Christmas with the Lovells

John, Amy, & Preston came for Christmas!

 

This is the front of their flat.  Amy's brother was staying in London and they had extra room, so the kids stayed with them for two nights & got a chance to visit before he had to go back to Israel.

 

They came a couple of days early.

 

 

This English Bloke keeps popping up, especially when we're in front of a Byron's.  They make the Best hamburgers!!!  Would definitely recommend them!

 

  We met up with the kids on Christmas Eve Day and spent the entire day with them in London and loved every minute of it!!!  Our first stop was in front of Big Ben.

 

We got caught in a downpour and when it stopped we took pictures in front of West Minster Abby.

It was closed for the day, so we weren't able to go inside.

 

We Never get tired of London!!!  It's a Beautiful City!!!

 

Couldn't resist this one.

 

We did a first--we Walked across Tower Bridge!

 

We Explored the "other" side of the Thames & it was Fun!

 

It looks like we're in front of a backdrop, but it was all REAL!

 

Christmas Morning in our little flat.  It was Great!!!

 

Our Missionaries--came over to call their parents.  Elders Kgwatiane & Palmer. 

They were pretty Excited!!!  It was fun for us to hear their laughter and Excitement

as they talked with their families.  (We couldn't hear their conversations, we gave

them some privacy.)

 

Just a couple of "Old" people looking at wonderful pictures!!!

 

Preston in his little Tug Boat sweatshirt.

 

Boxing Day--we went to Canterbury.  Lovely city!

 

One of the canals that goes through the Old section of Canterbury.  Very Quaint!

 

This is the Famous Canterbury Cathedral where Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170.

For all of you who studied the Canterbury Tales in English, this is where Chaucer & his

tales were going on their pilgrimages. 

 

Some of the stained glass inside the cathedral.

 



We also made it to the White Cliffs of Dover while the sun was still up.  We

were lucky, because we only had 7 hours of daylight while the kids were here.

We didn't get to Dover until about 3 in the afternoon and it was DARK by

4:30pm.

 

This is the English Channel.  We could see France in the distance.

 

On Friday after Christmas our Bishop and his wife and daughters were so kind to us and invited

Preston over to their house to spend the day with them so we could take John & Amy to the Theatre.

We went to Les Miserables  and LOVED it!!!  Preston was spoiled rotten by the Warner's.  They

played with him, took him to the park, had a huge bouncy ball for him, read to him, etc. etc. etc.

He didn't even Notice that we had left!!!  When we came back Preston was still Loving his new

found friends.  Not only did they babysit for us while we went to the show, but they insisted that

we have dinner with them before we left.  Couldn't have asked for a Better Day!!!  Thank You Warners!!!

 

Saturday we sent John & Amy to London on their own & we kept Preston and took him down

to the Thames and let him feed the birds.  He Loved it.  We took all kinds of bread and the

birds loved it too.  We took him for a walk around Gravesend and just had a great day!!!

 

 

Sunday after church we drove over to East Grinstead and visited the London Temple Visitor's

Center.  It was a Beautiful day. 

 

We couldn't have had a better time with the kids.  It was GREAT!!!  What

a Wonderful ending to spend our last afternoon on the Temple grounds.  It was

Beautiful!!!  (Our Close friend is the Head Gardener there--Nick Palmer.  He has

done an Excellent job with the grounds!!!  Can't wait to go back!)

 

This was a most Great Holiday!  I don't think it could have been better.  Thank

you John & Amy for sharing your Christmas with us!!!

 

That's all she wrote! 

Bye for now.



An Angel came to Church

December 22, 2013

 

During Sunday School our ward put on a Nativity and it was Lovely.  We actually had "Angel Gabriel" show up!  Very Interesting! 

 

 

Our bishopric were the Wise Men.  They were good sports.  This was a First for us and we Loved it!

 

 

The stable was painted by a former counselor in the bishopric who passed away in September.  He was very talented!  It was beautiful!

 

 

This was "Gabriel" without his halo.

 

 

Sue was one of the Shepherds.

 

 

 Mary

 

 

Joseph & a shepherd

 

 

 

Little Angels

 

 

Tina was the innkeeper's wife.

 

 

Jenny, our Primary President was responsible for this wonderful presentation.  It was filled with Christmas Carols from the Primary hymnbook and the regular hymnbook.  It was a beautiful prelude to Christmas!

 

 

Thank You Everyone for the Beautiful Christmas Spirit!

We LOVE this Ward!

 

Nuts to You!!!

