Partying Like Santa Claus

We have been really blessed to be invited to a few Christmas parties this holiday season. Although we could not attend them all, we were able to go to a couple.  This past Saturday, we headed over to some friends house where 12 of us celebrated Christmas by having a wonderful dinner and sharing a few presents.  The dinner was fantastic, and pretty much the same foods as we would have in the states.  Although the dessert was my talking piece, Christmas pudding, or as someone told me, figgy pudding.  I bet you can't get the Christmas song out of your head now.  "Now bring us some figgy pudding..."  It was fantastic! Also, they served some other great desserts, but the cheese tray for dessert was right up my alley.  Cheese plates are on dessert menus over here, and I absolutely love that idea as I like to end with something savory rather than sweet.  One other tradition that I know a few people in the States do as well is "Christmas Crackers" or what I would call "poppers".  Before we ate dinner, we grabbed our cracker, crossed our arms, and pulled it with the person next to us. Inside was a crown (as you see in the picture below) and a small gift (a sticker).  It was a great tradition that I would like to start at my Christmas dinners in the future.  So cute!

 The group

Enough about food.

After dinner, we swapped presents which is always a great time!  We all had a name, but instead of just handing that person our present they had to guess based on the present we gave them.  The other "catch" is that all my presents I gave to my Secret Santa had to start with the first letter of my name.  I first put a card in the holiday bag saying "May your Christmas be warm, fulfilling, and drunken.  This was my way to give him some clues on what was left in the bag.  So...I got him a scarf (an American flag one to make it that much better...muahahaha), Starbucks gift card, and a small bottle of Smirnoff (with the booze, candies, and little pint glass).  So needless to say after he opened the scarf...he knew it was me since Jeff opted out of the gift exchange (Scrooge).  The gift I received was from a friend, named Tom, so he knows me well as he got me a great loose leaf tea pot and some tea to enjoy.

My teapot and tea.

We each taught a game to the group as we sat around and enjoyed each others company.  Each couple brought a cocktail to serve the group.  Jeff and I made it simple and fun by bringing some Fireball, which you cannot find over here.  No other ingredients needed! Overall, it was a great night. It was a little sad thinking we would not be able to do this every year with our friends over here as next year we'll be back home in Indiana. Thanks Ben, for sharing your pictures with us all! 

 Large Jenga!

Mustache game, kind of like the post-it note game. You have to guess the person's name you have on your mustache.  Actually harder than you think, especially if you have no idea who the person is, like me! 

Just for the record, Jeff did participate in his work's Secret Santa, although I am pretty sure he did not have a choice.  We decided another round of American gifts, as we see this very fitting. Hey, I mean next year these gifts will have lost their novelty as I'm guessing our American friends would not find as much humor in this.  Let's be honest, Jeff gave me the go-ahead to pick out something American. I tried to buy The Patriot, but the guy at the movie store said it was "discontinued"...whatever that means.  So I bought three Blue Moon beers, as they are from America.  I also picked up a Hershey's bar, Butterfinger, and Baby Ruth candy bars to tie to each of the bottles.  Then I picked up a mustache pint glass to go along with it. I wanted to put a corny title like "You mustache more American beer and candies. Merry Christmas!" But Jeff wasn't as keen on this idea. Do you get it..."You MUST HAVE more American beer and candies. Merry Christmas!" Yes? No?


A few days later we went to Jeff's work Christmas party at a pub in Derby. It was nice because many of our same friends were there, so I knew people, which was nice. It was nice hanging out with the wives, and catching up, just us girls.  As the boys were off doing their own thing.  We ate, they gave out awards, and we had a few pints.  The awards were interesting from a non engineer's point of view.  A lot of acronyms were thrown around, so I had no idea what they were talking about.  As if it was a different language!  It was still fun, as everyone was laughing.  Jeff won the "Demonstrating a Lack of British Stamina and Shameless Promotion of American Exports (aka Taylor Swift's music).  Great night overall, and was glad we were able to go [Sorry, failed at taking any pictures].



