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.