Matt came to help get our Christmas decorations down from the attic and put up the Christmas tree. He helped keep up the tradition of Evie getting to put the star on top of the tree by hoisting her in the air to reach the top.
Evie came down with a cold or some kind of illness around her half birthday. We usually have a little celebration, but she wasn't up to it so we just had cupcakes at home. She did her make up, though.
She was feeling a little better the next day so Cristaldawn and her family came over for a late "Friendsgiving" meal. Lydia spent the night and I took the girls for donuts the next morning before church.
Evie had a band concert at school in mid-December. She has been playing the clarinet and I was surprised at how well these kids did, some of whom (Evie included) hadn't played an instrument before August. This clip is the song they did best, I think.
On the next night, Evie came with me to my business's Christmas party which we held at a paint-a-piece place. She enjoyed meeting our staff and she even led one of the games of "Name That Tune".
We had already planned to spend Christmas in Europe with my brother's family, so we had our Christmas morning on Dec 15. We enjoyed opening stockings and a few presents.
This sparkly jacket was one of her presents from me
We left Memphis on Dec 18th, supposed to be going from Memphis to Atlanta to Hamburg, but for some reason we were delayed, so we ended up going to Minneapolis to Paris to Hamburg. We had an uneventful set of flights once we actually got in the air. I got some sleep; Evie doesn't really sleep well on planes.
We got a Bolt from the airport to the hotel where Granna, Grannadaddy, Ryan, Addie, and Will were staying and went out for lunch.
Cousins in the hotel lobby
We then moved from the hotel to the AirB&B (well, Grannadaddy was sick so he and Granna stayed at the hotel another night). When they met up with us the next day, the UK kids enjoyed the American treats Granna brought them (Goldfish, candies, etc).
We met up with Olivia, Kathy, and Rickie and fulfilled one of my bucket list items: German Christmas markets. Evie's boot made her not enjoy the walking around the market so much, so after we checked out some stalls, she, Addie, and Will went to get lunch together while the grown ups kept looking at shops.
The next day we took a boat tour and then walked to the very somber ruins of St. Nikolai which had been almost completely destroyed during WWII. It was interesting to hear Evie trying to process the destruction of the war, and wrestle with the question of whether the bombing was justified.
That evening, the kids wanted to stay at the AirB&B, but Ryan, Granna, Tia, and I went back out to do more Christmas market-ing. We tried roasted chestnuts and other goodies and enjoyed the holiday spirit.
On the 22nd, we went to church at St. Michaels, left the kids at the AirB&B since Addie was feeling sick and Evie's foot was still hurting her, and headed to do some more sightseeing (the Beatles plaza, a few more Christmas markets). And the next day, we headed to the UK where we would be spending Christmas in Wells at Ryan and Aimee's home.
On Christmas Eve, we went to the service at Wells Cathedral, which was beautiful and familiar. Then we went home for a meal before some of us went back for another service.
On Christmas Day, we had two amazing meals, a little walk to the cathedral green for a family photo, present opening, games, and all things beautiful English Christmas, which fulfilled another bucket list item for me.
Kathy, Rickie, and Olivia left for the states on Dec 26, while the rest of us stuck around with Ryan's family another day. We went to Cheddar Gorge one day, which was a lovely drive in the mist and had dinner at one of the local pubs.
On the 28th, Ryan, Granna, Grannadaddy, Evie, and I headed to London to do a little sightseeing before our flights were to fly out on Dec 29th. We parked the car on a street that Ryan had parked on many times before, hopped a train, and headed to Princess Diana's playground at Evie's request. She remembered playing there when we came through London last year.
Then I headed off to meet some UK coworkers and Evie, Granna, Grannadaddy and Ryan did some more London sightseeing (I don't remember what). We met back up and headed back to the car where we discovered someone had smashed Ryan's car window in and made off with our carryon bags. Of course, like an idiot, I had left our passports in the bags. So not only were the laptops and other electronics stolen, so were mine and Evie's way home. Evie smartly remembered that Ryan had an airtag in his bag, so after we called the police and determined that they were not coming to investigate the scene of the crime, we drove to the location of the airtag. Ryan and I got out to check that no one unsavory was around and we were able to locate his backpack. We decided to go to the hotel (Ryan stayed behind to meet with the police who were on their way since we actually found some of our stuff, and to see if they could help him search in the nest behind the bushes were his bag was found as it was clearly a dumping ground for these thieves). Ryan, amazingly, had his passport recovered by the cops (they had bigger flashlights and better ability to climb fences and through brambles), but no luck for me and Evie.
The next day, I went to the airport to reschedule our flight home, made the contacts to the embassy, and was told I had to come back the following day (New Year's Eve). We spent the day looking in bushes and along the road for our belongings and, amazingly, we recovered Evie's and Granna's bag. The thing I wanted most for her to have was her stuffed hamster, "Cream", that I had bought her last year in Amsterdam. It was the thing she was most upset about and the one thing that was irreplaceable. Incredibly, we did find the hamster! I cried. Evie was having such a hard time, mad that her house had been broken into twice at home and now here we were with our bags stolen. Finding Cream really helped her feel less broken.
Granna and Grannadaddy made their flight the next day (they smartly had kept their passports on them), and Ryan, Evie and I made the best of an extra day in London by walking the Thames near Big Ben, Parliament, etc. Ryan parted company from us in the afternoon since he needed to head back to work, and Evie and I enjoyed riding the London Eye before heading back to our hotel with the plan of being at the embassy first thing the next morning.
In a double decker headed towards the embassy
On Dec 31, we were up as early as possible and checked out of the hotel, headed to the embassy to wait in line to get emergency passports, hoping we could make it home. Thank goodness we had all the right paperwork and I had copies of birth certificates and such so that we could get these bad boys.
We flew home via from Heathrow to Atlanta to Memphis. We technically got to have New Years 3 times. They celebrated on the plane from London to Atlanta, then our Atlanta flight was late enough that there were a midnight local time there, and then once we landed in Memphis, it was back to 11 pm and we had another count down, though Evie was so exhausted she missed the real countdown and went straight to bed when we got home. It wasn't the way we had planned to end the trip, or the year, but we did the best we could to stay positive and calm, and I think it helped Evie process and feel empowered, actually, to go on a search and actually recover some of her belongings. I will say, I wasn't sorry to see 2024 go.
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