Onto the next adventure...

Ostrich Burger [No Typo Here]

Jeff came home early on Friday for an appointment, so we decided to take advantage of his extra time.  We went down to the city centre to enjoy the Nottingham Christmas Market, or should I say the Nottingham Winter Wonderland.  Although it was not as large as the Birmingham Christmas Market, I personally thought it was cuter. I might be bias. I'm sure you have seen pictures in many posts of this same area, as many things happen here almost weekly. 

One of the entrances

  The side part of the Market. The first little building is where I got my yummy lunch!

Although it didn't take very long, we walked around the little buildings.  I, stopped in and looked around.  A lot of ornaments, scarves, hats, handmade desserts, Christmas jumpers (sweaters) and little trinkets.  Since we went down for lunch, I grabbed a pork & stuffing roll.  It was fantastic, and something we could mimic with Thanksgiving or even Christmas leftovers. Yum! Jeff was the brave one, and as you can expect from the blog title...he tried ostrich [insert gag sound].  This stand, which we saw at the Robin Hood Beer & Cider Festival, had kangaroo and in the past zebra and many other exotic animals. Watching Jeff order his burger, made me like my pork sandwich a little less just thinking he was going to dive into it in a second. No food was wasted, no worries. Jeff ate it and described the taste as a bland hamburger. I don't think he was too impressed.

 I tell you what... Leftover turkey & leftover stuffing all on a roll is the way to go. Let me know if you try it on the 26th!

Although he did not "heart" his ostrich burger...least he was brave enough to try it.  Also, sidenote: notice the little kids in the background in their bright yellow gear. All children on field trips have to wear this so their adult can easily find them. I know my teacher friends agree with me...great idea!

We grabbed some chips (fries) and watched the minimal amount of ice skaters on the rink in the middle of the market.  There were some adorable little kids learning how to ice skate with a parent, and other people just enjoying the beautiful day.

Ice skating rink and the beautiful Christmas tree

Onto the next adventure...

What Would Vinny Do?

If you're confused about the title of the post, bear with me...

Our friend, Scott, continued on with Jeff and I to the Netherlands to visit Amsterdam.  We got in a little later than expected on Friday, and decided to check out the Van Gogh Museum first, as it is open late on Fridays.  Although, I was not allowed to take any pictures...it was amazing inside.  Many of his most famous paintings that I studied in high school and college were located here, like his famous self portraits.  This leads us to "What Would Vinny Do?" as we stared at the paintings for so long...we thought Scott started to look like him! I wish I would have taken a close-up of Scott not smiling so you could compare it to this. It probably isn't as funny to you all, especially if you've never met Scott...but it had us laughing for quite some time.  So after this, when deciding what to do we used Scott...I mean Vincent Van Gogh as our inspiration and the next thing you know, collectively we would all say,  "What would Vinny do?" Is this funny to anyone but us? Too much of an inside joke to share? Oh well.

Near the Van Gogh Museum.

We woke up on Saturday to grab some yummy pastries, although Jeff accidentally got one with jelly in the middle, so he was pretty disappointed.  We walked through a little bit of the Red Light District, which was pretty interesting to say the least. Without going into too much detail for those that do not want to read about this type of area, it was pretty tame in the daytime and only saw specialty shops and "coffee" shops.  At night was a different story though...{Research at your own risk}

We enjoyed walking around the city, as it was a very liveable city.  Although the transportation hazards were a different story.  It was pretty comical walking around at first avoiding the trams, cars, and especially the bikes.  It seemed like the bikes ruled the streets in Amsterdam.  As I was complaining about them, in mid-sentence I almost got smashed by one of them. Insane.

 Just a few of the bikes of Amsterdam

The canals were awesome, and reminded us of Venice...although definitely not as warm! We got lost around the city, as all the buildings and canals look alike. I finally got my bearings, and became the Momma Duck navigating the two guys around the city.  We made it to the Anne Frank House, although the line was insane...so we thought we would try it later in the night (since it was open late on Saturdays).  So fail #1...

