Christmas

Once we got back to Montgomery via Publix for some milk and bread it was home for a welcome cup of coffee and some toast before opening our Christmas presents under the tree.

Everyone was very pleased with everything and had soon disappeared off to build Lego/play with with dolls/doze. I chose the doze option and vegged out in front of the fire whilst Nick edited all the holiday photos.

Having made the decision not to cook a Christmas meal (very wise) it was baked potato's and cold sliced ham for dinner before packing Tom and Lily off to bed at 7pm, closely followed by me at 8pm. Nick managed another hour (I think) before getting to bed around nine o clock. I have to say I was amazed at Tom as he had hardly any sleep on the plane, dozed for a bit in the car and carried on happily until 7, I had to nap during the day as I could barely keep my eyes open, having said that I got no sleep on the plane and then drove most of the way home before calling time and getting Nick to finish the journey. I got woken up at 6.30 when Nick's alarm clock went off as he had to go into work for the morning. Tom finally woke up around 9am after a marathon sleep and now we are all just lounging around and tidying everything up (well, some of us are tidying, others - Lily - are not.)

Christmas in Hawaii

On 19th Dec we boarded a plane and almost 10 hours later emerged in Hawaii for Christmas. Our first couple of days were just spent relaxing on the beach and taking a short trip to Manoa Falls (where we stumbled upon a tv crew filming a documentary about Africa (!!) with Kris Marshall (old My Family, Love Actually). We attended a traditional Hawaii Luau in the evening

where we saw all styles of Polynesian dancing, coconut tree climbing and got to get temporary tattoos (well Tom, Lily and I did) whilst eating loads of food.
If anyone is wondering whatever happened to Glenn Medeiros (of one hit wonder 'Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You' back in 1987) he is performing at the Hale Koa hotel in Waikiki. The next day saw us off on a trip to see the Iolani Palace and Pearl Harbour then onto a Magic Show in the evening, this was a brilliant show with magician Mark Allen Mauricio and his family.

We were up early the next day for our tour of the Big Island where we visited volcano fields, waterfalls and orchid plantations. We toured the whole island and it was a VERY long day.

Rather disappointingly, or perhaps I was just very naive about the whole thing, this was all we got to see of the active volcanoes. Tom, Lily and I were expecting flowing lava! Perhaps we are just a bit stupid as Nick (the big smartypants) had never expected to see any.

This is the view from our balcony. We spent another couple of days relaxing around the hotel and beach and on Christmas day we went on a submarine for a trip below sea. This turned out to be hilarious as we sat on the left side of the sub (having been told it doesn't matter which side you sit on) and it turned out the right side of the sub got all the action with loads of oohing and aahing whilst our side looked out at not much. Luckily, we saw the bright side of it all and still managed to peer through everyone to see what was going on.

Our final trip out took us around the island of Oahu itself. We stopped off at some of the North Shore beaches and managed to see some surfers risking life and limb on the big waves.

And then the holiday was over and it was back to the airport for a slightl shorter overnight flight back to Atlanta and then home, bleary eyed but happy.

As usual, I will post a load more photos on Facebook.

Merry Christmas Y'all

We had a fairly quiet week last week, I was busy sorting out Christmas presents and cards and making sure I hadnt forgotten anyone. On Friday Emily stayed overnight with Lily and I was up early on Saturday for a 12km race out in Wetumpka with Krissy. It poured with rain the whole time I was out but I still enjoyed the run and hope to find another race soon. I managed to come 4th in my age group (there were 12 runners in my group and probably around a hundred or so runners in total) so I was pleased with that. After getting home and changing into dry clothes it was hot chocolates all round and then pancakes for lunch before dropping Emily off with her parents. Then a bit of a nap in front of the fire before going out to dinner at Kev & Betty's.

On Sunday we all went round to Tim & Deanna's for lunch and to catch up with them before Christmas.
Today we have the school parties to attend and then we are going round to Neil & Dorothy's for 5 o'clock drinks before coming home and packing for our holiday to Hawaii. All very excited.

December already?

On Tuesday we had Mike Weaver and Mary Hampton round to dinner, Mike arrived rather unexpectedly an hour and a half early!! For some reason he had 6pm in his head and not 7.30pm...Lily entertained Mike while I continued to prepare food in the kitchen and the evening was a great success and left us with a great story to tell people.
On Thursday Nick finally got the phone call he had been waiting on and found out that he is to return to RAF Leuchars as OC Ops. This is fantastic news as we can go back and live in our own house in St Andrews and Nick gets to fly in the Typhoon.
On Saturday we had a family trip to the theatre to see 'A Christmas Story' which is a well known american christmas story, not to be confused with A Christmas Carol/Scrooge. It was alright, I think Tom & Nick enjoyed it more than Lily & I did because it was about a boy who desperately wanted a "red ryder bb gun...." .
After the theatre it was home for dinner and then Nik came round to look after the children while Nick and I went to Shaun & Marie's for a birthday party and a little bit of Abba karaoke!!

We were up early on Sunday as Tom & Nick were off up to Atlanta for an NFL game and were to be picked up at 7.45am. So that left Lily and I to have a girly day together until Nik phoned up to say he had 2 tickets to the ballet and could he take Lily with him to see 'The Nutcracker'
Ready to be taken to the ballet with Nik.

Check out that hairdo - you can imagine how pleased Lily was with her new look, and she got to wear my pashmina too!

Atlanta Falcons v Philadelphia Eagles.

So, I got to have an afternoon without Lily which was perfect as Dorothy & Christine were coming round for a slice of cake and a cuppa, oh, yes, and a bit of dress up - we have ordered Abba-esque outifits and needed to try them on. More on that later.