We had a Scary Adventure this week!!!  I always make treats for our Institute classes and I happen to LOVE Nuts!!!  There are a couple of our students that don't "care" for them and one is allergic to them. (so sad)  Now I make my Congo Bars and Brownies in my special pans, but only put Nuts in half of them.  It has worked pretty nice and of course, it helps me because I don't like brownies or congo bars without them!  WELL, one of our boys (Danny) couldn't make it to Institute on Tuesday night, but he made a Special Effort to come on Wednesday night with our senior sisters.  We were so Excited to see him!!!  I had my congo bars separated and gave him an entire container Without Nuts.  I passed the bars out to the sisters and Danny remarked, "Sister Lovell are you sure there aren't any nuts in these?"  I told him I was sure and double checked.  His tongue had started to tingle and then his throat started to tighten.  He was scared.  One of the sisters offered him a ride home and he wasn't going to accept, then he said YES and they shot out of there.  He has pills at home, so Tina took him home.  Anyway we were visiting with the other sisters and cleaning up the room when Tina got back.  As we were walking downstairs to the foyer, one of our Laurels had just received a text from Danny that he was on his way to Emergency!!!  We were Shocked!!!  I felt like crying!!!  Tina offered to drive us to Dartford so we could see him.  We were Grateful to her for that special service.

 

He was Proud because they had to get a Larger cuff to take his blood pressure!

 

Elder Lovell was Very Happy to see that Danny was going to be all right!

 

 

Danny's mother Terri was very happy as well.  We found out the next day that Danny wasn't released until 1am in the morning.  We didn't get home until after 11pm.  We are Grateful for modern medicine.  I will be Doubly careful when preparing food.  I think there was a trace on the knife that I used to cut the bars.  I'm buying a separate pan and using a separate knife! 

 

 

I've been a little behind on our blog.  The next part is a Pancake Upside Down Dinner we had for our YSA's.  We LOVE these kids and thoroughly enjoy having them in our flat!!!

 

 

We didn't know that the kids over here love pancakes so much!  They were surprised at how we mix sweet with "savory"!  Now I personally can't imagine a pancake without an egg on top with maple syrup and a piece of bacon to wash it down. 

 

 

I think Asher ate about a dozen sausages. 

 

 

I ate my annual hotcake and egg.  Elder Lovell & I were demonstrating the "proper" way to eat pancakes and eggs.  ha ha ha

 

 

 

Chloe just put maple syrup on Danny's pancake and he wasn't happy.  He then proceeded to get a new pancake, poked holes in it with a fork, squoze a fresh lemon all over it and then covered it with sugar and ate it!  That's a new way to eat a pancake.  He said it was delicious.

 

 

Jack was Very Adventurous because he was especially concerned about combining "sweet" with "savory," but he tried it and finished it and we Think he Liked it.

 

 

We're assuming that this means Flavia Liked it!   Sorry Chloe, I missed you.  Chloe was in the group picture at the beginning.  It was a fun evening.  Flavia planned a nice fireside for us after and it was wonderful!  We Love having our YSA's over to eat and have a fireside and a visit.  They are a Great group of kids!!! 

 

Bye for now.

 

The Perfect "P" Day!

We had the Perfect "P" Day on Thursday, November 28, 2013--Thanksgiving!  We got up and took the train to Charing Cross and met the Johnsons from our five days in the MTC in Provo and spent the day and evening in LONDON!!!  We got there around lunch time and went to lunch in the "Crypt."  It's really a crypt!  It is underneath the church St Martin's-in-the-Fields.  It's a burial ground and we were walking on flat headstones in the floor.  It looked like it was "full."  Anyway we heard that they donate their proceeds to the homeless, so we thought it would be an appropriate place to eat on Thanksgiving.  At 1pm they had a 30 minute musical celebration of Christ the King.  It was very lovely!!!

 

We were able to hear the organ as well--kind of exciting.

 

 

Our friends Elder and Sister Johnson from Boise, ID.

 

 

  I thought this was an interesting window in this old church.  It was built in 1724--it's older than America!  There has been a church on this site since the Middle Ages.  It's also in Trafalgar Square.

 

 

This was in Covent Gardens.  That's a fun place to go.  They have all kinds of markets there and street performers that are always fun.  (My hair and London weather are not a great combination!)

 

 

This is a "live" Rudolph!

 

 

We went to a small London Movie Museum and we saw this and....

 

This!

 

 

This was Piccadilly Circus and the big bubble in the background was a giant snow globe.

 

 

Here's that English chap again.  I think he likes the name Byron. 

(If you ever get to London, they make the Best hamburgers!!!)

I forgot to mention that we had just eaten our Thanksgiving Dinner at a Mexican restaurant 

in Leicester Square.

