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After visiting Edinburgh Castle in the last morning, we headed a bit farther down the Royal Mile toward St. Giles Cathedral ….
The Cathedral is just maybe ½ to 3/4 mile down the hill from the Castle.
On the entrance side is a big open square where one of the Edinburgh Festival street performers was doing his juggling fire and sharp objects show.
Also in the square was a few rows of booths selling handmade goods/art/etc. My mom ended up buying a watercolor – a little ironic since it was raining so much.
We elected to go into the Cathedral first, and then find lunch.
I love cathedrals – and it turns out Chelsea does too!
Even without knowing ANY of the history of the location, the beauty of the architecture and the details of the tiny side chapels and stained glass windows give cathedrals such an air.
And walking into a cathedral that is still actively in use is always fun – especially if you come across a service (like we did at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome).
From RICK STEVES:
St. Giles Cathedral
This is Scotland’s most important church. Its ornate spire – the Scottish Crown steeple from 1495 – is a proud part of Edinburgh’s skyline.
Today’s façade is 19th century Neo-Gothic, but most of what you’ll see inside is from the 14th and 15th centuries.
Just inside the entrance, turn around to see the modern stained-glass Robert Burns window, which celebrates Scotland’s favorite poet. It was made in 1095 by the Icelandic artist Leifur Breidfjord.
The oldest parts of the cathedral – the four massive central pillars – date from 1120. After the English burned the cathedral in 1385, it was rebuilt bigger and better than ever, and in 1495 its famous crown spire was completed. During the Reformation – when John Knox preached here (1559-1572) – the place was simplified and whitewashed. Before this, when the emphasis was on holy services provided by priests, there were lots of little niches. With the new focus on sermons rather than rituals, the grand pulpit took center stage.
At the back end of the church, see the Neo-Gothic Chapel of the Knights of the Thistle and its intricate wood carving. Built in two years (1910-1911), entirely with Scottish materials and labor, it is the private chapel of the Knights of the Thistle, the only Scottish chivalric order. It’s used about once a year to inaugurate new members. Scotland recognizes its leading citizens by bestowing upon them a membership. The Queen presides over the ritual from her fancy stall, marked by her Scottish coat of arms.
Upon entering the St. Giles Cathedral, there was a big sign advertising “Photography permits” for ₤2.
Now, this is clearly just a way to get money from tourists without charging admission.
I’m totally OK with this. Especially since Westminster Abbey cost about ₤11 and I still wasn’t allowed to take photos!
I don’t know how much they enforce the photography permit, but I do think I saw a guide start to walk toward me when I was videoing, but stop when I (casually) turned so he could see my photo-permit-sticker.
Who knows ….
We happened upon St. Giles Cathedral just in time for a mid-day concert.
According to the “Music at St. Giles” pamphlet I found, the concert was put on by a Scotland/South Africa cultural exchange program group.
Singing as they walked down the main aisle, they performed a few African songs, but more were traditional worship songs – many of which I knew! Of course, the fact that I knew the songs made the errant notes from some of the sopranos even more apparent.
Nonetheless, having live music made the whole experience of exploring the Cathedral even fuller…
The other interesting and noteworthy part of St. Giles Cathedral was the Chapel of the Knights of the Thistle.
This is a small chapel in the back corner of the (huge) Cathedral – the private chapel of the only Scottish chivalric order (the Knights of the Thistle).
There was this sweet older woman back there – a guide of the Cathedral – answering questions and providing all kinds of details about the Knights of the Thistle and what they used the chapel for..
It’s only used once a year or so to inaugurate new members – but that only happens when a former member dies.
The Queen chooses one of the leading citizens of Scotland – a judge, the head of Education or similar…
The Queen presides over the ritual from her chair (ornately carved) at the end of the room. Her chair is marked by the Royal family’s coat of arms. As that chair is only ever occupied by the monarch, there is only one coat of arms. All the other chairs have several (in general 4+) coats of arms, designating all the different men/women who have been inducted into the order and assigned to that seat over the last 100 years since the chapel was completed.
