Wuthering Lights

So we've been to a couple churches around here now and found one we like - St. Paul's of Harrogate. Pastor Brian has been really welcoming and we've been to Bible study a couple times and like the lessons and discussion. The church is a beautiful stone building with stained glass windows, an huge pipe organ, and we've only met one other American person there - it's been fun hearing English, Scottish, and Irish accents!

A couple weeks ago we were really excited because they announced that the next song was a hymn we knew...until the tune started and once again we had to mumble along. We're learning though! That same morning during the offering the little old lady sitting next to me leaned over and confided that she gave her offering by direct debit - she didn't want me to come to any wrong conclusions when she didn't put anything in the basket! I assured her I had no such thoughts and held in my laughter for the remainder of the service.

Last week we visited the chapel on base for Sunday service and enjoyed all of the praise songs...it's amazing how familiar songs can make you feel so at home. In the middle of service the chaplain called up a woman who was moving back to America and, lo and behold, it was the same lady I had been emailing with about purchasing her dryer and vaccum! So after service Aaron and I walked up and introduced ourselves to her and, after laughing about the coincidence, we followed her home to pick up our awesome condensor dryer! She dropped off the vaccum (a dyson - woohoo!) later in the week.

Today we went back to St. Paul's and they had a special nativity service complete with Christmas carols and the children's Christmas play. It was ADORABLE! I think I had a wave of baby hormones because I cried (happy tears) through the first half - kinda embarrassing! Just picture cute little kids dressed up like shepherds and stars and angels and Joseph and Mary saying things in little British accents like "and then they were betrothed...which is rather like getting engaged". Baby enjoyed it too because it moved and kicked and danced through the whole thing!

God has definitely been faithful to us here - we are so very blessed!

We hope you had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!

We enjoyed our first ex-pat Thanksgiving by celebrating two ways:

1st - We signed our lease on Thanksgiving Day!!! So we said goodbye to the perfectly situated Brookfield Apartments (and the awesome property manager/laundress extraordinaire Ann) and packed up our worldly possessions for our next home.

2nd - We drove down to Winnersh (approximately an hour south west of London) to spend a glorious Thanksgiving weekend with our fabulous friends Salena and Joel!

On Friday we walked around Oxfordshire and along the river where the annual Royal Regatta is held. That evening we saw Harry Potter 7 - so good!

On Saturday it snowed lightly as we spent the morning prepping and chopping and peeling and cooking a super yummy Thanksgiving meal - complete with a perfectly grilled turkey and 5 pies! Salena and Joel had invited some friends (one couple with a baby who are American and another couple who were Canadian and British) and we ate and ate and laughed and ate...it was great.

On Sunday the four of us went on a walk under the cold but sunny skies - notice that the birds are STANDING on the lake because it's FROZEN!

After eating our fill of leftovers Aaron and I packed up and headed back up north,,,and not a moment too soon because it snowed a lot! Apparently this weather is not normal for November and England has been dealing with closed airports, train station, crazy traffic...kinda like LA in the rain. ;-)

We stopped by our new place to drop off some stuff before heading to the hotel for a good night's sleep before our sea shipment arrives...and this is what we found!