The Raich's Big Adventure

Last year at this time we were enjoying massive amounts of chocolate in Paris. This year we decided to stay in the UK for the holidays--not because we prefer fish and chips to crepes, but because we have absolutely no money to go anywhere. In any case, we were very determined to have a good time locally. I mean people all over the world travel to London and Brighton for their holidays, so there is no logical reason why we shouldn't be able to have a bit of a holiday here as well. The one thing we didn't count on, however was the horrible flu bug which took over our household for more than two weeks of our time off! Despite this, however, we did manage to do a lot of really fun and interesting things in London and around Brighton. Here are a few of the highlights:

Mia (and I) really wanted a tree this year, so we got the only one that would fit into our tiny little cottage. It is a wonderful little tree, however, and has just been wonderful in our living room.

Enjoying the fruits of our tree decorating labour!

Lighting the candles for Hanukkah. Look at poor little Mia's little red nose. She looked like Rudolph for a while there.


In between bouts of flu, we made it up to London for a day out. The journey up to London is quite a bit longer than it used to be for us, so we always bring lots of entertainment for Mia.

Visiting the famous Camden Lock market in Camden Town. I have never seen so much amazing food! It is absolutely overwhelming trying to choose what you want to eat because everything looks so good. There were food stands from all around the world--all hot and and steamy on this cold day. Doughnuts also seemed to be especially popular at the market.

You see what I mean about doughnuts! We didn't actually eat one of these, but they were nice to drool over.

We spent the afternoon at the London Toy Museum where Mia got to play to her heart's content.

This doll house I'm looking at belonged to Queen Mary when she was a little girl. The doll houses were my favourite part of the museum. Mia also enjoyed playing with the doll houses out for the kids, because she had just gotten a huge doll house for Hanukkah several days earlier.


Look out! Here come the bobbies! Mia would have played police car all day is she could have.

Here is Mia opening her stocking on Christmas day. By Christmas Mia had already received so many presents from her time in America and Hanukkah in the UK, that she seriously didn't know what to do with all of her loot. WE don't know what to do with all of her stuff. She already has a bedroom and a playroom, yet it seems that every other corner of the house is slowly being taken over by her. Do you think she might be a bit spoiled??? Don't answer that...


Every year in Brighton there is an annual event on the seafront where a bunch of crazy people strip down and jump in the ocean. We decided to check it out. We walked down to the seafront and found that Brighton is really a very interesting place to be on Christmas day. Here are a few photos around Brighton on Christmas day:



Now Brighton is in no way as cold as Minnesota, but it is by no means tropical. These people made this look so easy!!!

Mia and Jeff very intelligently staying OUT of the water!

Despite it being Christmas day, things were hopping down on the seafront. Apparently every year there is also an old couple who ride around on a double bicycle handing out £5 bills to people. Unfortunately we didn't see them.


Everyone gets into the Christmas spirit around here--even the doggies!! Notice the antlers!


Finally home to relax in front of the fire. As a special treat we roasted marshmallows!

Mia and I enjoying our Marshmallows.

Later in the week we went to Brighton Sea Life where Mia got to pet a crab and help feed the sea turtles. It was wonderful! I had no idea that we had such a wonderful aquarium so close to home. The only unfortunate part is that admission cost us nearly as much as plane tickets to Paris would have. I guess we'll make trips to the aquarium a very special occasion!

The amazing walk-under aquarium. I have never been in such a gorgeous aquarium. It was breathtaking to watch the turtles and sharks swim right overhead.

Look at this brave girl! I wouldn't even touch it.

After our day at the aquarium we braved near hurricane-like winds and rain and took shelter at Cafe Rouge in The Lanes. Cafe Rouge is a French cafe that has opened locations in London and Brighton. We enjoyed some fine French food and, of course, some fine French dessert. It was almost like being in Paris!

So, tonight is New Year's Eve. Jeff is now putting Mia to bed and then we are going to enjoy a nice 'grown up' dinner alone together. Jeff asked me to marry him on New Year's Eve, so this is a bit of a special night for us and we rarely get to celebrate it. Now that Mia is older, however, and no longer wakes up every 12 minutes, we thought we should take advantage and have a nice romantic dinner.