 Canals!

 Humoring me with a photo...can you tell it is chilly?

 I think this was one of the most European city "feels" that we've been besides Prague.

We grabbed some lunch at a fantastic burger shop and then grabbed a pint at a great little pub on the canal. It had great views, and you could tell the place would be really busy as it was basically in/on the canal.

 Somehow this is the only picture of the three of us.

The little pub had a little lean to it...kind of like the tea shop we visited in Windsor.

We rushed back towards the hotel to go to Vondel Park before the sun started to set, as it does around 4:00.  We were able to hang out there for a while before heading to another museum, the Rijksmuesum which was a modern art museum.  Fail #2 came when closed in 20 minutes. So needless to say, we didn't visit that museum.

Next on the list was the Museum of Bags and Purses.  And before you start thinking poorly of me for dragging two "grown" men through this museum, all I wanted was a picture outside of it.  If you know me, you know my LOVE for bags and purses. Ahhh.... Anyway, it was almost comical as they were shutting their door right when we were taking our pictures, so you could call this Fail #3.

Now, we decided to go back through the Red Light District at night, which was quite the sight. Enough said about that, as I'll keep it PG.  We went towards the Anne Frank House/Museum, as the last entry was at 8:30.  Well, we got there at 8:26, and they didn't let us in...Fail #4.  So we headed to a restaurant to have a nice meal and a few pints.   We wandered around the city a little more, trying to soak up as much Amsterdam as we could.  We ended our night shortly after, as Scott was flying out fairly early the next morning.

 We got a lot of views of the canals at night since it gets dark so early

One of my goals was to put my feet in these giant wooden shoes...I found one better, one big enough to put my whole body in!

Jeff and I had a few extra hours in Amsterdam before we flew back to Nottingham, so we woke up early to get in line for the Anne Frank House/Museum.  Note to those reading this in hopes to travel to Amsterdam...moral of the story, get tickets ahead of time to save yourself the hassle.  We only stood in line for ~20 minutes.  No pictures inside! It was amazing, and really moving.  The museum was done nicely as there were videos of those that knew Anne, like her father and a friend in the concentration camps.  We were able to walk through their hiding places, and see the rooms, just as they were left when the Nazis raided the house.  The stairs were extremely steep, and reminded me of The Fault in our Stars, if anyone has read/saw that will know what I'm talking about.  One thing about the experience in the house was that no one was talking.  Everyone was taking in the story, memorabilia, experience of being in such a powerful place in history.  When we visit churches, they are never that quite. Pretty intense.

 Anne Frank's House

Close Up!

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to checkout, then head to the Heineken Experience, which was awesome.  We visited the Guiness Storehouse back in February of this year, which was a completely different experience.  Not only did I prefer the taste of Heineken better, but the "experience" was much more entertaining.  We were able to learn about the history of the company, how it was made, and my favorite a virtual ride on the process of how their beer is made.  It moved us through as if we were the ingredients and we experienced: bubbles, water, heat, and of course "pop" in the bottling experience. Very cool. We had a tasting experience, and were given two "free" pints at the end of our tour. Jeff was wearing his St. Louis, Cardinals hat, and a man came up to him from St. Louis (Living in England for about a month), and ended up knowing one of his uncles (Mark, that's you!). Pretty small world!

 Photo props!

 Inside the factory...lovin' the Christmas decor!

 You can't see the horses, but there were a few in there!

 Taste testing! Once the foam at the top is gone...the beer is flat & done. Good fact to know!

I end, with a selfie

Jeff and I hustled to the train station so we could get to the airport in time.  We were cutting it close, but made it safely. Never thought I'd say this, but we were glad to be back in the UK weather.

Onto the next adventure...


 

A {Silly & Early} Happy Holidays from the Us in the UK

Update: Video is no longer available. Sorry! 

