Flashback

It's been far too long since I've updated, but there is so much to say! I might as well break it into a few posts.

If we could just take a trip down memory lane, back two months, to the good ol' days of December...

December was wonderful. In my previous post, I showed some of the gorgeous snow we had. It stayed for quite a long time and every time it even flurries, I still get a little gleeful feeling of "Oh my goodness, snow!" But the problem with snow is that sometime soon after it, there's usually ice. And ice, besides being obviously cold, is not cool.

It was pretty icy taking the train down to Ipswich on Christmas Eve (even the Ipswich postman got his mail truck stuck in an icy ditch). Ipswich is only about a forty minute train ride from Norwich, and it was where I spent some of my Christmas holiday visiting my flatmate's family. My flatmate, Liam, had invited me to see a real "English" Christmas, although my religious views sort of meant it was one of my only Christmases!

Liam's family was incredibly welcoming, and the house - gorgeously historic! - was full to the brim with his parents, three brothers, aunt, uncle, and cousins. I felt really lucky to be a part of their holiday celebration, including a proper Christmas dinner (complete with Yorkshire puddings and Christmas crackers). It ended up being one of my favourite things so far on this trip, and really helped with some of the homesickness I was experiencing watching everyone else get to go home to their families. It was also one of the best ways to really see what English life is like, and the small differences between that and the American dailies.