And that sums up our holiday! The only thing missing was the company of friends and family from America! We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and Happy New Year.

First, my lovely Andrea got a bit sick a week and half ago. Then Mia got sick with a fever which lasted for four days and meant that she got to watch extra duh-dah (tele in Mia speak). And lastly I have just recovered from being sick for five days. At its height, I had a 39.4 degree fever. Really low, isn't it? That is in Celsius which is almost 103 Fahrenheit. At its lowest my temperature was 35.2 which is 95.3, to which we became a bit scarred and thought maybe I was septic. But alas, I am better now, except I appear to have given myself pink eye. Actually I really am quite a mess (not that most of you did not already know that). Additionally, the rest of the country seems to have gotten sick. Everyone we talk to is ill in some way. Oh well, nothing like ringing in the New Year laying down.

As for pictures, I will be editing them tonight and posting in the next day or so.

Hope you all had a great holiday, what ever it is that is celebrated in your home!

Raising a child comes with many milestones. Some of them are small, like going up a shoe size. These typically don't involve much fanfare and more then anything else it is a time to reflect on how big your baby is getting. Other milestones are much larger. These involve loosing teeth, walking and the such and bring with them many Kodak moments. Well, we have just had one such event. Mia is no longer wearing nappies at night. She asked to not wear them anymore and for lots of reasons, which involve our reluctance to have a little girl rather then a baby and the work of getting up in the night, we postponed the event.

We finally gave in and three nights ago Mia stopped wearing nappies to bed and now wears just knickers. Thus far she has had great success, and is very proud of her achievement. We do get her up a couple of times a night to wee, but otherwise, thus far, she has been very successful.

What this means, as I mentioned above, is that we now have a child who is a little girl not a baby. She is no longer wearing nappies at any time, she no longer takes naps, she uses the adult toilet, and on and on. She has graduated to the next step in life; one that I am not sure we are wholly ready for. Every day both Andrea and I are just amazed at how big Mia is getting and how independent she can be.

When we discussed having a child four years ago, we could not have imagined the little girl that we have. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. We are so proud of her and think that she is just the most wonderful person (a feat considering that half of her came from me). I don't know why she appears to do so well, maybe it is the diet of seaweed, or maybe it is the fact that her parents are so well adjusted. Whatever the reason, we sure do hope that we continue to do the right things, what ever those things are. In the meantime we will wait for the next major milestone, something that seems to be getting closer and closer to marriage.

Mia enjoying a story time with Uncle Joe. She just loved to sit and play with him.

Mia and Greatgrandma open a few pictures.

The shirt says it all. By the way, this is Grampy.

Some of the boys at Holidazzle.
Mia loving her ride, not sure about Grampy!
Grampy and Grammy.

We are experiencing technical difficulties with uploading pictures. More will be on the way soon. The timing is unfortunate as we were just getting to the second half of the trip, the bit with the Scharlatts. To make up for this exceedingly long wait, I have mailed checks to everyone in the family for amount that will make you feel that you can heal and recover from this. If the checks don't work, then I will offer counseling services to all those who need it.

On a different subject, some news. Mia is sick. This has caused quite a problem, not because she is ill, that is not good though, but because we have bought a thermometer. The thermometer gives readings in Celsius, which is not bad in and of itself, but then when we try to compensate for taking the temperature under the arm, everything goes haywire. What we have figured out is that Mia has a temperature somewhere between 95f and 104f. She is starting to feel better, but is a bit tired. Hopefully tomorrow she will recover fully and be back to her usual self, which has become sassy, independent, and cheeky.

My garden is coming nicely. I have nothing in the plots and I feel that I have finally won. The slugs have nothing to eat. I see them gathering around the plots looking forelorned and wanting. But alas there is nothing for them there. Maybe this will teach them a lesson - don't eat all the food. The cats continue to come around and use the plots for their own personal needs, but less so. Perhaps it is getting too cold.

That's all for now. I will endeavor to post pictures tomorrow.

