all of the cool things we did and saw, stores, shops, and ESPECIALLY HARRODS!
9. I will miss being able to blog about our travels!
10. I will miss how I felt being here.

TOP 10 THINGS I WILL NOT MISS ABOUT LONDON:

1. I will not miss not having an outlet or a fan in our bathroom.
2. I will not miss not having a garbage disposal in our kitchen or having to light our stove with a match every time we needed to use it.
3. I will not miss not having a TV and DVR! Although we did get to download online most of the shows we watch. That was really handy.
4. I will not miss having roommates! John probably will though... No offense roomies... But I am married! It's kind of strange having roommates after you've been married for two years! We did have some fun times with them though... I also miss our bed, and our furniture and our dishes, and our iMac. Heehee...
5. I will not miss not having RANCH and other delicious foods and treats only found in America!
6. I will not miss the cold!
7. I will not miss having mice in our flat and in our bedroom keeping us awake at night!
8. I will not miss being poor! This trip has put us more in debt than ever! But so worth it!
9. I will not miss how expensive everything here is!
10. I will not miss not having family and Carlyle here with us! I miss you people! See you all soon!

Christmas Card

Remember This Post? Well today we got another Holiday card from "Carlyle." It was so cute I had to share it. Thanks Geoff! I love how he always finds orange tabby cat cards... It sure does look a lot like our cat. It brightened our day! See you soon!

Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park

Last night John and I walked to Hyde Park. We wanted to celebrate his second to last final being done, so we went on a date! They have this carnival going on called "Winter Wonderland." It was really fun! We walked all through the park and got hot chocolate, crepes, candy and a Bratwurst hotdog on a baguette. We didn't go on any of the rides, but instead took pictures of them. It was pretty cold, so we weren't there super long. It was neat being around all the music, lights, and decorations that were in the park. P.S. Click on these pics to make them larger...

Christmas at Harrods

Every year Harrods has a theme for Christmas. This year it is The Wizard of Oz! Let me tell you, Harrods doesn't mess around. All of their store windows are decked out to the max! I decided to go take some festive photos last night. Harrods has even gone as far as making all their usual exterior building lights green for Emerald City. They have a Christmas World shop on the second level with everything you can think of for Christmas. John and I got our annual Christmas ornament from there and we are looking forward to using it next Christmas. I also took some pics around our neighborhood of other Christmasy windows. There is hotel a few doors down from ours and they put up a Christmas tree in their window a week or so ago. We pretend it's ours. Heehee... I just love this time of the year! I'm so glad I got to experience Christmas time in London. Happy Holidays!

I love this Christmas tree made out of jeans!

I just had to take a pic of their mail box. They are so much cooler than ours.

The start of the Harrod's store window displays.

This big book had a video of The Wizard of Oz playing on it.

They unveiled these HUGE red shoes a couple weeks ago. They are rad!

This is not Harrods...

This is the Knightsbridge Underground we always use.

This is a Harrod's window...

Mulberry store window.

Notice the McDonald's sign in the window. HaHa...

This is the Knightsbridge Hotel and "our" tree.

Our next door neighbor's tree.