It’s a lovely room, but without a guide there to explain the details, that’s all it would have been.
After St. Giles Cathedral we went to lunch.
Kevin had been talking about Thai food for a couple days, and Andrew knew I wanted REAL vegetables, so we found this Thai restaurant: Thai Orchid. It was a bit warm inside, so I started feeling a little bit sick, but all in all it was pretty good.
It wasn’t spicy AT ALL (I got a mostly broccoli veggie dish) … and snagged a couple bites from the others.
Next? Our underground ghost tour!!
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After viewing the Crown Jewels it was on to the Royal Palace (pretty sparse), the Great Hall and the Scottish National War Memorial (so cool).
FROM RICK STEVES re: ROYAL PALACE:
Scottish royalty lived here only when safety or protocol required it (they preferred the Palace of Holyrood house at the bottom of the Royal Mile).
The Royal Palace has 2 historic, yet unimpressive rooms and the Great Hall (opposite side of the square).
Enter the Mary, Queen of Scots room, where in 1566 the queen gave birth to James VI of Scotland, who later became James I of England.
The Great Hall was the castle’s ceremonial meeting place in the 16th and 17th centuries. IN later times it was a barracks and a hospital. Although most of what you see is Victorian, 2 medieval elements survive: the fine hammer-beam roof, and the big iron-barred peephole. This allowed the king to spy on his subjects while they partied.
The Scottish National War Memorial was one of my favorite things at Edinburgh Castle.
I just love war memorials of all kinds; I have no idea why.
This particular memorial commemorates Scottish soldiers, and those serving in Scottish regiments, who died in the 2 world wars and conflicts since.
The memorial was formally opened in 1927 out of a remodeled block of barracks
- 149,000 Scottish soldiers lost in WWI
- 58,000 Scottish soldiers lost in WWII
- 800 lost since
FROM RICK STEVES:
Paid for by public donations, each bay is dedicated to a particular Scottish regiment. The main shrine, featuring a green Italian-marble memorial that contains the original WWI rolls of honor sits – almost as if it were sacred – on an exposed chunk of the castle rock. Above, the archangel Michael is busy slaying a dragon.
Andrew and I entered just the 2 of us (though we saw Kevin and Chelsea inside) … The memorial interior is rather hushed – visitors recognizing that this is a place to be respectful, if nowhere else in the castle.
It also felt significantly less crowded that the other wings/buildings we visited. I wonder if that is because cameras aren’t allowed at the memorial.
I wish I could put my finger on why I love war memorials. Maybe it is just a vestige of the romanticizing of war that comes from the books I read growing up …
Either way – all I want to do now is visit Washington DC.
After the War Memorial, Great Hall and Crown Jewels, the 4th building on the square was a “Prisoners of War” exhibit (and now I have ‘Prisoners of Love’ from The Producers in my head)
It was …. Interesting. Not fantastic. Not terrible, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if it wasn’t so crowded.
Part of the exhibit took us under the building to where the prisoners of war were actually held … hammocks and dozens in one room and all.
That took us out and dropped us off one level down, and outside the top gate…. So we walked BACK up the hill to check out St. Margaret’s Chapel – the oldest building in Edinburgh, dating from ~1130 or so.
It’s TINY… and sweet. It feels pure and simple and a bit like I imagine Anne Shirley’s bedroom feeling. Strangely, this tiny quaint chapel is only about 10 feet from Mons Meg – a 6 ton cannon that hasn’t worked since 1681.
FROM RICK STEVES:
St. Margaret’s Chapel
The oldest building in Edinburgh is dedicated to Queen Margaret, who died here in 1093 and was sainted in 1250. Built in 1130 in the Romanesque style of the Norman Invaders, it’s wonderfully simple, with classic Norman zigzags decorating the round arch that separates the tiny nave from the sacristy. It was used as a powder magazine for 400 years; very little survives.