One of the hardest parts about being back in England is missing those little moments with family that most people take for granted. Mia had such a great time with her family and she has been talking non-stop about her cousins--Noah and Madi. Here are a few highlights of Mia's time with two of her favourite people on earth--her cousins. The expressions on her face really say it all...

Mia picks up Noah at the bus stop. You'd never know by looking at them that it is actually about 40 degrees below zero!

Lighting the candles for Hanukkah.

The girls and their two 'London Bears'.

Lounging at Grandma and Papa's house.

~Andrea

Hello All! Not really much to say as we get back into our normal groove, which will end after tomorrow as Mia and Andrea have 19 days home together. We have been trying to think of what to do over the holiday and have come up with a few things such as going to London, a doll museum, eating out, and the likes. We were trying to get really cheap rates to go to some place in Europe, but we had waited too long.

Anyways, here are some more pictures of our wonderful times in the states.

This was taken at our favorite place to get snacks - Bread and Chocolate. The food was wonderful, we were having fun, and it was just the beginning of our weight gaining food exploration through all the places that we used to go.

This was one of the many rides that Mia got to go on. The man trying to control the wild stallion that Mia is riding is Grampy (aka Andrea's dad).

Ahhhhh, siesta time! Actually what Andrea was thinking was that 'this is the most wonderful time I have ever had. Someone is watching my child, the noise is outside, and I don't have to worry about what sort of odd, vegetarian, nutritious meal I can make for my non-vegetable, carbohydrate-only, ice cream is my favorite food eating daughter.

Mia on the hammock. Just a cute picture.

An odd picture considering that Mia doesn't eat meat. Wait, this was a tofurky. Sorry to tell you, Papa, but we switched the birds early in the night. We were able to find a big tofurky on an organic tofurky farm near-by that had raised this special tofurky from birth. When we had the tofurky killed, it was done according to kosher regulations. And tasty... wow. It was good and I personally saw most people go back for more. I think we might have to order early for next year considering how good it was. It would be a shame to not be able to get one.

Well, we finally settled back into the swing of things again. I still can't believe how tired we were. I sure thought that it was going to be easier to return. Mia actually has started to sleep an entire hour longer then when we left. Normally this would be a good thing, but since we moved here, we have used her as an alarm clock. Just like clock work she would rise at 6.30am and yell out 'mummy' or 'daddy'. Now she does so at 7.30am and yells 'wakey, wakey time'. This is, however, too late so we have resorted to setting the alarm clock which is not as pleasant. The problem is that no matter what we do, the buzzer and music go off at the same time, which is a bit annoying.

I have started to sort through the pictures, an amazing amount of photos were taken. I think that I have gone through 10 or 12. Hmmmm... maybe I should work faster. Anyway, here are a couple.

This is one of my personal favorites. Notice if you will the smile that Rob, Mia's uncle, has. He was so pleased that princess Mia allowed him to hold her, something that was not a regular occurrence in the past.

I think that this one deserves some feedback - sort of like a write a caption contest.

And then there is Papa's breakfast. Now this is a feast fit for a king - King Roger of Kilkenny. On the plate are eggs, sausage, and toast (with the side of butter and salt). Mia was so happy to have shared in this meal with Papa and Papa was so happy to have cooked it, on a wood burning stove nonetheless.

And this is her big sister, well not really, but I think Mia sure wished it was. Mia would follow Madi, her first cousin, everywhere Madi went; a bit like the lamb did with Mary.

There are more pictures coming, with more people, and more events. I will try to work harder, faster, and more efficiently (sounds a bit like a food processor - 'the processor that works harder, faster and more efficiently, so you don't have to.

I do have to say one thing before I go and clean the dishes. Andrea has pointed out my propensity to use the line 'you ask? Good question!' Such as 'what happened to the slugs, you ask? Good question!' It seems that I have used this A LOT since we started this blog. I was not aware of it until we went back and looked at all the entries and low and behold, there it was in black and white. Why do I do this, you ask? Good question! (I couldn't resist) I actually don't know, but I now feel like I have a thing. Some people have a special way they sign a letter, some have a certain number of straws they have to have in thier drink, and I have this. Or perhaps I am starting to slip into a psychosis and am sharing with everyone the conversation that I am having with my imaginary friend, Harvey the bunny. At any rate, I will try to control my strange use of this phrase in the future.

