Christmas in England

Rayna, Tyler and Hannah playing pooh sticks on the bridge

So Dawn and I collected the girls and Tyler from school early and headed to the airport.  It was finally time for the gang to fly to the UK and meet the other side of the family. So many things were different and yet so much the same.

Shopping in Tescos with Nan and Grandad on Day 1

The first few days were spent in and around Braintree as we all struggled with jet lag and getting used to being hungry / tired at all the wrong times.

Walking through Braintree town centre

England's secret food (sausage rolls)

After a few days (and discovering how good sausage rolls taste).  We set off to spend the weekend in derbyshire and visit some relatives.

A tea party with Charlotte

Drawing with Kimia

Having spent the weekend up north we returned home, there's so much more that we did that isn't covered on the blog such as the trip to the zoo and the day at crazy kids but you can get the ide we were kind of busy.

Playing games with Paul, Julie, Rebecca and Annabelle

Outside Colchester Castle

For more of a taster you can see some more of the things we did on the video below.

Christmas in Central, Louisiana

So it's been a while since we updated this blog but there's been a lot going on.  I (Martin) managed to get over to Louisiana from mid November and join the family for some pre Christmas fun before we all flew back to the UK for Christmas.

The above family picture was taken at Dawns dads and is one of our first with us all in.  To be honest it's a mix of two images as Tyler decided to be grumpy in the main picture so I had to change his head to make a good image (where would we be without photoshop).

Here's another shot of the gang playing on the logs outside Paw paws.  Although it looks posed it really was a grab shot, with Tyler deciding to get in on the action at the very last second.  One of the things we did was attend the Central Christmas parade, which was a new experience for me.  Standing in a T shirt in the sun as Santa comes past is something that doesn't occur in England.

Anyway here's a short video of some of the parade and watch what happens when the Central High School football team spots Dawn (their favourite teacher) in the crowd.