Debated on whether to hold off on this until Christmas to wish all of my Us in the UK followers a Happy Holiday, but I thought I would send it out earlier so you could all enjoy it before the video goes away (After New Years, just an FYI). Maybe you'll be lucky enough to get something similar on December 25th! And just a friendly reminder, videos do not tend to work on mobile/tablet devices...so to see this video you'll need to login to a real computer. :)

So Happy Holidays from Us in the UK.

***Make your own Elf at elfyourself.com





Onto the next adventure...

Adding Another American to the East Midlands

It was crazy to start this post as this past week was the week in 2013 we came over here to look at houses. Now we are quickly entering our year mark...so crazy how time flies!? (Posts: First trip to Derby and First trip to Nottingham).  The Nottingham post was crazy to look at, as a tourist I took a picture of the church we now look out our windows everyday to see! And now the Christmas Market is up, and the other sites I walk by daily. Who knew that something so foreign at one time, could feel so much like home now?

Onto Scott's Visit:

Our friend, Scott, visited us this week in Nottingham after our adventure in London.  Scott was stuck with hanging out with me during the day, exploring Nottingham and surrounding areas.  We spent Monday exploring Nottingham.  I took him around the city, stopped at Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem (the oldest inn in England), which is a must for all of our visitors.  We went to the Capital One Arena, where the Nottingham Panthers play ice hockey (Jeff and I's visit here).  We stopped in a local place, called the Pudding Pantry, where I have been meaning to go recently for a cup of tea and coffee.

Great day for some of my favorite British foods and brews

Tuesday, we headed to Derby to see the town and visit Jeff at work.  Afterwards the boys played squash, while I ran a few miles. We all headed out to dinner later that night at Nando's, which is a place all around England, but they have the best chicken! Wednesday was a busy day for Scott and I as we headed to the Nottingham Castle and then to a few breweries around town.  Part of the castle was closed, but we were able to see a few of the great spots, like some war memorabilia and old items that belonged in the castle or during that time period.  It was a little foggy that day, so we didn't have the best views of Nottingham, but we made do! The breweries were great, although we didn't take a tour or anything.  Both places we went screamed "English pub", so at least he was able to get a good feel of the local culture and meet some new people. We headed out for a nice dinner at one of our favorite Indian restaurants, Memsab, which is about a 5 minute walk from our house.  Everyone enjoyed their meals!

 The one good thing about visiting the castle in the winter is that you can ACTUALLY see the castle! Hooray for no leaves!

 The first stop on our mini-pub tour!

Look who finally stopped working to join us for some fun?!

Thursday, we went out to the Galleries of Justice Museum, which I love going to.  It is where the old prisoners were held after convicted.  This building is where all of the hangings took place in the city.  You are given a convict number...which I got the same one...theft of a cow.  Scott and I both enjoyed the people in our group, as they were quite funny.  I think Scott really enjoyed it, as it was very informative and interesting.  Chances are, if you come visit me, I'll take you here as well! ha!

Thanks to Scott for being a trooper and playing along with my photo games!

And since Thursday, was Thanksgiving, we (well, I) made a big meal for the three of us to enjoy.  It was a challenge finding some of the "normal" American ingredients to make all of our favorite holiday foods...but everything seemed to turn out alright. Phew!

We ended up having:

• Chicken & Stuffing dish
• Green bean casserole
• Corn
• Rolls
• Salad
• Mashed Potatoes
• Gravy
• Mulled wine (warm wine with spices)

I know what you're all thinking if you're from the States...where is the PUMPKIN PIE? And if you know Jeff at all, he has to have pumpkin pie during Thanksgiving. Grandma, I know you're reading this thinking..."Jeff normally has his own pie every year, and now he didn't get any?"   Unfortunately, that's the case. I found pumpkin in a can, but couldn't find the necessary spices to actually make the pie. I ended up making pumpkin brownies and cheesecake, which were both good.  We had a great time sitting around the table celebrating the holiday...despite our lack of Thanksgiving desserts. I guess next year we'll just eat twice as many pieces of pie! #watchout2015Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Dinner! Lots to be Thankful for after the amazing year we have had!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Day (Well, my American friends/family)!  We thought about you during this first round of holiday festivities, and we will continue thinking about you throughout the month. 

