Christmas and Jackson's Birthday in Northumberland

Hello blog readers. This is Jackson. On my second visit to England I stayed at my Auntie Lynn and Uncle Graham’s house. We got there on the 20^th of December and left on the 29^th. These are my favorite things I did.     

This was probably one of my best Christmases ever!!!  I was told not to expect much because we can't take much with us on our trip.  So I didn't expect much and I got a lot more than expected so I was really pleased. Auntie Lynn and Uncle Graham spent all day making a delicious traditional British Christmas lunch.  My Nanna came and stayed all day. We also watched movie called Avatar.   

Nanna, Jackson & Savannah

 

Savannah, Uncle Graham, Auntie Lynn & Jackson

On my 9th birthday JJJJJJ Uncle Graham made the best English pancakes EVER! Then I opened presents. After that Uncle Graham set up his game called scaletrix (a car racing game) and then we played it. For lunch we had pizza and for dinner my Auntie Lynn set up a really nice desert buffet with all my favorite things on it like chocolate, cake, brownies, profiteroles and chocolate covered strawberries. I turned nine at 6:02 pm.   



 

Jackson's 9th Birthday

 One day Uncle Graham took Savannah and I to see the movie Harry Potter #7 part 1. But before the movie we got to meet Uncle Grahams parents which was really cool.  And the movie was awesome as well.  At the movie we got some candy and a drink.

Another day my dad took Savannah and I sledging (same as sledding for my US friends).  To get to the hill we had to climb over a gate and walk past some sheep.  I accidentally stuck my glove in some sheep poop - it was really fun. 

I had a great time with my family in England.  I will miss Nanna and her dog Meg and I can't wait to see Auntie Lynn and Uncle Graham again in Turkey.

Weekend in London with Lucy

On Dec 17 we took the Chunnel train back to England from Paris. This time it was light out so we got to see a lot of the French and English countryside, and a lot of snow! Later that night Lucy picked us up from our apartment in Camden, and took us one the tube to her apartment in Tooting Bec. It was a lot of stops on the tube! Back at her apartment we got to meet her flat mate, Vicky. She was really nice! We watched Nanny Mc Fee 2 and we stayed up really late and ate a lot of pizza and candy, and we even made a ginger bread house!

Savannah & Jackson at Lucy's tube stop


On Saturday, it was snowing really hard. Lucy took us to a place called Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. It was really cool, but since it was snowing and very cold, we didn’t stay very long. We went on a ghost ride and in a maze which was like an obstacle course. After that we went into town and we had Mc Donald’s for lunch before going to see the movie Narnia, Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It was really good and in 3-D.  We took the tube back and on the walk to Lucy’s apartment, we had a mini snowball fight

Lucy & Savannah in the London snow

Jackson & Lucy

Sunday was our last day with Lucy L. We watched Toy Story 3 first, then we got cinnamon rolls and croissants at the store and ate them at the park where we then had a HUGE snowball fight and made a pathetic little snowman then stamped on it. We also made snow angels. Then we went back to her apartment and played her wii all afternoon before she took us back to our parents in Camden. It was a great weekend!!!! Jackson and I will miss Lucy, but she has promised to come and see us in North Carolina. J

Bonjour from Paris

By Savannah

Monday, December 13 was our first full day in Paris!! We arrived the night before that on the Chunnel train at about 8:00 pm France time. The Chunnel train was really cool but since it was already dark outside, we couldn’t see much, and we hope to see better on the way back as we will be traveling earlier. That day we went to the Eiffel Tower and it was really amazing and pretty, and it was a lot bigger than we expected!! We went all the way to the top floor, but the best view was from the second floor. Thanks to the Costellos for telling us to get crepes, they were delicious!!! We went to a really nice French bistro for dinner and I tried escargots, which were really good, and then we went back to our apartment which is close to the Pompidou center.

Jackson, Anne & Savannah at the Eiffel Tower

Tuesday we went to three beautiful churches, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, and Ste Chappelle.

Sacre Coeur is in Montmartre. We took a little train up the hill to get to the entrance. Right in front of Sacre Coeur there are lots of people playing music, and a great view of Paris!! When we went inside we weren’t allowed to take any pictures, but it was very quiet and peaceful and it had a lot of beautiful paintings. It also has a big dome on the top. The outside is very beautiful and it is completely white. In Montmartre we walked around the streets a little bit and went to a very nice French café. When we were walking we came across an artist square. The artists were selling some very nice work there.

Artists in Montmartre



Paul, Savannah & Jackson at Sacre Coeur

Notre Dame is on an island in the middle of the Seine, so we had to walk across a bridge to get to it. The outside is very intricate because it had a lot of different gargoyles and statues on it. Inside is very beautiful, because it has lots and lots of stained glass windows, which are amazing! The model of the church that they had was great. It was the biggest church out of the three. My favorite part was the stained glass windows.

Savannah looking French in front of Notre Dame

Ste Chappelle is the last church we went to. The walls were more colorful because they were painted. There were two rooms that we were allowed in. The first room was on the bottom floor, and when we were done looking around we climbed a really narrow spiral staircase up to the second floor. In the second room there was one wall that was pretty much just stained glass windows. The church was 800 years old!