More to come soon, including video of Mia shaking her bum!

Home really is where the heart is, and it is never truer then when visiting family. But, alas, it is also true that your home is where your bed is. That said, it was nice to retire there upon our first full day back. We made it to and from America without any major glitches. There was quite a feat given that we were toting a three year-old and everything that she has ever collected, bought, or been given as gifts. When we moved to England, we came with six pieces of luggage. These held almost everything we owned (as it turned out it ended up being everything we owned). When we returned to England from this trip we had five pieces of luggage. I am not sure, but if you ask me something was not quite right in the state of Denmark.

How did the trip go? Good question. We were able to see friends and family, both of which were wonderful. We were able to go out as a couple (a couple of what you may ask?). And we were able to go the Mall of America...many, many times. Really it was great and we felt like we were on a vacation. I suppose we should have brought back some Minnesota memorabilia, but alas all we returned with a bunch of Old Navy clothes.

Our house was still here when we returned (as were my slugs) but missing was the single digit temperatures that we had in Minnesota. In its place were temperatures in the 50's... not bad, huh?

I don't know about others, but there is something about being able to put one's head down and sleep for 14 hours... wait... did I say 14 hours? Yes, that's right. For the first time in as long as Andrea or I can remember we were able to sleep-in. I imagine that we have not slept-in for a good... how old is Mia? Yes, that's right, we have never slept in since Mia.

Well, there will be more coming including pictures, video, and memories.~Jeff

Hi everyone! its been awhile since we wrote. Lots of stuff has happened, but most importantly is that Andrea and I got to go out by ourselves today. We went to London, had lunch, and did some walking around. It was really nice to get some time alone. Wait! Where was Mia, you ask. Well, she stayed with our friends Cheryl and Scott. And it sounded like she had a good time, too. Mia got to play with their newborn son, Caleb, and she got to go to the park. It was at the park that she decided that she had to go wee wee. Well needless to say, there was no toilet around. She ended up wetting herself a bit. The problem was that we did not pack her a clean pair. So, she was given a very nice pair of Cheryl's Victoria's Secret knickers. Mia looked very nice indeed!

I finished my first final court appearance. The case was to remove four children and lasted five days and was in London. I was the first witness to be called and was on the stand for almost seven hours. My boss stated that he thought it was a record in his experience; that he did not know of anyone who had testified for so long. After all the testimony had been given, the judge gave her ruling: place one child for adoption, place two in fostering until they are 18, and one got to go home. I now only have four more cased in court.

Only a week to go to America!

Okay, it has been a bit since I have last written. What has happened in that time, you ask? Good Question. Lots. For starters, day-light savings time has happened. I know you are all aware of this; however what that means is that I now have to have external power sources to garden after work. Now, Brighton was not fond of the idea of me putting in sky lights, similar to those at the local football field. Plan B, then. I then thought I would go old school and use gas lanterns. Well, that did not prove to be fruitful as I seemed to have the habit of knocking them over and causing small forest fires. Plan C it has to be... wait to the weekend and do some super gardening.


The result of this plan, as you can see is that I have covered up my crops with fleece and things are actually growing. I have actually covered more then this up. I now have three beds covered in fleece. I can't believe it. My peas and potatoes are looking as if they are actually part of a garden. Pretty cool and exciting, I have to say.

The down side is in addition to slugs, I now have cats. This normally would not be a problem, but they seem to like to defecate in the beds... sort of a smelly, gross morning present. And what started out as a problem with two cats has now grown into four cats. Anyway, I will find a way to conquer. It would be nice if the slugs and the cats just hashed it out. Maybe a turf war. I can see it now... like a scene out of Lord of the Rings. Perhaps not.

What else is new? Mia went to a birthday party and got her face painted for the first time. She was so excited. We can't believe how happy she was.





We also went to a local farm to celebrate apple day. I would have normally thought that everyday was a day to celebrate apple day, but that's just me. So, we celebrated in the traditional way... spending money and going on rides while playing at a farm. It really was fun. Mia had a great time and Andrea got to feed calfs.