The place is popular for weddings – though it only seats 20 people.
After checking out Mons Meg and St. Margaret’s Chapel, Andrew was SOAKING wet.
His hair was literally dripping.
We started heading back down the hill, through the Middle Ward … and on the way stopped by a couple more exhibits.
One was about a specific regiment – although for the life of me I can’t remember which! I feel like it was probably the Black Watch / Royal Highland regiment …. But, as with all the museums and exhibits at Edinburgh Castle, it was far too crowded for me to take my time and really read and learn.
The other exhibit we stopped at was the Military Prison. They had restored several cells, along with the prison bathroom and a couple other little rooms.
Pretty cool. Pretty crowded.
It was nearly time to meet the others (we said 1 o’clock at the front) .. so we continued on down the hill in the rain…
… and just at about 1 o’clock the big cannon near the wall went off!! And some girl behind us screamed! Apparently they shoot of the gun every day at 1p. Originally to mark the time for ships in the Firth of Forth…. But now mainly as a tourist attraction.
After the gun, Andrew went and got us coffee – and got himself some Haggis potato chips from the castle café…. What a tourist!
Next, we met up with Kevin and Chelsea, we stopped at the Castle gift shop for more postcards (and postcard stamps), walked back down the hill, down the Royal Mile…. All in the rain.
Chelsea stopped to look in a shop, while Andrew went on to look for lunch … . still in the rain….
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When we arrived in Edinburgh the sky was cloudy and overcast, but nice.
By the time we hiked up the hill and through the narrow “close” to the Royal Mile it was drizzling.
But by the time we had walked up to the very top – to Edinburgh Castle – it was raining. Hard. And it didn’t let up for hours.
I had just been thinking that morning that I had bought a new umbrella for Alaska and Scotland and hadn’t used it yet …. And then the sky opened up.
We began at Edinburgh castle in the pouring rain – trying to share umbrellas and guarding expensive cameras from the water.
But with only a few hours to spend, we had to plough ahead – in spite of the rain!
FROM RICK STEVES:
The fortified birthplace of the city 1300 years ago, this imposing symbol of Edinburgh sits proudly on a rock high above you. While the castle has been both a fort and a royal residence since the 11th century, most of the buildings today are from its more recent use as a military garrison.
Edinburgh Castle is a collection of buildings within the perimeter of the outer wall … so every time we went from building to building it was out in the rain again.
Andrew got tired of trying to stay under the umbrella with me (and my purse) and got pretty wet. But he was wearing 2 jackets so he ended up staying pretty dry (except for his hair which was dripping wet in no time).
Andrew and I didn’t really want to do the guided tour at Edinburgh Castle. Mainly because since it was a free tour, there was a BIG group of people. But the other 4 did the tour and Andrew wanted to hear a Scottish person talk so we caught up with the group part way through.
Our tour guide was named Andrew (but bald with crazy teeth). He seemed nice and was knowledgeable – as far as we could tell in such a large group.
He walked us up by the Military prison, and then around near St. Margaret’s Chapel, and then dropped us off in the square near the Royal Palace and Crown Jewels.
FROM RICK STEVES:
Scotland’s crown jewels, though not as impressive as England’s, are older and treasured by the locals. Though Oliver Cromwell destroyed England’s jewels, the Scots managed to hide theirs. Longtime symbols of Scottish nationalism, they were made in Edinburgh – in 1540 for a 1543 coronation – out of Scottish diamonds, gems and gold… some say the personal gold of King Robert the Bruce. They were last used to crown Charles II in 1651.
When the Act of Union was forced upon the Scots in 1707 – dissolving Scotland’s Parliament into England’s to create the United Kingdom – part of the deal was that the Scots could keep their jewels locked up in Edinburgh. The jewels remained hidden for more than 100 years. In 1818, Sir Walter Scott and a royal commission rediscovered them intact. In 1999, for the first time in nearly 3 centuries, the crown of Scotland was brought from the castle for the opening of the Scottish Parliament.