Wednesday we went to the Arc de Triomphe, to Paris Opera House, and Musée D’Orsay
 

The Arc de Triomphe was really cool because we walked underneath the roundabout and we saw the Eternal flame! The Arc was started by Napoleon, but it wasn’t completed until 1836, a few years after Napoleon’s death in 1821. His coffin was paraded through the Arc in 1840. The stone statues and carvings on the outside were really cool, but we didn’t have time to go inside. Buried under the Eternal flame is an unknown soldier, and the flame has been going since 1923, and it is rekindled every night at 6:30.

Jackson, Paul & Savannah at the Arc de Triomphe

The Paris Opera House is amazing both inside and out, but the inside is incredible!!! It had painted ceilings, marble staircases, and tons of chandeliers.  Inside the theatre there are red velvet seats, and it has lots of little private boxes. There is tons of gold-leaf accents everywhere, and there is a huge chandelier that is made of six tons of crystal!!!

Paul, Savannah & Anne at the Paris Opera House

Musée D’Orsay is an art museum that contains impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, statues, sculptures, models, and furniture. It used to be a railway station with a hotel attached to it. It has a lot of famous peoples works in it, including Degas,  Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, and many more. We didn’t even have enough time to see everything!!! We were a little dissapointed because it didn’t have some of the pictures that we wanted to see on display, but overall it was defnitely worth going to!!

Thursday was our last full day in ParisL. First we tried to go to the Picasso museum but it was closed for renovation. Then we took the subway to The Louvre. The Louvre was really amazing. It was huge too!! There are 35,000 pieces of art on display, so we obviously couldn’t see them all in one day! We saw a lot though. We saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory, and a lot more. In the ancient Egyptian section we went inside a tomb and we saw things that were 4,000 years old and older!!! When we left it was getting late already, so we headed back to our apartement and a while later had dinner.  I had the escargot again. Later that night we went to the Eiffel Tower. It was really cool because it was lit up. When we had spent a while there, we started to leave when I turned around to have a last look and there were flashing lights going on it!! It was really cool. When it ended, we took the subway back.

Jackson & Savannah with the Mona Lisa at the Louve

Venus de Milo - Jack's favorite when he found it she is Aphrodite to the Greeks

Friday (Dec 17) we went back to England L. We had our last French breakfast, then we went to the train station. For lunch we had our last bagetts, which we thought tasted the best of all the ones we had. We then took the Chunnel train back to England, but this time we saw a lot more. We got to see a lot of France which was really pretty. We are now at our apartement in England and Jack and I are waiting for Lucy to come because we are spending the weekend with her!!! We are so excited!!!

England

Hi, this is Jackson.   

On December 1^st Daddy and l flew to London and then drove to Runhan. We were greeted by friends and stayed with them. These are my 6 favorite things I did:

I went to see Seals. This was one of my favorite things because we went there when the seals were just finished mating so I got to see the seal pups all over the beach (you weren’t allowed on the beach though).

 I went bowling. This was one of my favorite things I did because it was really fun to go to an English bowling alley with my friend Connor.   I came in second and beat my dad.

Norwich Castle J This was one of my favorite things because my mom was here and we got to see cool things like the dungeon, which was also used as a jail for 500 years.  We got to see on a video what the castle used to look like when a king lived there and much more

I got to see where my daddy grew up.  This was one of my favorite things because I got to see how my dad used to do stuff and where he lived and where he went to school.      

Seeing my dad’s Aunt Valerie was really special as I had not seen her for a very long time.  She was very nice and we met both her children Andrew and Angela and her son Liam who were there visiting as well.   

Going to a football match was exciting.  This was one of my favorite things because I have never seen a professional team play before.   The teams were Norwich vs. Portsmith (first division teams).   I got to see a red card and penalty kick.  In the end the score was 2-0 and Portsmith wonL 

My favorite meal was the fish and chips at a café in Gorlston.

I loved my time in Norfolk and I will really miss it!

Leaving Bermuda, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and England

Savannah and Anne left Bermuda on November 30th after many tears.  Delta must have felt sorry for us as they upgraded us to first class.  We arrived in Boston and after several hours of running around Boston to get papers signed to get our dog Dixie, we were finally on the road to Grantham, New Hampshire to leave Dixie with our friends, the Langs.  We had a short but sweet visit with Sara, Peter, Hannah, Nate & Haddie and then we were off to North Carolina.

Meanwhile, Paul and Jackson were lucky to get out of Bermuda on Dec. 1 as there was a lot of snow at Gatwick.  They landed at Heathrow and made their way to Runham, England which is near Great Yarmouth to stay with Paul's best friends, the Newby's.

We arrived in Chapel Hill on Dec. 2, met Anne's mom Ruth's flight and the next day unloaded our stuff that had arrived in Bermuda.  Amazing how much junk we have.  Much to my surprise, it snowed on my birthday, which is really unusual in NC at this time of year.  Above is a photo of our new house covered in snow.  We emptied endless boxes and checked out Chapel Hill.  I think we are going to love it when we finally get there....

Savannah and Anne then met Paul and Jackson in England.  We had a great time visiting Paul, Gail and Connor Newby.   We even got to see Natasha who came home on the weekend from University of East Anglica.   And as it seems now to be a tradition, Paul Newby cooked his usual meatfest on the grill in below zero weather.  When it was time to leave on Dec. 12, no one wanted to leave, but at least we were going to Paris!