Onto the next adventure...

This & That in London

Jeff and I headed down to London on Saturday, hoping to pick up our friend, Scott, from the airport and then travel around seeing the "go to" sites and some new spots as well. Scott had some trouble at the airport, and was unable to get here on Saturday.  Jeff and I decided we would still check some places off our list in London and stay all night as planned.

After a 2-hour car ride, and multiple rides on the Underground we dropped off our bags at the hotel and headed on more train rides to get to Greenwich, a district outside of London. We were heading there to visit the Royal Observatory. The prime meridian is located on the grounds of the Royal Observatory.  We were both able to stand in two different hemispheres at one time.

 The picture on the left is where the original prime meridian stood until 1851 when a new telescope was invented, so the "line" was moved.

 Showing the time of day. You can see the UK's sun had already set, but my friends in the US were still having plenty of daylight!

 Two different sides of the world!

 

Official time!

 

Although the prime meridian was interesting to see, the skyline of London was beautiful.  A little dark and foggy, so pictures, as always, never do it justice. But it was beautiful to see! We walked around the grounds, which had many interesting things to read, see, and observe.  I'm sure Jeff would be able to explain some things he learned in there better than I, as it wasn't quite my cup of tea. But all-in-all, it was great to learn things about the prime meridian.  We learned about ways to tell where you are in the sea (if you're ever lost) based on the time in Greenwich, then you can find out your own longitude and latitude.  Hoping to never have to test that theory.  

Skyline of the Business District

After the Royal Observatory, we checked off one of my "To see" places, which was Greenwich Market.  We looked around at the homemade products, but didn't buy anything (as after this post, I've been to quite a lot of markets in the last week).  Although, I take that back---we bought an AMAZING churro on our walk out of the market.  One of my favorites!

 

The girl photo bombing my picture must want a churro, too!

We headed towards the Thames River, saw an old ship that had traveled around the world delivering supplies many years ago.  We walked around the area for a while, then hopped back on the train to get to another area of London.

Next up on the list was the Business District, which held all the major banking skyscrapers.  We enjoyed the area as it was filled with modern buildings, lots of shopping areas, and plenty of people out and about.  We walked around this area, found another Christmas Market to walk around, then made our way to an ice skating rink.  The area reminded me a lot of Rockefeller Center
around the holidays.

 Business District

Another cute Christmas Market

The next morning, we woke up to a rainy, windy, and cold England day.  We went to the British Museum,  which we have visited before.  We popped in just to see the Rosetta Stone, which we missed the first time. Literally the first thing you see when you walk into the museum. Not sure how we missed it the first time!

Since we already had visited the museum, we left and headed towards Harrod's, the biggest department store in Europe...5-acre site, over 1 million square feet. Jealous? It was amazing, although crazy busy, as people were frantically buying Christmas gifts.  You could spend multiple days here, although the average person would not be able to afford much. Funny story about that later... There 8 levels to the store, 27 restaurants, and about as much designer clothing as you could ever want.  Gucci for your toddlers to personal shopping to a Gentleman's Lounge with barber services.  Insane!

 Opening time! The line was wrapped around the building to get in.

 Because the sun sets before 4:00 over here...we were able to see Harrod's lit up as well.

Jeff surprisingly lasted a couple hours in this place, despite his lack of love for shopping. We grabbed lunch, and on the way we spotted this gentleman in all white (did I mention it was raining and puddles everywhere). Naturally, I looked at his whole outfit to see he had a pair of the shoes Jeff and I pointed out in Harrods that were...wait for it...over 1,300 pounds ($2,200).  He was just walking around in the puddles with his white two grand shoes. No big deal, right?

