What Christmas brings in CT

December was upon us immediately following our trip back to the UK. Although it is typically a quieter month for Annalie at work, there was still a lot going on. First and foremost was the IAE Holiday Party. After plenty of searching, Annalie finally found herself a dress which she was willing willing to make do with. She'd been determined not to wear black, but she did in the end! But she decided to accessorise it instead to liven up the outfit, opting for red hangbag and shoes. The only photo we have is the official one, and we must get that electronically to show you! Of the photos that we took, Annalie is in none of them, mainly because she had the camera all night!

There were plenty more festivities including team dinner, lunch with Annalie's ad agency, a departmental lunch, and more and more eating. But finally work came to an end for the Holidays and the festivities began. Firstly, on Christmas Eve, everyone was invited to Kate and Jason's for a few drinks. Then on Christmas day we went over to Chris and Wendu's for a scrumptious dinner of beef and yorkie puds :) followed by some fun and games on Bop-it and Uno Extreme once Suzanne had arrived. On Boxing Day it was over to Hazel and Wayne's for yet more drinks and then the calm descended.

Annalie had made a comment a few weeks' earlier about wanted a real Christmas tree for the first time ever. As neither of us have had one before, and because we were spending Christmas here in CT, it seemed that it should be a case of when in Rome. The farm stores around here are abundant with trees throughout December, but Ian left it until just over a week before Christmas to pick one up and surprise Annalie with it when she got home that night :)

After a couple of days to ourselves, we had booked ourselves a couple of days away in Washington DC to go and be proper tourists for a change. We got Southwest flights into Baltimore, which is just a 30-minute train ride to DC, and booked ourselves a hotel for less than $100 a night. Over New Year as well! The hotel wasn't amazing but it was really well located for all of the major attractions, including a pub that we'd seen that we fancied spending New Year's Eve in.

So we hit all of the major attractions - the Washington Monument, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the Memorials on the Mall, the White House, the Newseum etc. We killed more time than we thought possible! But my was it cold?! We had queued up for Washington Monument tickets early in the morning and got some for 12pm. We turned up at the site at 11.30 thinking we'd have to stand outside for half an hour, only to find that they were running about 30 minutes behind schedule as it was. By the time we finally got inside, our noses and hands had lost their feeling! The view from the top gave us something to take our minds of the numbness, and Annalie also found a fan heater to stand in front of!

Despite the cold we really enjoyed our short visit. New Year's Eve was spent in Fado's Irish Pub, just a stone's throw from our hotel. They did a very good offer for dinner and included a glass of champagne for starters and also at midnight. We went for a late booking so that we could drag dinner out to near enough midnight, but we gave up in the end and saw in the New Year with a coffee in our hotel room - we must be getting old!!

We were back in CT late on New Year's day, for a relaxing weekend before work started for Annalie again.

December was not the end of our Christmas celebrations. The Fire Department had failed to find a date suitable to everyone in December so they settled for a Holiday Dinner in January instead. They chose 2 Hopewell, conveniently located opposite the Fire House! Strangely the spouses were free but all the guys had to pay. Not that we're complaining, at least it's something for free!

Speaking of the Fire Department, Ian had his first real fire call over the Holidays as a two-car garage went up in flames. The owner had installed some expanding foam insulation earlier in the day and something had caused it to ignite. So finally Ian got his first fire under his belt. This was followed by a second fire call a few weeks later as a house sun room somehow ignited in the early hours of the morning. He returned home just in time to bid farewell to Annalie as she was about to be picked up for a flight to Singapore.

Maddy has been growing in confidence and cheekiness daily! She's nothing like the dog that arrived with us six months ago. Although she has a great disposition and is pretty well behaved, we decided early on that we would put her through obedience training, as much for us as for her. So far she's been the star pupil and has been defined as "super demo dog" as they use her the most to demonstrate drills. It's a reward-based training programme, which equals lots of food/treats. She's a beagle. It's a match made in heaven! As usual, everybody there loves her and she does such a good job. She's very trusting of people so she will go easily with the trainers and they lavish her with attention (which she also loves!).

We've also been frequenting the dog park more and Maddy is becoming a lot more playful now. It is still a bit of a people park (as opposed to a dog park) to her, but her behaviour is significantly more dog-like now! She's confident around other dogs and lets them know when she's not happy (the good old beagle "bay" comes out) but equally she picks her play buddies and gets on with it. We've also used a local "pet hotel" at PetSmart while we've been away and put her in doggie day camp while she's been there. The report cards we get when we pick her up show she enjoys her social time.

And we've finally got round to ticking another item off the "US Bucket List" when we took a drive out to Cape Cod. It was very much out of season so very quiet in many areas. But we thought we'd introcude Maddy to the sea and beach. We found a dog beach in Provincetown (P'town) and took her down ot the water's edge. At first she confidently approached the water, then she decided to drink it! That didn't go too well (obviously!) and she didn't like the water after that! But she did like some play time in the sand!

Well, we think that's enough for now. Sorry we couldn't be more detailed about some aspects and we promise not to leave it so long in future.

