Haul out the holly...

Since everyone was in bed at 8 p.m. last night, I was up at 5 a.m. on Saturday (the weekend after Thanksgiving). Nothing to do except...decorate for Christmas?

I basically had our house decked out before anyone else woke up.

When Scott finally walks into the living room: "Um...how long was I asleep?"

Awww...how sweet. Two brothers playing a nice game of Connect 4. They must be really bored.

This is what you get when you ask teenage boys to "put these bins in the spare bedroom." 🙄

London, Baby! November 23-24 | Thanksgiving!

Post 4 of 4 about our London trip

Thursday, November 23 - Thanksgiving Day

We ate lunch before Pam, Ted, Lisa and Jason left. There was no place open for lunch before 11 a.m., so we ate at the little coffee shop next door to the hotel.

I was finally able to change the “old” pounds to new pounds. Papa had given us some extra pounds from their visit in 2015, but that version of coin is no longer in service.

We rode the tube to Hyde Park and walked to Kensington Palace.

We walked through the sunken garden (a week later Prince Harry and Megan Markle will announced their engagement here).

We toured the King and Queen’s quarters and viewed the special exhibition, "Diana: Her Fashion Story." The exhibit was a collection of dresses and clothes that Princess Diana wore. It told why she wore it and where...*I* thought it was interesting...the males were bored.

We walked down Kensington street where we saw lots of American stores. England does not celebrate Thanksgiving so it was business as usual in London. Since it was Thanksgiving Day...we dined in style...ordering from the kiosk at McDonald’s.

Our Thanksgiving meal!

Tasted exactly like American McDonalds!

Near our hotel there was a cool "art gallery" or underground tunnel full of graffiti.

Friday, November 24

Bye bye London! We headed to Heathrow in the morning for a 12:15 p.m. flight. We took the tube to Paddington station, then got on a train. Checking our bags and going through security was pretty fast...the airport was not busy at all, contrary to what U.S. airports might be like today.

Scott got stopped at security for his bottle of booze. They had to check it before they would let him through.

We arrive in Chicago and have 1.5 hours to get our bags, go through immigration and customs and get to the next terminal for our flight. The line at immigration was super long, and for a while, we didn't know if we were going to make our next flight. We did see a cute drug smelling dog at the airport, so there's that.

We arrived back in Wichita at 6:45 p.m. - but to us it felt like 2:45 a.m.

Another crisis! I leave my backpack in the taxi-it has my laptop in it! Scott rushed back to the airport while I call the taxi service. I couldn't remember which service we used, but luckily there's only three in Wichita. The first one I called was able to help me...crisis averted and I got my laptop back!

Everyone is in bed by 8 p.m.

London, baby! November 21-22

Post 3 of 4 about our London trip.

Tuesday, November 21

Tour of Wembely Stadium.

At a "press conference."

Messi's jersey...we also saw David Beckham's too.

The white things on the field are used to simulate sunlight, to help the grass grow!

In the stadium.

This arc lights up a night and will display the winning team's colors. It's also shoots fireworks.

We also visited Selfridge’s department store. Near the store. The part of town had a lot of Christmas decorations hung above the streets.

Then we rode the London Eye. It moves one mile per hour...total rotation was about 30 minutes. It was originally built to celebrate the Millennium and caused a controversy in London. Some thought it looked too "new age" and didn't go with all the old buildings and such. So the plan was to run it for five years. Well, it became a tourist attraction and brought in lots of money...so...it still stands 15 years later!

View from the top!

Each capsule can hold about 30 people. There were only about 10 in ours.

Bird's eye view of Parliament and Big Ben.

Nighttime (or 4:30 p.m. 😂).

Wednesday, November 22

A visit to London isn't complete without a little Harry Potter. We rode the tube to the King’s Cross train station to visit Platform 9¾.

We waited in line to get our picture taken, then spent about an hour in the Harry Potter store...well, not all of us went in the store! We ended up buying three Deathly Hallows symbol keychains, a Platform 9 ¾ notepad, sign that says “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” (the phrase to activate the Marauduer's Map).

Kings Cross train station.

We tried to go to Postal Museum but the fire alarm went off while we were there. We also found out that tickets had to be bought in advance.

We walked to a neighborhood pub for lunch.

The doorknobs are in the middle of the door.

Then on to St. Paul’s Cathedral...a huge church! It was ornate (more so than Westminister Abbey). St. Paul's was where Princess Diana and Charles got married.

We climbed 257 steps to the Whispering Gallery and saw where a bomb had hit the cathedral in 1940. We walked back over to Thames on the “wibbly-wobbly bridge” – Millennium Bridge. This bridge swayed so much when built, they had to close it for two years to make it more sturdy. It was destroyed in the Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 1 movie.

Then walked to an outdoor market for dinner.

Brough's Market.

London, Baby! November 19-20

Post 2 of 4 about our London trip.

Sunday, November 19

This was the only sunny day we had.

Remember the crisis with Adam's phone? Bought rice at the little market by our hotel. It worked!

We took a boat ride on the Thames where we heard interesting facts about the buildings and structures along the Thames.

Me and Zach on the boat.

Saw the London Bridge, which is nothing neat...if you look close the bridge says "London Bridge."

We toured the Tower of London. We saw the Crown Jewels, torture tower, and bloody tower. The White Castle was used as a prison.

View of the Tower of London from the boat.

Tower bridge.

All of us in front of the Tower bridge.

Tower of London.

Inside the Tower of London.

Narrow hallways.

Another view of the Tower bridge.

Cool stained glass window in the White Castle.

The White Castle.

For dinner, we cooked pasta in the room, enjoyed our nightcaps and planned the next day.


Monday, November 20

We rode a double-decker bus to Buckingham Palace to see changing of the guards.

On the top of the double-decker. Wasn't too cold...

Buckingham Palace.

There were tons of people there. The ceremony was cancelled but we don’t know why.

We walked through St. James Park - lots of people, birds and pigeons.

You can see the London Eye in the distance.

We had to pay 30 pence to use the bathroom.

We walked to Westminster Abbey and took the tour inside. I didn't realize how many famous people were buried inside the cathedral. We looked around the gift shop. Zach was in search of British themed keychain for his backpack and I looked for a Christmas tree ornament.

These remainder came in handy...it's easy to forget which way to look!

We walked to 10 Downing Street, hoping to catch a glimpse of famous London politicans. Several important cars went in and out, but no one we knew. A newscrew was there too.

Pam and Ted went back to the hotel. The rest of us walked to small pub down a back alley for refreshments.

See that sign in the building on the left? That's where we were.

After, we walked across the Thames and through a Holiday Festival. Here's the London Eye at night.

We ended up at Cubana for dinner.

Scott is cured of wanting to live in a tiny home after three days in the small hotel room. We did have a kitchenette, which was nice. We ate breakfast in the hotel and was able to have snacks and sandwiches.

We like to talk in British accents but for some reason I bet people would know we are really from the United States.