We grabbed one of my favorite lunches, a chicken pie (Jeff got the steak one), and walked around Hyde Park's Christmas Market. Yes, that makes #4 for me in a week.  Anyway, after much confusion on where we were meeting our friend, Scott. We FINALLY met up with each other in the late afternoon.  We took him around to the major sites in a few hours, stopped in a pub for some drinks, and then were back in Notts around 9:30. It was a long, but great weekend!

 The boys!

Onto the next adventure...

New City, New Christmas Market...

On Thursday, I went with my fellow Better Halves Club (BHC) to the Birmingham Christmas Market, or as it is truly called, Frankfurt Christmas Market and Craft Market.  It was a "win-win" as I could visit another Christmas market without dragging Jeff around like a puppy dog.  I think Jeff appreciated I went with other people as well!


I rode in with Jeff to work, went to a cafe to have a cup of coffee, muffin, and catch up on some articles for my online coursework. It was a lot cheaper to ride from Derby than Nottingham.  I waited to meet up with some friends to head on the train to go to Birmingham, which is less than an hour away.  We enjoyed some quality time on the train, catching up, and swapping stories.

This area in Birmingham is known as the Bullring

The Christmas Market filled multiple streets in Birmingham! It reminded me a lot of Oktoberfest because there were many German individuals running the stands, all the structures looked similar, and of course all of the yummy German food! We made our way around the entire market, taking one side at a time.  Most of the structures had Christmas decor, hand-carved items, ornaments, beer/wine, and other souvenirs.

 Lots of homemade, hand-carved toys. You can see the stand to the right

I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, although I found a couple cute wallets. But then, after opening them up, I realized they were not going to be able to fit American money into this wallet. So unfortunately, no purchase there. Sidenote: If you are intrigued about the money differences, I found a blog post written by an American about the money difference & his experience in the UK as well. 

So no wallet, but then I started realizing how many wonderful cakes, candies, nuts, etc. that were available.  I stopped at a homemade candy shop, and got Jeff about 6-7 pieces to enjoy later that night.  Anywhere from a vanilla donut inspired chocolate to amaretto or even chili flavored. I think we picked some good ones. Only one left...

We then enjoyed a wonderful lunch sitting outside (non-rainy, might I add).  We all got sausages, and a few of us got some mulled wine.  It was first of all...amazing! Second, I loved it so much that I think I am going to start serving it for Thanksgiving/Christmas celebrations next year. Such a warm and holiday-type drink! Look for that, Christmas 2015! Plus, we got to keep the little souvenir cups! #score

The area at the top is where all the food vendors were located.

We continued around the market-filled streets. I was disappointed about the lack of samples at this market. I'm sure it has to do with the amount of people walking the streets.  I was able to sample a few different warm almond flavors. I was deciding between the Amaretto or Bailey's flavored. I went away with with Amaretto one, as it wasn't as sweet as the Bailey's. I was hoping to enjoy it on the train ride home, although the train was so packed I kept it in my purse.

Birmingham has a great shopping centre.  Many different stores, and I especially enjoyed Selfridges, a high-end department store.  They had all designer brands, but I really enjoyed the lowest level which was Christmas decor, LOTS of different foods, gifts, and American food products.  Although the American products were EXPENSIVE! I mean, would you pay six pounds (roughly $9.60) for a small container of Hershey's cocoa? I was laughing as there was a whole section dedicated to Hershey's kisses and Reese cups. Yum! I resisted.

 Reeses. Reeses. Kisses. Kisses.

Another bull, only this one is made out of JellyBellies!

Jeff met up with me, we played some squash, and enjoyed a few of the treats I purchased earlier in the day on our way home.  All-in-all, a great experience at the Birmingham Christmas Market.

*This post has been done for a while, but I was waiting on a few pictures a friend took during the day. Hoping to update the post soon with some of those pictures, as I know she has some great ones.  Check back in a week or two if you'd like to see some more pictures of our Birmingham trip.

Onto the next adventure...