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| Last Sunday we woke up and got ready for church, then headed down for the hotel breakfast: scrambled eggs, bacon (Stone walked up to the waiter and said "I like this bacon, but I need it more crunchy. Could you get me some crunchy bacon?" And sure enough, that waiter was happy to oblige. I wonder if that "you get what you ask for" trait is genetically or socially inherited from his father!) and Belgian waffles. I loved the plain yogurt (Erik got me hooked while in Spain) with honey and Muesli. I wish I had taken pictures of the church. We walked through a sketchy part of Greenwich - concrete government housing, tired old stores and peeling posters on walls, trash on the streets. Erik said he felt uncomfortable with the kids there (plus it was far), so we hailed a cab and took a very roundabout way to the nearest Mormon church. It was such a beautiful service for all the most unexpected reasons. The children of the Ward (congregation) performed a Christmas program they had helped their leaders to write, and provided all the music. It was A Capella and the pitch roamed freely through key signatures, but my heart was so warmed by their humility and sincerity, and I thought many times how at-home the Lord would be in that little service. Maybe even more at home than at a big, perfectly-rehearsed, professionally executed affair. There were people there of many different colors of skin and many different accents and they all seemed to love Jesus and each other. |
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| After Church, we headed downtown via the Tube to go to the British Museum. This had been Lindsay's idea - she had heard about the famed Egyptian exhibits there and the real, actual Rosetta Stone on display there. |
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| I had not been on a subway or a train until I was an adult. My kids have now ridden on so many different types of transportation! |
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| After a quick lunch, we headed to the British Museum. I was blown away not only by the extensiveness of the collections, but also by how accessible they were. It was absolutely free to all visitors (I LOVE that. The treasures of the world available to all! That seems so right to me.), and they offered audio guides specifically narrated for children, as well as special treasure hunts and backpacks full of activities for young ones... all free of charge!! Someone had to have paid for that... thank you anonymous Brits for a wonderful day for my family!! |
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| Sophie, Stone and I got treasure-hunting books for the Egyptian rooms and spent the entire time in there. This man's skeleton was 5,000 years old. |
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| We learned so much! The treasure hunt did a great job at narrowing in on a few special objects in each room so it wasn't overwhelming. Sometimes museums can be so overwhelming that you don't get anything out of them. |
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| The Rosetta Stone |
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| Someone got worn out at the museum. :) |
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| We hopped out of the bus to see world-famous Harrod's department store. I don't know if the picture shows the crowds thronging the streets, but we could hardly move. Harrods' window displays were creative and beautiful, but once we got inside the kids went, "What?? This is just like Nordstrom, but with fancier ceilings." We agreed, and exited that fancy madhouse as fast as we could, heading for a nearby Thai restaurant with overpriced but insanely delicious Panang curry. Then a loooonnnngggg way home via walk-Tube-bus-wrong-stop-so-long-walk-through-bad-part-of-town-carrying-crying-children and then finally, exhaustedly, home (home being the hotel). |
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| I had been singing the kids Christmas carols at bed-time and we had been reading Christmas books... but with all the focus on travel and going home to California, it was hard to believe it was actually Christmas Eve... and our last day in Europe. After packing our suitcases and getting ready for the day, we had time to walk around the quaint little town of Greenwich for an hour or so. We explored this old church and graveyard, and made frowny faces that it was our last time seeing beautiful old churches on beautiful old streets. Erik, taking the picture, was not frowning about that. :) |
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| We sang Christmas carols in the taxi all the way to the airport, then hauled those now-beloved painted suitcases through the now-familiar airport lines. We've traveled so much during the past 4 months that it felt like just another trip... so strange to actually be going home. |
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| Flight delay = perfect chance to play UNO |
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| We flew New Zealand Airlines - our flight was London to LA, en route to Aukland. The 11-hour flight could not have possibly been better. TV's and unlimited free movies for every seat, more leg-room, pretty good food, and a GENIUS invention, chair recliners where not only the seat back reclined, but the bottom leg part came up to make a perfect space for two small children to sleep side-by-side. By about 10:00 pm London time I was able to convince Sophie and Stone to stretch out and close their eyes, and after singing a couple of lullabies in their ears they conked out!! Amazing!! I woke them up four hours later so that they would still be able to sleep when we landed. Our flight left at 3:30 pm London-time, and with the time difference, arrived at 7:30 pm LA Time. Ed and Elayne were waiting for us at LAX, bringing our adventure full-circle to where it began. The customs and Passport check lines weren't too bad, and we called Erik's Opa to see if we would still make it to the annual Dutch Christmas Eve party. He said they were all still waiting for us, so we flew down the palm-lined freeways and into the awaiting arms of Opa, Uncles, Aunts and cousins. I was too brain-dead to take any pictures and I could hardly form a sentence - by the time we arrived at the party we would have been waking up for the day in Europe, so we didn't last long, but it was a beautiful welcome home. We arrived back at Grammy and Grandpa's house and immediately tucked ourselves in, with visions not just of British sugar-plums dancing in our heads, but of Spanish Turron, Dutch croquetes, and American bagels. Also dancing not so much in my head but in my stomach was a lot of nervousness of what was to come. I knew we would be going to our new house for Christmas morning (the kids thought we were moving in much later) -- I had never even been to the city of San Clemente, let alone to the neighborhood or house. And in my four months in Spain, I had not even once... Driven a car Used a hair straightener Cared what anyone thought of me Used a dishwasher Put food in a disposal Attended a full 3 hours of church Remembered that SPANX exist Functioned in public in English Volunteered in a school classroom Worn uncomfortable shoes Left my home in the evening without my children Bought more items than I could fit in my bike trailer or backpack Coached Lucy through a panic attack (except the first one about Ballet, which never happened again) Felt anxiety or pressure or unexplained heaviness of body or spirit Cared how my house was decorated Texted anyone except Erik et cetera And I had been so happy. For Christmas I bought all 6 of us tee shirts with Seville's logo: NO8DO. The word "nodo" is Latin for "knot," representing Seville's loyalty to the Spanish crown during a Medieval rebellion when all other parts of Spain had abandoned the King. He awarded Seville a special honor, saying that he was tied to them with an eternal knot - the 8 in the middle of the word is shaped like a knotted rope. It also has a poetic meaning that would take too long to explain, but means "no me ha dejado," or "you have not abandoned me." As we come home to America I'm not worried about rebellion, but I am worried about the pressures of many benign things starting to pull our ropes in different directions. I was very tearful when everyone opened their tee shirts and I told them that no matter what, we stay together. We are knotted together as a family, kind to each other, loyal to each other, and each other's first priority. This is the treasure that we bring home from Spain - the re-claimed knowledge that no matter what we do or don't have, we have each other, and that's all we need. |
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