Sorry for the delay!

We guess that's probably a bit of an understatement! It's been over two months since we put pen to paper/fingers to keyboard so we've slapped ourselves on the wrists and promise to keep things more up-to-date from now on. Naturally there's a fair bit to update you on and, considering some of it was so long ago, we may be lacking on the details somewhat.

So, taking you back to November and just after our last blog post, it happened to be Annalie's birthday. Rather than go for a big night out, she opted for one of the many weekday "Happy Hours" in Glastonbury, choosing Sakura Garden to get a bit of sushi and other Asian delights. A few of our friends turned up to share the low-key festivities and wish Annalie well.

The following day we had scheduled to fly back to the UK for a whirlwind visit in order to attend Annalie's graduation ceremony in Leeds. One thing we hadn't considered was that it was the afternoon before Thanksgiving and, much like the UK Bank Holidays, there is a mass exodus on that afternoon. So we gave ourselves three hours to get to Boston, twice the usual time needed. As we set off, we started to hear about 40+ mile tailbacks on the I-90, or Mass Pike as it is affectionately known. Not knowing it too well though, we couldn't figure out which direction the traffic build-up was. So we feared the worst and just kept on heading for the airport.

Luckily for us, the problems were actually going Westbound and we were heading East, so we escaped most of the issues. It seemed that the exodus was headed out of Boston on the roads rather than escaping the city via the airport. When we got to Boston we found the terminal to be pretty empty, another surprise consdiering the extended weekend ahead. But on speaking to some of the BA staff, Americans don't tend to travel internationally at Thanksgiving, instead aiming for domestic travel to visit friends and relatives. So we had an easy journey through security.

Upon landing in the UK, the whirlwind hit. We touched down and headed straight for our hire car. After picking that up we went straight for our favourite breakfast spot near where we used to live in Hillingdon. After a good old Wonder Cafe meal (that would be a sausage sandwich on doorstop for Annalie and a Big Breakfast for Ian) we set off up the motorway to Derby. There we headed straight for our old "local", the Bonnie Prince, to meet up with some of Annalie's former colleagues for lunch. It was lovely to catch up with some of the old crew, but there were almost too many people and it was hard to get quality time with them all.

After a couple of hours there we carried on Northbound to get to Annalie's parents'. After a short break and a brew, we all went out to meet Andrea, Greg, Jack and Lucy for dinner (noticing the eating theme here?!) and our only chance to catch up with the "clan". The kids grow up so fast when you're not around to see them regularly. We hadn't seen them since they were over in Orlando in April.

On Friday it was over to Leeds to go to Annalie's graduation. After getting kitted out in all the formal garb for the second time, we wandered around a little, grabbed some lunch and then found our way to the ceremony room.

Thankfully it was all over pretty quickly, just 30 minutes stood between us and a glass of cheap wine! We didn't hang around for too long, having had a better offer from Annalie's old uni buddy James. He lives in Leeds at the moment so we met him and his girlfriend in the bar in Harvey Nics (oo er!) for a glass of more expensive stuff. With bubbles! We had a lovely dinner for the six of us and some more wine before a late drive home.

The following morning was a relatively early getaway again as we headed for Bristol this time to meet Ian's parents. We'd arranged to meet at Cribbs Causeway shopping centre as Annalie wanted to hunt for a dress for the IAE Holiday Party. Her rationale was that, if she bought something in the UK, there was less chance of wearing the same dress as someone else. Last year there had been one noticeable style that was replicated a lot so we didn't want any of that. Sadly her quest was unsuccessful and she left Cribbs empty handed.

However we successfully located Ian's parents and had a couple of hours shopping with them before we headed into Clifton in Bristol for our overnight stop. We'd all booked into the Avon Gorge hotel so that we had easy access to the delights of this trendy part of town. What we hadn't counted on was the weather - it absolutely bucketed down so we didn't get to make as much of it as we would have liked.

Annalie and Ian were most impressed with the fact that their room had been upgraded from a Village View room to a Gorge View so we had the spectacular sight of the Clifton Suspension Bridge right from our bedroom window. The downside was that, despite requesting a quiet room, it was adjacent to the lift shaft. Not being the complaining types, we didn't bother making a fuss and were just glad of somwhere to rest. After dinner, and a few more drinks, the party in the hotel was still in full swing, creating yet more noise to prevent a proper sleep. Upon our return to the US, a well-worded email complaint has yielded complimentary accommodation next time we wish to travel through Bristol. Might have to make the most of that before they forget about the offer!

Our final stop on our UK tour was to Wokingham to have Sunday lunch with TC, James, Elly and Matt. A fabulous feast is always guaranteed and this was no different. A wonderful three-course banquet was lavished upon us to set us up for our journey back to the US. It was a long journey, arriving back home at about 1am Monday morning. Annalie had to get up for work the next day, so it was a tough trip with all the travelling involved, but worth it.

For ease of reading, we'll split up the rest of the blog entries. At least then you can take it one step at a time!