Christmas in England

It's been too long since sharing anything here (6 or 7 months!) but if you follow me in instagram you would know we went to England for Christmas.  All these are iPhone photos so excuse the quality, or lack thereof.

It was a short trip, just over a week, but one we were so grateful to be able to do.  Since we flew in and out of London Heathrow airport the first day and a half of our trip with spent in London.  Then we took a train up to Hull to be with family.  We squeezed in a day trip to Scarborough and York, and loved going to Hull 2nd Ward Christmas Eve but mostly spent time with family, as you should over the holidays!  Andrew's parents hosted us this time.  The last several times we've stayed at Di and Grandma's.

 Elliot and Avery were into making weird faces when this group photo was taken and this was the best one out of the bunch.  Funny enough Carol, my mother in law, requested this group photo be taken.  Normally I'm the big photo taker, but I think she wanted something to put up in her house.  I wish she were more into photos while raising Andrew because he was a very cute boy. :)

 Christmas morning we woke up at Nanna and Grandads!  Millie the dog was so interested in what everyone got. :)  A couple days before Carol took the kids to pick out toys for Millie so she would be distracted but I'm not sure it worked.  Millie especially loved Rupert's new electric toothbrush. ;)

 Andrew grew up with this tradition, which i think is the norm in England, to have all your gifts wrapped and put in one big bag for each person.  So here is everyone with their big bag of gifts.  Andrew's family were and always are so generous.

Seeing Andrew so happy over this trip was pure magic!

 For Christmas dinner we ate at Grandma Freeman's and Di's house.  The smells were heavenly!  We brought stuffing balls and trifle to contribute to the meal.

 Here's my nephew, Oliver, Claire and Rich's son.  He's about 6 months younger than Rupert but about the same size.  I wish Rupert and Oliver got along better but Oliver really loves playing with older kids so it was fun watching him with Elliot, Avery, and Zara.

 Wish you could smell and taste all this!  My favorites were the yorkshire puddings, brussell sprouts, turkey and brown gravy.  I'm salivating just looking at this.

^ ^ All of Carol and Nev's grandchildren! ^ ^

With two more on the way!  It's so exciting being pregnant together again, this time for both of our last children.  I'm due early May and Claire some time in June, I believe.  Elliot snagged this photo shortly before we headed to Heathrow Christmas night since we flew back home the next morning.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!  Mostly I'm just grateful my morning sickness has (mostly) finally passed!  The last three weeks have been soooo much better than last several months.

I haven't made too many concrete goals this year, but my word of the year is to be more Proactive, as opposed to reactive.  Now that morning sickness has passed I'm able to be on top of things so much better and I want to be more intentional with my time.  And maybe you'll see more of us here!