The Stone of Scone (aka the Stone of Destiny) sits plain and strong next to the jewels. This big, gray chunk of rock is the coronation stone of Scotland’s ancient kings (9th century). Swiped by the English, it sat under the coronation chair at Westminster Abbey from 1296 until 1996. Queen Elizabeth finally agreed to let the stone go home on 1 condition: that it be returned to Westminster Abbey for all future coronations.
With major fanfare, Scotland’s treasured Stone of Scone returned to Edinburgh on St. Andrew’s Day, November 30, 1996.
So our tour guide Andrew left us in the square near the Crown Jewels. Really, the HEART of Edinburgh Castle.
At this time, we had quite the option of sites to see … 4 different buildings/exhibits off of that square alone.
Since the Crown Jewels seemed to have the longest line, we did that one first. There was a line outside (all the way through the middle of the square in the rain) that skipped all of the exhibit and just passed you into see the jewels themselves and then out again.
Then there was a door around the side of the building that took you through a whole exhibit and taught you about the history and all … and then to the Crown Jewels… So we thought, “History? Yes!” …. I love history – and I think my dad loves it even more.
Turns out though that SO MANY people were crowding inside to see the exhibit that we A) weren’t able to stop and read the exhibit because the swarm of people just kept pushing us along …. And B) We were literally shoulder-to-shoulder with the crowd so couldn’t get close enough to read the exhibit.
Oh well …
We DID get to see the Crown Jewels of Scotland – which are no longer actually used since Scotland united with England.
There is a sword, a crown and a scepter. All ancient. All luxurious.
Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed in the room … and I was just too close to a guard to get away with it.
Also with the Crown Jewels was the Stone of Destiny – only recently returned to Scotland. It’s a big, plain block of red sandstone (26”x16”x10”) used for coronations and must be returned to Westminster Abbey to sit beneath the coronation chair when Prince Charles (and/or Prince William) is crowned.
While being pushed and prodded along narrow hallways with WAY too many people, I was reminded of England’s Crown Jewels at the Tower of London. Those are kept in a much bigger space, and visitors are put on a conveyor belt. It’s a slow conveyor belt, but it still ensures visitors are all in and out in a timely manner.
*sidenote* As we were leaving the Crown Jewels, we passed through an open door that had 2 (count ‘em two!) combination locks set in the middle!
Then on to the Royal Palace (pretty sparse), the Great Hall and the Scottish National War Memorial (so cool).
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Returning to our Scotland adventures
I love cities. I love how much there is to see and do in cities!
So Tuesday morning we got up and left pretty early to have as much time as possible in the city.
We piled in the 2 cars around 7a or 730a and drove south.
Driving into (and parking all day in) the city of Edinburgh would no doubt be a HUGE pain … so Mom researched other options.
We ended up parking 30-40 minutes outside of the city and taking a bus into town. Only ₤5 round-trip each – and there were buses going all day (til late). It was one of the best decisions, for sure.
Interestingly, the bus offered free WiFi! It made me really sad I can’t take public transportation to and from work.
We got off the bus at the end of the line … Near (I think) St. James street, in the newer part of downtown.
We ended up walking maybe 8 or 10 blocks … headed to the very top of the Royal Mile – the oldest part of the city and at the top of the hill.
***
It’s not a vacation until somebody gets hurt.
That’s something Angela told me once. Not a cheerful thought, but nevertheless true.
As we were walking from the downtown train/bus station to the Royal Mile, Chelsea tripped and fell!
She tumbled across some big stone tiles, dripping her big nice camera in the process.
The camera was fine, but Chelsea skinned up her knee and the palm of her hand… Sad!
***
About Edinburgh FROM RICK STEVES:
‘The Royal Mile is one of Europe’s most interesting historic walks. Consisting of a series of 4 different streets – Castlehill, Lawnmarket, High Street and Cannongate – the Royal Mile is actually 200 yards longer than a mile.
