Catching up: Part 2

Apparently, here and in many other countries, Christmas is a 2 day celebration and both the 25th and the 26th are considered holidays. This obviously has its advantages in letting people celebrate with more people without the rush of going to too many parties in one day. We were blessed to have been invited over to our friend Kim and her boyfriend Antoine's house to celebrate 2nd Christmas day with them. We had a great time eating a wonderful meal and hanging out with them during the afternoon, and then they drove us to the airport for our flight to London. Keiric loved the Disney train that circled their tree.



The kids have were really excited about the trip (or at least the plane ride). We had decided a few weeks back to take a short trip when some friends had offered their house for us to use while they were in the States on vacation. Since it is only a 45 minute flight from Amsterdam to London, we decided that this would be our Christmas present (that we don't have to pack home in June!), and we thought we could use some family time away. Here's Ronald sending us off at the airport.Unfortunately, the trip started off with a little hiccup when we arrived at around 11pm, on 'Boxing Day' only to find that we had missed the last train to the city we needed to go to. All the hotels around the airport were booked, a taxi was WAY too expensive! and the next bus or train didn't leave till morning - so we decided to sleep in the airport until the next train at 7:30 the next morning. We crouched near a wall, trying to stay warm and keep the kids covered as we waited till dawn. When we woke up, necks stiff and achy, we found ourselves practically in one of the lines for Ryan Air check-in. In fact, there were a few times when hasty passengers, headed for their flight, ran over Kaylie's feet with their rolling carry-ons. Lucky for us she can sleep through almost anything! Since it was still only about 4:30am, we decided to move the family and we found a corner tucked in behind an elevator where the kids were able to sleep a few more hours until airport security kicked us out because we were a fire hazard. Thankfully, the kids were ready to get up, though Jer and I were working on very little sleep, and after hot chocolate and Krispy Kreams we all felt a little better. We headed to our train where we rode the 1.5 hours dozing and scanning the gray English countryside. We were so grateful to finally make it to our location and found it exactly what we needed for our little family get-away. Check out the kids sleeping at Stansted Airport in London.



Later that afternoon, after a bit of rest, we headed to the Peterborough City Center. This, of course, involved driving (which we hadn't done at all in 6 months) a borrowed car on the left side of the road. No pressure! Our salvation was in the TomTom they had left us to use and helped us navigate everywhere we needed to go. Jeremy has decided that he hates round-abouts! It would probably help if we actually knew what the rules are in driving around one. It actually wasn't that bad unless you were in the city and it was very crowded. Anyway, Peterborough has one of the largest cathedrals in England, and we were able to take a tour. Kaylie has inherited my love for looking at old church buildings, and we all had a good time checking out all the details inside.



"Mom, why am I standing on some dead guy?"



Sunday we headed to Kingsgate church, where our absentee hosts usually attend. I LOVE attending church in different countries. I am always amazed at how you can go halfway across the world and immediately connect with other believers. It was also great to sing and worship in English. I know I have said before that it is great to sing and worship together in multiple languages, but there is something special about worshiping in your native language - which is why they say it is so important to give people Bibles in their native language. This, by the way, is why we are excited to be connected to the work by Southern Cross in Thailand which passes out Mandarin Bibles to the Chinese tourist in Thailand. - Check out our friend Joy's blog for more info - She is headed there for 4 months to help with their distribution. Here's a short clip from the Kingsgate service.

After church and a brief chat with their welcome committee, we headed for the movie theatre. "We like to move it, move it!" has been sung/chanted in our house since then - guess what movie we saw?! Then we headed to a small mall to hang out for the afternoon. Keiric has decided he needs to sit in every small ride that we walk past.

They are both anxious to go on the double-decker bus, but that post is coming.