Thursday, to be honest, just felt like Thursday. There was no build up or advertisements for Thanksgiving- no one is talking about it, no Macy's Day parade. Out of sight, out of mind so to speak. We did know that all of our friends and family were celebrating and we knew what we were missing - weird is how I describe it.
That day, the boys went to school like any normal day. Mark took the day off and we went out for a nice lunch and picked up our Christmas tree. We decided to go fake this year since we will be back in the states for a little bit, didn't want to take the tree down before we left, yada, yada. We then picked the kids up from school early and headed into Kew Gardens in Richmond- Christmas in Kew. The kids met Father Christmas aka Santa and they were pretty excited. They were the only kids there at the time. Perfect.
The rest of Christmas in Kew wasn't the most festive display we have ever seen but it was pretty. They had an illuminated trail throughout the botanical gardens which would be lovely to see during the day time. We shall go back!
And of course it wouldn't be an outing with out a few amusement rides.
Saturday we were invited to a full on Thanksgiving dinner hosted by our only American friends here- Megan and Alex. It was really nice to have the turkey and all the fixin's. It was a good day and we were certainly thankful.
Sunday- this was the perfect ending to our weekend. The Santa Fun Run in Marlow. It was a quick 5K through the town of Marlow- dressed as Santa. Every single person that ran had the same Santa outfit on. Hilarious. We decided to push the kids in the double BOB. We have never done that before- not even when they were much, much smaller. In hindsight it would have been a piece of cake. They are not the lightest children anymore! BUT- between Mark and I trading off, we managed just fine. We took pride in the fact that we were the first double stroller to cross the finish line although we may have been the only double stroller to participate.
Our pictures are below but we did happen to make some local press: Marlow Santa Fun Run
Scroll down to the bottom and there we are just about to cross the finish line. By the looks of us you would think we just ran 10 miles and not 3. Running pictures are never flattering.
Ho Ho Ho!
The warm up.
Lots and lots of Santa's.
Down High Street
Our friends Emma and Ray cheered us on and got this action shot below. Thank you guys!
Also, we had dinner with them on Friday night and not only did we have a great time we had a great bottle(s) of wine. For anyone who loves Sauvignon Blanc please try Mansion House from New Zealand.
We all won the race!
That night we attempted to decorate the Christmas tree. I got the lights up - three strings- and the kids started to put their decorations on. Then, one by one, each string of lights blew out. We actually thought we could use our US lights with a adapter, as we have done for most things here. Nope.
Here is the tree with all lights shining very brightly. This should have been a warning. Way too bright.
And here it is with the last string.
Since then the tree has been re-strung and re-decorated. Lesson learned.
It was a fun busy weekend and took me until today to recuperate! I hope everyone is starting to enjoy the Christmas season as much as I am.
Coming up: Mark's 40th birthday weekend in London- blog to follow!
Looks like you had a great "Thanksgiving" weekend! Seems like you made the best of the normal Thursday that you could. The Santa Run looks like fun! Your Christmas tree looks beautiful! Counting the days to see you! xoxoxo
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