As you walk, remember there were originally 2 settlements here, divided by a wall…
Edinburgh is the historical and cultural capital of Scotland. Once a medieval powerhouse sitting on a lava flow, it grew into Europe’s first great grid-planned modern city. The colorful hometown of Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns, Edinburgh is Scotland’s showpiece and one of Europe’s most entertaining cities. Historic, monumental, fun, and well-organized, it’s a tourist’s delight – especially in August, when Edinburgh Festival takes over the town.
Promenade down the Royal Mile through Old Town. Historic buildings pack the Royal Mile between the grand castle (on the top) and the Palace of Holyroodhouse (on the bottom). Medieval skyscrapers stand shoulder to shoulder, hiding peaceful courtyards connected to the High Street by narrow lanes or even tunnels. This colorful jumble is the tourist’s Edinburgh.
Edinburgh was once the most crowded city in Europe – famed for its skyscrapers and filth. The rich and poor lived atop one another. In the Age of Enlightenment, a magnificent Georgian city (today’s New Town) was laid out to the north, giving Edinburgh’s upper class a respectable place to promenade.”
I love how much history there is in old European cities …
I love thinking about how many people – big historical personalities all the way down to nobodies – lived and worked and loved and cried on the very streets where I’m walking.
Conquering armies lay siege to Edinburgh from this same spot. Grave robbers hid bodies not far away. The current Duke of Edinburgh is married to the Queen of England for goodness sake!
I love history!
(and I don’t care how nerdy it is)
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home A is ours!
We had a few days of questioning and wondering and cautions optimism…. But, we are currently in escrow and hope to close mid-February!
Then, a few weeks of work and moving in sometime in March! In time for my 30th birthday!
We haven’t done an official inspection yet, so we CAN still back out if there’s some CRAZY damage in there, but we KNOW it’s going to be a lot of work/clean-up/rehab, so unless there’s something completely unbelievable then we are good-to-go.
We got a rough rough rough estimate from a contractor friend of our realtor …. It actually came out to less than I had expected, but of course it’s just an estimate. He quoted 2 weeks to do it all, so we’ll see with that too.
The lot is ~4500 sqft which is smaller than we would like … But honestly, when alternative yards look like this:
… 4500 doesn’t sound so bad!
I’ve been pinning my house ideas over on Pinterest …. collecting boxes from work …. saving pennies for all the work that needs to be done!
After we put down our 15% downpayment, plus closing costs, plus money for the work on the house we will be broke broke broke…. But we’ll have a house.
And saving for other fun things will begin.
We need to have all the trash hauled out, replace the floors, replace the toilets/bathroom fixtures, paint, replace the kitchen, replace the front window, add rafters in the garage and some more little things here and there ….
No decisions have been made yet, but I think we’ll do our kitchen in a warm wood cabinets, with stainless steel appliances (we already have our fridge) …
We need to pick out flooring for ALL the rooms …
We’ll probably just paint it all white as a starting point, and then paint more colors as we live there longer ….
We’ll have basically 3 rooms for guests (with no beds), so let me know when you want to come visit!
We’ll have a little yard and maybe start planting veggies …
We’ll have lots of natural light for photos (important, obviously)…
We’ll have a driveway AND empty garage so Andrew won’t have to get up at 7:30a to move his car for the street cleaners…
We’re very excited.
More photos/details to come!
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The first full weekend in January, I planned a last-minute spur-of-the-moment trip to Arizona to see my brother (without Andrew).
He’s been living/working in Afghanistan for almost 2 years; recently quit; and moved to Colorado to go to school January 9.
But that tiny couple-day window between Afghanistan and Colorado he was in Arizona, so I took a day off work and drove out there.
Kevin knew I was coming (because I wanted to check if he had other plans), but I didn’t tell either of my parents.
So, when I rang the doorbell and my mom answered the confused look on her face was hilarious!
