...and so that was Christmas!

And what a Christmas it was. 

I won't lie...I missed my family & friends back in Texas. I missed freezing my butt off one day and walking around in jeans &  t shirt the next. I missed going to the galleria and seeing all the lights and the big tree in the middle of the skating rink. I missed eating tamales with my grandparents and dad, and aunts, and cousin on Christmas morning. I missed my mom making me bunuelos. 

BUT. I'm really REALLY thankful that I got to be at my "home away from home". Luton. I know I don't have to remind you how awesome I think Luton is. I will however remind you how

 amazing my friends (cousins!) there are. 

Neil & Roma invited Mary Anne & I to spend the holidays with them. (London is great but I think I breath a sigh of relief whenever the train pulls into Luton.) It still amazes me that they constantly open their home to us as they have. It is something I would do if the situation were reversed but it's still a great thing to experience. 

I feel almost like a child when I go there. Only because they taught me how to work the tv/dvd/stereo so all they have to do is sit me down in the living room and I'm good. They have

 a massive dvd collection and I have a serious addiction to movies. The first night we watched It's a Wonderful Life which I've never seen before. (Yes, I know...SHAME, thy name is Amelia!) I loved it. Jimmy Stewart is a-mazing. 

The next day we joined in on the Christmas Eve pub crawl that started w/ bacon sandwiches around 10 (or 11). By mid-afternoon people had quite a few drinks in them and most of us had Santa hats. By far my favourite event of the day was dodgems. (Bumper cars for those of you in the US). We all played a rousing game of Capture-the-Santa-hats. It was

 so much fun. Between trying to drive, people standing up in their cars to pull your hat off your head and the guys running the place yelling at us to "Stay in your car" and "Keep your hands in the car" it was just crazy-fun. We all had dinner that night and some people kept going. We jumped off the party train. 

Christmas Day Neil came and got us and we had Christmas dinner with Roma & her family. Her parents are so great. They even gave us these cute Tweety bird picture frames. That evening we went over to Neil's parents, hung out and played games. I love how into playing games everyone is. And Neil's mom is such a cool lady. The fact that she made an effort to include "the Americans" in the Pass the Parcel game meant so much to us. And we're still cracking up about Neil's dads driving stories!! 

On Boxing Day our friend Willow came and got us and we had lunch with him and his family. They were also really cool. The food was really good and the Christmas pudding! Holy crap Christmas pudding is so good! Is that weird of me to say? Oh well...it's good stuff. That night we went to another friend's house and played games there too. Andy & Edel are really cool. BUZZ is so much fun I can't even begin to tell you.

Saturday, Roma & Neil took us shopping. That was actually a lot of fun too. I got these really fantastic slippers. We came back to the house and spent the rest of the evening watching movies. 30 Days of Night-really good! Hellboy 2-really good! 

I would have liked to have stayed longer. I'd probably actually live there if I could work it out somehow. This holiday I was really thankful. Thankful that everyone back home is doing well and thankful that I have such an amazing family here too.