holiday get together

Another Christmas is upon us and when we think about our state of mind last year (in completely culture shock, frantically trying to find a permenant place to live, set up a bank account, lonely,etc.) and how we are now (happy, settled, lots of friends, great neighbors, good jobs)...it's amazing.

Last night our dear friends Meg and Dan came over for dinner. I also had invited our neighbors over (and forgot that I did...so it was a bit of a surprise) and we had a small get together to celebrate the holidays.

Meg Dan and Jim enjoy some dinner:


And when the neighbors arrived we had some delicious chocolate torte made by Meg:


After everyone left, we attempted to take some family pictures in front of the tree. As usual, it didn't really work out:


Jim is doing some experimental photography with shutter speed and didn't want to ruin the ambience by using the flash. So that's why we're orange and Finchley is a blur.

Work Party

Last night was my work Christmas Party. Here are some pictures of my new work friends. Unfortunately Jim wasn't invited, but that's ok because I wasn't invited to his Olympics party either (specifically not invited), so now we're even. We met up later to go to a concert.

From left to right: Fatema, Claire, Ed, Sorrell and Belinda.


David was a dancing fool:


Richard and Ben got a little cozy.


Then I got in on the action:


It's great to work with nice, fun people and it was a fun party!

Finchley vs The Tree--By Finchley

Last weekend we bought a Christmas tree:


It is very small and very interesting:




Especially the ornaments...

A Full Day

After the excitement of our awesome new sweatshirts, we headed out into London to enjoy a performance, some ice skating and a tree trimming party. First stop was Pimlico Secondary School where we saw one of my students in a peformance. He sang, he danced and he rapped! It was really great and I'm glad we got to go.



After the performance, we headed to Somerset House for ice skating. Of course, as luck would have it, as soon as it turned 4:00 (our ice skating time), it started to pour, but fortunately the rain didn't last long and we were able to skate around for a good 40 minutes. The greatest accomplishment is that we both managed not to fall (which was an extra bonus because the ice rink was so wet from the rain that if we had fallen, we would have been not only bruised, but also soaked). We didn't get to take a picture of our actual ice skating because we were worried about bringing our big camera onto the ice with us (falling down + camera= not good), but we did take some pictures around the rink and also of our new friends.

Jim and the tree:



Jim and David, who arranged the ice skating and hosted the party after (they work together):


Things were really pretty once it got dark:


We all had hot chocolate or mulled wine at the rink after our skating. Then we headed to David's house:


There was a great tree decorating event, culminating with the placement of the biggest angel we have ever seen on top of the tree. We all agreed that after that our own tree trimmings were going to be disappointing.


A group picture (missing a few others who left early). It was an international crowd! Three Americans, some English, a couple of Irish, two New Zealanders, and one Greek. We had a lot of fun and are definitely feeling in the Christmas spirit!

School Pride!

Yesterday we went to the post office to find a package that we had forgotten we were waiting for from Kate and Andy! What a nice surprise for a Saturday morning! We came home and ripped open the box and what did we find? See below!





Now we can represent Tulane and Texas A&M all over London and there was even something for Finchley. He loves wrapping paper!

More pictures from Paris

Jim in front of our Paris Hotel:


Some gigantic bread at a street market:


Jim at one of the few remaining metro stations that has the original art deco metropolitan sign:


Jim with Notre Dame in the background:


I almost made it through the entire weekend without buying any clothes...but then I became weak. I managed to resist the patent leather, sea green ankle boots....sadly.


At the Louvre:


A very popular patisserie: