Happy Christmas!

Christmas in London

We've been trying to make the best of the Christmas holiday even though we can't be home with family and friends. We've decorated our little apartment with lights and a small tree, and we've also been out to see some Christmas lights. Of course we had to check out the Christmas Shop at Harrods as soon as they put it up too!

Overall, it's been quiet and very pleasant here the past few days. The weather has been mild in the low 50's, and except for the rain yesterday, it has been clear. Michael is off until after the new year, so he's been enjoying the time to work on some personal projects. We've both been catching up on our reading a little bit. I'm reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand and Michael is reading 1984 by George Orwell. We're both enjoying the novels, and we plan to switch as soon as we've finished reading our current selections - although Michael will probably finish 1984 well before I can get through my book. I love Ayn Rand but her books are lengthy, so takes me a while to get through them. I am definately not complaining, though. I loved Atlas Shrugged - all 1000+ pages of it!

Tonight for dinner we made turkey breast, mashed potatoes, Stove Top stuffing (my favorite!), green beans, homemade rolls, and Michael's homemade apple pie. It was fabulous! Well, I assume the pie will be great; we've both been too stuffed to have any of it yet. We did run down the street a little while ago to pick up some vanilla ice cream, though, so now we're all set! You can see some pictures of our Christmas dinner here.

I know I still have things to blog about, and I'm hoping to catch up this week. I just wanted to let you all know that, even though we didn't send out Christmas cards this year, we are still thinking about all of our family and friends this holiday season.

Happy Christmas!

Skipton

Skipton

Michael had to travel to Skipton this week. I decided to join him on his second day and do a little site seeing while he was at work. I didn't end up getting there early enough to do much the first day I arrived. On the second day, I walked into town. I had read about Skipton Castle, and I was anxious to get some pictures. The town was about about a mile and a half from our hotel, which wouldn't have been too bad if I'd been wearing tennis shoes instead of my boots. Oops, didn't really think that one through when I was packing.

Anyway, the town was cute, in the way that small English towns are. The castle was pretty cool. It was a Royalist stronghold during the English Civil War. After a 3-year siege the Royalist finally surrendered. After the surrender the castle roofs were ordered to be removed. The Royalist had constructed elaborate water collection systems on the roof, which helped them to withstand the siege, even when the Parliamentarians cut off the pipeline that brought water from the river into the castle grounds.

I enjoyed the castle and the town. I took some cool pictures - some are signs in the castle that explain a little more about the purpose of some of the rooms.