An Early Delivery

Father Christmas must start making his rounds a little earlier than Old St. Nick because two days ago the most hoped for item on my Christmas wish list was delivered to my doorstep.  

A reclining glider chair & footstool to rock my little one in come March...hooray!  It is by far the most comfy piece of furniture we have now.  I have hardly moved from it since Tuesday (of course, having the worst cold of the century has greatly contributed to such a state of stagnancy...ugh).  I love it!!    

And the nomination goes to...

Yesterday my husband made me a lunch for school, drove me to work (in, yes, another rental car) so I didn't have to take the bus, went grocery shopping and remembered to buy all my favorite foods, re-made our bed so my side would have extra cushioning, did the dishes, did the laundry, made me dinner when I got home from work, and offered to massage my feet before I went to bed.  Is there an award for Best Husband EVER!? 'Cause I nominate Justin, hands down.    

Beatlemania

Our last adventure with Cody was a trip to Liverpool.  Liverpool is, of course, home of The Beatles.  It also happens to be recently voted "European Capital of Culture."  There seems to be a ton of stuff to do there, but we just barely scratched the surface.  We went to a Beatles museum where we learned everything there is to know (okay, maybe not everything, but we learned a lot) about the Beatles' story.  They had even recreated places like The Cavern, the little joint where the Beatles first started playing regular gigs, and the Abbey Road recording studio.  It was awesome.

Entering the Yellow Submarine phase of the Beatles' story.  (Pay no attention to the No Photography sign on the right.)

This was an interactive part of the museum.  Cody is playing a Beatles song Tom Hanks-BIG style.

We ate dinner in Liverpool where Cody ordered an American-style Cheeseburger for his last meal in England.  When we got home, he packed up his stuff and left early the next morning.  We really enjoyed having him out here with us for the past couple months.  He's such an awesome guy--the best youngest brother a girl could have.  Love you, Code!

Blessed Day

Last week we received a care package from Mom and Dad Malden.  A couple weeks earlier I had mentioned a craving for Peanut Butter M&M's, of which there are none in the UK.  This is what we received:

We have Peanut Butter M&M's coming out our ears!  We took a couple bags to our Thanksgiving celebration with some American friends and they were a hit.  We're now down to 1 1/4 bags, but that amount is currently dwindling since I'm snacking away on some right now. I'm pretty sure Baby is going to come out quite addicted to these little scrumptulescent candies.  We send a big shout out to Monty and Denise, Hollah!  (P.S. We had also mentioned that we paid almost $6.00 for a bag of fairly stale marshmallows, so we were excited to see a bag of those in the box of goodies as well.)

Tourists

Cody's last week here kicked us into tourist mode.  We visited a couple "touristy" places including Christ's Church Cathedral and Carfax Tower.  Carfax is in the center of the city and from the top of it you can see great views of Oxford.  Christ's Church is very old and very beautiful, but it also happens to be where some classic scenes from Harry Potter were filmed.  I'm not a fanatic Harry Potter fan (I haven't even read the books, but keep that on the down low or else I'll lose all credibility as a primary (a.k.a. elementary) school teacher), but I still like to establish the "Ooh, I've been there!" claim to fame.   

 

Climbing the very narrow staircase to get to the top

Harry Potter fans, do you recognize this room?

This is the staircase where Harry and friends first meet Prof. McGonagall