School Plays

The boys school here is technically a Church of England school. This means that they are still allowed to talk about God and Christ and all things religious. They don't teach doctrine, but we like that they are a school with faith based beliefs. They still have school plays here and obviously they still have a Christmas Play and can still call it a Christmas Play. The school has four grades. Nursery is our preschool. Reception is our Kindergarten. Year one and year two are equivalent to our first and second grades. Nursery and reception had its own play about the stable and Christ's birth. Year one and year two read The Night Before Christmas. Sergio was a sheep in the stable and Giovanni was one of the reindeer that pulled Santa's sleigh. The British are really creative and they can make almost anything from cardboard and glue. They just had the kids dress in all white, brown, grey or black. Then they wore masks that actually sat on their heads like hats so when they looked down, you could see the animal. It was too fun to watch the boys. Sergio was less than enthusiastic, but Giovanni loved it. Here are some pics. "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night......"

BOYS,BOYS,BOYS

While we were at the Christmas Market, the boys played with the walkie-talkies. Here are my two budding spies. (Or is it criminals?!)

Our lovely Lincoln

Our town is rich in history. Every year it has a Christmas Market. People come from all over Europe to buy anything from ornaments to cheese to junk to gloves. It is so big that they have to shut down that part of the city for three days. It starts at the cathedral and winds right through the castle grounds. My mom was lucky enough to be here for it. It was sooo cold that we had to buy Giovanni wool socks and carry him for a couple of hours. We got hot chocolate and sat and watched all the people. Here are some pics of the cathedral and the castle. The cathedral is the HUGE one and the pic of the castle is at night.

MORE PICTURES

PICTURES

Here are some pics of the boys. You can definitely see their personalities by how they play on the playground. Giovanni is definitely our climber and Sergio, well, he is just a tank. It is fun to watch them be so different.

One last "first post"

Here is my most favorite recent picture of the boys. (obviously since it is also at the top of my blog) Marc took them to see Thomas the Train and he actually remembered to take the camera and take pictures.

This was our family picture from last year at Christmas time. Marc had been home from Iraq less than three days. Next week, Marc and I have been married for eight years. I am so grateful to be married to him. No matter what, I know that he would do anything for our family. Even go to the ends of the earth. I cannot believe the things we have done, most on a whim, and I am more surprised by the things we have survived.
Merry Christmas to all.....

peace on earth

This is the cathedral in our city. You can see it from all over. The original foundation is ancient. Parts of the outer building dates back to 1072 AD. We feel so blessed to be here. Marc was just saying how we feel we are here to heal from the effects of deployment. He more than I. I received an email long ago about the wonderful people who gave their all to build these amazing buildings. The email told the story of a man who spent days carving a bird into one of the roof supports that would be covered. When asked why he would go to so much trouble for something that no one would see, he responded by simply saying, "God sees." The email was meant to inspire moms who are often forgotten and taken for granted. It explained,
* No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names.
* These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished.
* They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.
* The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

As I talk to Marc and his friends that served and fought for freedom, I think of this. Whether or not we agree with the politics in this world, we need to remember to pray for those still fighting for freedom. Especially at this time of year, we should not only be praying for peace on earth but peace for those who have sacrificed dearly for our freedom.

Ode to Texas

Marc doesn't agree or even understand, but I am homesick for Texas. Some of you may remember that I hated it too when we first got there. I even called it Hell Paso. But now that we are somewhere TOTALLY different, I actually miss it. The weather was great. Here it gets dark at four in the afternoon and even on sunny days, everything is wet from the rain. In El Paso we could go to the park all year round. I miss tons of stuff about America and El Paso. Mostly what I miss is friends and family. We have always had such good friends. Our best friends in El Paso are Matt and Christina Harrison and their sweet daughter Chloe. Christina and I kept each other going through 15 months of deployment. We would get together almost every week. One of our favorite things to do was to go to the El Paso Zoo. It was a pathetic zoo by most big city standards. It was perfect for three children under five. They could walk it without getting tired or cranky. We almost always stopped at the McD's around the corner with the playground to really wear them out. Then we would go home for about five minutes peace...

One of my other favorite things about El Paso was being able to drive to White Sands, New Mexico. If you ever have any reason to go... GO! It is one of the most fascinating things you will ever see. The sand, or rather gypsum, really is white and for as far as you can see. It was our last vacation before moving to England.
I am getting homesick just going through the pictures. How grateful I am to have learned to have loved such a wonderfully interesting place.

photos from England

Marc took the boys to see Thomas the Train. These are pics of them riding a train. The last picture is them on their first day of school. They look too cute in their school uniforms.

this is why......

Ok, so I am trying to do this and the stupid picture won't upload. I am pretty sure that this is not a good experience to set me on my way in the blogging world. I will try again.

FINALLY...

Ok, so after much begging from friends, and guilt from family, here is our blog. I cannot promise how often or how interesting my blogging will be, but here goes....