Christmas-ish-ness

Hey all,

It's been a month since my last blog (this is what happens when you go on vacation), so I'm going to break it up into two parts, for your reading pleasure. The first part is leading up to Christmas/Christmas vacation. I feel like this post MIGHT be kind of lacking emotion since everything happened so long ago and is no longer fresh, so, sorry!! :)

Right-O, so, I went to my first concert in England--Jamie Lidell. It was a complete blast. London is known for its fantastic music scene, but there isn't a lot playing in the upcoming months that I really want to see, so it was great to be able to see Jamie. He is super diverse and a great performer. He even did a bit of a DJ set and people were really into it. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera so I have no pictures of it.

We (I) finally got down to decorating our house, at least a little bit. I got tired of waiting for everyone to come to a consensus, so I just made some dictatorial decisions. (Coffee table, photos on the walls, candles in specific locations, etc.) Living in a hippy-household has it's advantages, but getting things done in a timely fashion is NOT one of those things. People like to deliberate. and deliberate. and deliberate. You get the idea.
This picture was taken before the photos were hung. Also, I came home yesterday and we had a giant television. So, that tiny one doesn't exist anymore. (Now all we need is a DVD player that plays American DVDs and I will be ALL set. I brought back the best movie EVER--Wet Hot American Summer--and I can't even show my housemates because we don't have a DVD player that plays it!)

The night before I left London to go home for Christmas, we had a house Christmas dinner, and it was so, SO great. It is amazing how dedicated Vegans can make such wonderful food. I will never again have meat-envy on Thanksgiving, but instead will make a nut-roast like the one that Ed made. I was SICK from eating so much food. (And THAT, my friends, is a good thing!)

This plate contains the following items: Yorkshire pudding, 2 veggie mash with apples (I made it, YUM), green beans, nut-roast, roasted potatoes, and cabbage. A right proper English meal, minus the meat roast.
This is what the table looked like all pretty and decorated.

And THIS is a picture of the aftermath of Christmas Crackers. For those of you unfamiliar with this English/Irish tradition, you have these crackers and you open them and they pop. The person who gets the bigger side wins the cracker. Inside you have a fortune, a toy, and a ridiculous paper hat.

Look! Juliet and I and ridiculous paper hats!

Well, I went home to the states for Christmas. I wasn't there nearly as long as I would have liked, but flight prices are a bit crazy these days, so I took what I could get. I was feeling MAJOR homesickness, as I've mentioned before, and it was so so so good to be home. Really. However, before I got home, I got bumped from my flight. (Which, by the way, meant that the airline gave me lots and lots of money. SWEET.)

I spent a lot of time in Heathrow airport on the 23rd of December, and I decided that if all airports were like this one, it wouldn't be so bad to get bumped from your flight! (It's a comfy chair to sleep on! I was hovering over this couple, trying to sketch them out so that they would get up and I could have the chair. It did not work.)

Let's see. In summary, while I was home what did I do? Primarily, I ate. Sickening amounts.

Here I am, eating. Surprise, Surprise. This is the Uccello's annual Christmas Eve party. We came, we ate. We conquered. AND, we sang Christmas Carols!

What IS it with vacation and food? Why do we associate gluttony with happiness. (Deep thought for the day.) After eating, I hung out with the fam, and saw my awesome Connecticut friends. (Shout out to all of you reading this!) I think that the following two photos sum up my family all too well ;) (LOVE YOU GUYS!)

Here is my sistie-pants appreciating the gift I gave her. Oh yea. Best. Picture. Ever.

And here is her daughter, following in her footsteps. Dance Party at the Hammer House! (In further photo news, I decided NOT to include the picture of my parents smootching. Ewww ;) !)

Besides family things, I spent the majority of the vacation with my girl friends. (This is Myself, Aly, and Meredith.) It was nice to be hanging out with the ladies again. We really only see each other once a year at this point, and I'm always sad when we all go our separate ways again!

Finally, what would a trip home be without an obligatory china pan run. Robby, Sarah, Lisa, and I went for lunch and stayed SO long, we thought about ordering dinner, too! Whoops!

So that, my friends, leads us to blog part two, New years and European Travels. I will end this blog with a couple of lists:


A quick list of things that suck about London:
1. Bagels--Do I want butter AND cream cheese? What the hell? Who would ASK such a thing. (Yes, I have a food problem.)
2. My mom's lack of a passport. (SO she has too many fake names and the government thinks she is a terrorist. Come on. My mom. A terrorist? I guess this doesn't really suck about London, but it sucks that currently my parents can't visit.)
3. Eamonn. Well, he doesn't suck (good guy, blabla. bad situation. blabla.) but I thought I should mention for the sake of blog-honesty that our unofficial relationship had a very official break-up. Merry Christmas to me.
4. Grid-less-ness. I like cities that have a grid. Or really, the grid is completely unnecessary, but could the city at least have SOME semblance of organization! I canNOT get around without getting lost EVERY time I go to Central London. (In the words of Brandon Karrow: Can I LIVE?)
5. The fact that I may, MAY, have bed-bugs. I'll keep you posted on this. Outcome--Yet to be determined.

A top-five awesome things about London:
1. My hockey team
2. The fact that I just scored a job 4 days a week until June/July at the same school everyday. NINE MINUTES BIKE RIDE AWAY. Goodbye commute, hello enhanced quality of life! (I start on Tuesday so further news to come.)
3. It's cheaper than Ireland now that the pound is SO weak, and it's close enough that I can hop-over if I want to.
4. My room. It IS amazing.
5. Multi-cultural-ness.

Comment, dudes :)

Love, Sarah