I got there in the early evening, just in time to go out to dinner ….
Kevin picked Oregano’s – salad and pizza and Italian Wedding soup …. yum!
then later that night we did “Christmas” with Kevin …. Which was pretty much just watching Kevin open gifts.
He gave our parents their Christmas gifts, of course, but for the most part we just saw Kevin opening gifts …
(my dad got a chromatic harmonica … he pretty much just collects musical instruments)
That was Friday night.
Then we just had Saturday because Kevin was planning on leaving early early early Sunday morning.
Saturday morning he had to go to his storage unit to supervise the moving crew loading his stuff onto their truck.
I blogged and edited photos and took a nap at my parents’ house.
But that late afternoon …. my parents had originally made plans to have their annual get-together with their close friends. Families we’ve been friends with my whole life. Longer, even.
It’s nice that Kevin’s weekend in town coincided with this get-together! Getting to see most of my favorite people in 1 weekend!
We got there a bit before sunset …. And first and foremost went and met Sushi. The tortoise.
HUGE dude….. Like, 3 feet in diameter shell….
It was awesome.
Shawn and Nicole arrived shortly after that and I got to meet their 2 girls for the first time!
The last time I saw Emolyn was when she was just a few weeks old – and now she’s almost 4!
Elsie just turned 1 a few months ago …
They’re awesome…. LOVE them
(Emolyn told me that her sister Elsie learned how to walk by watching her. And then she went on to tell me that she was going to also teach Elsie to do the splits like this:
Next, our friend Chris came with his family – including his little girl Cadence who is almost the same age as Elsie
3 little girls all running around … all in pink!
my mom somehow corralled everyone out to the backyard to take a group picture in the sun …
Hanns, Thompsons, Thrushes, Haugens, Rolfes, Mozingos ….
(more or less)
Linda wrote about the night in her post here …. Check it out (including more photos)
We stayed through dinner, through sunset, through building a big bonfire in the back!
Elsie followed the cat around quite a bit …
Cadence – looking so much like her dad!
Miranda and her boyfriend Aaron showed up a bit later (just before dinner) …. Love that girl.
SPARKLERS!
Emolyn did so well with holding the sparkler toward the fire, away from the people…. Smart girl.
We all sat around the bonfire in the back, all snuggled up with jackets and scarves and blankets (which now smell SO much like smoke) …. talking about the Thomsons’ recent trip to Disneyland, or Miranda’s job, or Kim and Jed’s new baby! ….
SO fun. Seriously some of my favorite favorite people ….
Next year the get-together should be at mine and Andrew’s house!
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Annoyance and drama with Home A
On Wednesday, December 21 we got the email from our realtor, forwarded from Home A’s realtor, forwarded from the bank.
In spite of the fact that the listing clearly says the house has been approved by the bank at one price, the counter offer from the bank is asking for almost 10% more!
Which is pretty nervy considering if we get the house we’re going to have to put $20,000 of work into it to make it livable. HALF of which is replacing the kitchen because since the house has been empty RATS are eating through the cupboards.
True story.
And yet the bank is not bending over backwards to get this sucker off their hands.
It’s really too bad because if anyone at the BIG INTERNATIONAL BANK was actually looking at the details of this house they would probably be acting differently:
- the house has had SEVERAL offers from buyers fall through over the last year. Why would that be?
- The house has been on the market since October 2010. It’s been vacant since at least the summer, maybe before, and there is no way anyone has made a payment on the loan since then.
- there is damage to the house that is literally getting worse by the day. The value of the house can only go down as long as it stays empty and unattended.
So -
We’ve counter offered – our original price plus we will pay our own closing costs – but have no plans to go any higher. Our realtor sent photos of the house damage along with our counter-offer…
..and shortly after that the seller’s realtor emailed back that she thinks the bank will accept our offer!
We’ll keep you posted!
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We did Christmas Day with Andrew’s family, and then that evening my parents came into town!
