Christmas in England and Scotland!

Hi
We celebrated early in England with my family. First we went to the Christingle service at Mum's church. Mun, Dad and my sister sang in the choir and Allen read a lesson. It was lovely. Abi fell asleep and I sang all the carols I've missed over the past 3 and a half years! I'm not religious at all but I do like carols. Mum had done a great roast dinner after church and Jacob and Abi had great fun with their cousins Matthew and Amy. There's a photo of them all on a chair together.

Before we knew it we were on the train up to Scotland - after Jacob had an eye appointment (one lenses wrong apparently) and also fitting for more shoe inserts. Didn't get a chance to look in the shops but I did have a lovely meal with my Aunt -Annette. She's a brilliant cook, as are all my family, so I had a nice night with her, Hannah and Joe.

We arrived in Scotland and then went off for an evening with Santa in a local wood. Finn joined Jacob and Abi and I think they were as excited with Finn as they were with Santa! It was a lovely party with a plate of British party food, a walk in the twinkly lit woods, a bouncy castle, Santa and real reindeer followed by pass the parcel and musical bumps.

We then went to another Christingle service, a bit larger than the Holwell affair. I've included photos of a variety of Christmas shots. Abi dressed up in her tiara, make up and Christmas dress plus Jacob and Abi pretending to be deer plus a Christingle shot from the church.

I hope everyone has had a very Happy Christmas and everyone has a Merry New Year.

Rachael.

PS Allen has moaned that I haven't included him enough, he read very well in church and hasn't been that effected by jet lag unlike the rest of the family! Abi slept until 11am which is very unlike her!

Leaving Denver

Hi
Left Denver after a fun 18 months. I wasn't ready to leave at all. We had lots going on in our final week with our last night spent with Mindy, Shawna, Betsy, Tim, Will and Mallory at a local restaurant. I have included a photo of most of the table plus one of just the children. We had a great night. John and Sheri then came to the hotel for drinks after our meal out. We drank too much and I felt crap for travelling the next day.

Arrived safely in DC and met up with Ceri, Owen, Kathryn, Nicholas, Christopher and Claire at a local play place. It was lovely to see them all. We had a nice day with friends including our old neighbour Mary. Flight to the UK was fine. I had no sleep but everyone else had a few hours.

I have found it very strange being back. First I'm quite claustrophobic. It's very damp too so breathing is weird. It is lovely to see the family on both sides. I also had a good night out with old school friends Nicky, Julie and Sally. Everyone looked very slim and it was great to catch up on all the chat.

Next blog is all about Christmas.

Rachael.

A busy weekend

Hi

We had an extremely busy weekend just gone. First Jacob and Abi had rehearsals for the Nutcracker. The first one was Friday night 6 to 9pm. This was hard, Allen didn't make it as he was feeling ill and my 2 go to bed by 7pm each night. So by 7.30 we had all had enough! There were too many mice and not enough direction so at 8.30 we just left. The next rehearsal was Saturday 2 to 5pm. Abi had a sleep before we got there and it all went alot better. We sat and watched and the whole thing was pretty good. The mice behaved and did what they were meant to. The photo is of our 2 mice plus Nicole, who is in Jacob's 1st Grade class.

Our neighbours threw a farewell party for us Saturday night. Mindy had made it a black and white theme to stand for the penguins! Kelli had made a lovely penguin cake and Betsy had contributed to the food. Everyone had a great time. Lots to eat, good conversation and well behaved children. I've included a photo of Allen with Betsy and Tim and one of the cake plus all the children on our street.

Sunday, Tim and Betsy kindly invited us to a Broncos game. I'd only seen American Football on the TV and have never managed to watch more than 5 minutes before being completely bored. I wondered if I should take a book or something just in case....but I couldn't have been more wrong. It's much more entertaining when you're there. To start with there are cheerleaders that are always doing something - very entertaining! They also have quite a few fireworks and other bits and pieces going on, let alone people watching and the actual game - which was not bad.

I've included a photo of the big display board and one of the players running out of this big blow up head thing. One of the teenager neighbours looked after Jacob and Abi for the afternoon and we had a good time out. We picked up the children and headed straight out again for dinner. Someone, Ryan, that Allen used to work with here, had invited us around to say farewell. Him and his wife, Risa, are on the move too although they are headed for Boston. It was good to catch up and eat good food too!

So Jacob and Abi had 3 late nights in a row so will be having a week of early to beds! Allen's in Las Vegas for 36 hours. Enough to blow some money I'm sure! I'm meant to be cleaning but am finding lots of other things that are much more interesting to do.

Better go and wipe some wood work!

Rachael.

First Snowman

Hi

We finally had a decent amount of snow in Denver so we went sledging and built a snowman in the front garden - see all the photos.

The snow has now all gone but the mountains had 4 foot fall over the past 3 days so Allen took a day off today and we went skiing without Jacob and Abi. We had a lovely time, I do enjoy going with the children but when it's just us we can go alot faster. We are all going to go in the next couple of days as it will probably be the children's last ski before we leave.

Our neighbours are having a goodbye party on Saturday for us, not looking forward to all the goodbyes. The Nutcracker is only a week away. I will try and take some photos so you can see our 2 little ballerina's!

Only 2 weeks left, gulp!

Rachael.