All I want for Christmas...

...is to get back home, but until then, we have been making the most of our time here.  I feel like it has been a crazy couple of weeks packed with trips to see Santa, parties with friends, school parties and lots of Christmas shopping.

Last Friday, we had Parker's school party.  It was kind of hilarious.  All of the parents got there to watch them sing and then the kids had a party while the parents had tea.  I was so excited to see Parker sing (I had already heard all of the songs in the car), but during the concert, P just sat there....literally...he was so tired (he had already been there two hours longer than a normal day), and he barely mouthed more than a couple of words per song.  He did, however, find enough energy to protest when the teacher handed him a star with 'too many sparkles'.  Silly kid.  I did video, but we were told we couldn't post any videos or pictures online...so...shoot.

We also celebrated our family Christmas this weekend.  Santa made a special trip to our house on Saturday night...Parker was so, so excited.  The worst part about celebrating Christmas early is that no one else is celebrating.  Brady was out of town until late Friday night, so we had to do Santa on Saturday night (plus we had to have soup and queso for dinner:)...but then we had church and a birthday party all day on Sunday (and brady had to work, ugh).  So, while it was a great morning...it was just a morning.

P is at such a fun age and he was so excited about all of his presents...such a great morning...

carrying treats for Santa

We tried to get him to leave Santa a 'traditional' mince pie, but P insisted that he like cookies better.

'Christmas' morning and seeing his new workbench from Santa.

He went straight to get his toolbox out:)

Such a good little builder

Cars...Santa actually could have just gotten him these two cars and P would have been ecstatic!

A book that folds into a pirate ship...he loved it!!

Trying out new crayons...the best part of doing Christmas before is that Santa was
able to bring some things that mommy needed to get for the plane ride anyway:)

So blessed to have these two...such a lucky, lucky mommy.

Bevan family trip

It was wonderful to have my parents here.  I had asked them to wait so that our visits would be more spread out (I couldn't handle 6 months apart), so this was their first time over here.  I think I underestimated how much it would help for them to see where we live, what we do, where we go.  Facetime is fabulous, but now they can put everything into context.  Now when I tell them I'm exhausted because I had to walk home in the rain, from the library, carrying groceries, they understand why:).

We had a great time and visited our favorite places in Norwich, Cambridge and London.  They even got to experience true England weather...cold and wet:).  Here are a few pictures, but I still have a ton from my phone to upload.

P insisted on bringing his cowboy hat to the train station.

the 'train park'

teaching gram gram how to hike the imaginary ball

insisting that g-dawg needed to be tackled to the ground:)

the castle

we even went to the cathedral for the first time (embarrassing because it is less than 100 yards from our house)

and P had another birthday party (we were going to london the next day so I didn't even make a cake...poor kid)

Cambridge

London!

Ben's cookies in Covent Garden...maybe the best cookies I've ever had...seriously

this is a terrible picture, but I had to capture the moment somehow...P was so enthralled with this street performer juggling a chain saw that he sat there for 45 minutes until he was finished...

Love them!