Which means we got to do Christmas morning all over again on Monday (which was the Federal holiday so I had the day off)… Christmas morning with only 4 of us (and Mom and Dad had already opened their stocking)…
(I made him do a ‘Muppet face’ to show off some of the gifts)
I had gotten up at 7a to put the chuck roast in the crockpot … so we could have my mother-in-law’s recipe for French Dip for lunch.
Except we have it open face and call it French Drench…
(and potato soup)
After lunch, we headed up to my aunt&uncle’s house in Santa Clarita …. Some of the family was working, but others were home, my grandma was visiting and there were 5 dogs to hang out with!
FIVE
and all were super mellow and easy ….
My head cold was still KILLING me …. I almost fell asleep while we were there ….
Andrew and my mom played cards (Shang-hai) …. Favorite Hann-family game!
And we ended up leaving around 7p or so since I was so sick and needed to go to bed …. Fun, relaxing Christmas-ish day!
Tuesday morning we had more family time …
Andrew’s cousin came into town for a day or 2 and we made plans to go to breakfast….
Drove up to Santa Clarita, met Edmund and his daughter Camille, Daniel and Kaitlin (and Joe came later), and headed over to Coco’s for breakfast.
Edmund is the best ..
… and Camille is so sweet …
Andrew is great with her…
I ended up leaving early-ish again …. still sick sick sick … but Andrew stayed a bit to hang out with Edmund some more.
Then Daniel came over that night to play video games and hang out …
2 days full of family …. one of the best part of the holidays ….
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Lets go back a little bit and look at photos from the holidays!
Christian has family in Santa Clarita, so he and Avalon came down for the holiday and we got to meet them for breakfast! Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday and miraculously both Andrew and I happened to have off work ….
We pretty much haven’t seen C&A more than once a year or so, so seeing them twice in one month just felt luxurious!
Definitely some of our favorite people ever….
We met them at More Than Waffles – one of our favorite breakfast places in the area. If you ever come visit us, we’ll go there!
Daniel also got into town the day before or so, so we invited him as well!
Andrew likes to spend as much time with Daniel as possible when he’s in town ….
The rest of Christmas Eve was incredibly relaxing ….
Andrew and I had errands to run – groceries for the rest of the holiday festivities – and then we were home by noon.
With nothing to do but relax, watch movies, read, sleep, cook ….. Seriously lovely afternoon that we almost NEVER get together ….
We watched The Help and Crazy Stupid Love and Love Actually (and I caught up on the holiday episode of GLEE) …. I made potato soup (yum) …. and we didn’t answer our phone or make any more plans to be social.
LOVE days like that ….
Christmas Day we woke up and went to Andrew’s parents’ house ….
Andrew and I didn’t do gifts for each other this year (you know, the whole HOUSE thing) so we ended up at the Schuberts’ around 10:30a or so …. Just in time for breakfast casserole!
Andrew got the dogs a Christmas present! Femur bones from the butcher …. Yum!
Kaitlin and Joe came up in the afternoon (after being at Joe’s family’s house in the morning) and we all opened gifts!!
We all got Joe and Katie baby stuff …. since little Joey will be here in just a few months …
It was a very merry Christmas …. even if I did have a cold the whole day ….
So, Andrew and I left around 7 or 8 to go home …. so I could rest up and get better from the cold AND because my parents had come into town that night!
View the full galleries here: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
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I know that most of you already know this …. but I still wanted to make it blog-official!
Andrew and I are going to have a little nephew in a few months!
I’ve always said I wanted to be an aunt before I became a mom – and luckily Andrew’s sister Kaitlin pulled through for me!
Joe and Kaitlin made these adorable ‘gender-reveal’ cupcakes to tell us all they are having a boy !!
AND he’s already named!
Joseph Paul LaRiccia
(and we’ll call him Joey) … we all had fun buying little boy socks and things for them for Christmas!
Coming May 2012!
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