It was good, but they still need help over here with the Mexican. 

 

 

And for the Finally--Byron took me to the London Coliseum to see Mozart's

"The Magic Flute"

You are right--we went to the Opera for Thanksgiving!!!

 

 

This was a wonderful Opera House.  It holds 2,000 people and it was full!  We had Great seats.  This was our first time to a "professional" opera and it was wonderful! The cast was amazing.  They had powerful voices.  This was a new Adventure!

 

We had a Great Day and Evening.  Thankfully we were close to the train station because we were on the Last train home to Gravesend from London!  We got there with just 10 minutes to spare.  Actually the train ride home was also an adventure.  The train was FULL when we left Charing Cross.  We were all cramped and we were tired.  We were sitting in a group area I looked up and someone was sitting beside us.  He wanted to talk, so we visited all the way to Dartford when he realized he was on the Wrong train.  It was midnight and he hopped off the train & waved good by to us.  It was pretty funny.  All the way home Byron kept asking him about his stop because we had never seen it.  He assured us that he was ok until he heard Dartford.  ha ha ha  It was quite funny. 

 

We've been here since August 10 and this was our first Big Adventure, and it was thoroughly enjoying!!!

 

Bye for now.



"Cynthia, That was a Comma, Not a Period!"

We've had another party!  This time it was with our Senior Institute Class.  They were a Lot of FUN!  We introduced them to Pulled Pork Barbecued Sandwiches with "Bull's-Eye" Barbecue Sauce.  They Loved it!!!  In fact they all wanted to take some home for lunch the next day.  I was a little worried that they might not like it, but it seemed to be a hit.  They also were introduced to Congo Bars--they liked those too. 

 

The funny thing that happened at the party was Byron was telling a story and I was going to add some details and as I went to open my mouth, he said, "Cynthia, that was a Comma, Not a Period."  Everyone just busted up and laughed and laughed and laughed.  It was so funny that I couldn't help it and I laughed with them.

 

Anyway this is the third time we have cooked barbecue and every time it has been a hit!  So far American food seems to be quite popular.  I made two 7-layer dips last Friday.  One was requested by one of our YSA's for her 25th birthday party.  I also made one for the ward party the same night--thank you to Lindsay for mailing my package of Taco Seasonings!!!  The stuff here isn't the same.

 

 We made pulled pork for the missionaries this past Saturday and they LOVED it!!! One of them is from France and one from South Africa.  Then our Ward Mission Leader and his wife also came for dinner and he is from Portugal and she is from Poland. We also introduced them to Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing (Thank You Lindsay).  Our daughter also sent us packages of that and we made it up and the salad was a big hit!  (It's interesting, but people over here don't get too excited about salads--I think it might be the dressings available.  I'm doing a little study on that.)

 

 We had a Mexican theme for our party.  Hazel got a piñata everyone tried to break it.

 

 

 We didn't have a blindfold, so we just closed our eyes.  Byron was twirling me around.

 

 

I was the last one to try, so I peaked and broke it! 

 

This is Tina (red) & Sue (black) they are a lot of fun.  Tina is the one who has driven us all over creation.  She has an infectious laugh.  Behind you can see our chapel.  Our chapel and cultural hall are the same room.  When we're being "cultured" it's a cultural hall, gym, recreation hall, etc. and on Sundays or other special occasions, it's a Chapel.

 

 

This is what it looks like on the outside.  I don't know who that English Bloke is that keeps popping up in my pictures.  He is kind of Cute though isn't he!

 

 

This is what it looks like inside the gate.  It's really a beautiful building.  We finally have a KEY!!!  That has been so Exciting because we could never get into the building without having to make special arrangements etc.  Now we can lock up, open up, clean up, etc. etc. etc.  We're going to start doing some Family History at the church and open it up to anyone who wants to come.  We're excited about that! 

 

We are really Loving our Book of Mormon Institute Classes that we are teaching--Byron is doing most of the teaching and I am his assistant!  We do a LOT of studying!!!  (We LIKE it!)  We LOVE the kids (Young Adults) that we are working with!  We really Enjoy them!  It's Great to be here and we also LOVE the ward members!  We just feel very welcome and that's a nice feeling.  The ward is small but the people are very friendly.

 

 

I had to put this picture in because if you look real hard, you can see a ship floating down the "street."

If you look straight up the middle and see a "white" building, that's a Big ship sailing down the Thames.  We live just to the left--not in the picture, but our flat is really close to the one in the picture.

This is the view we see almost everyday when we walk "Up" the street to go to the church, town center, the train, the bus, etc.  That Tudor building is a Pub.  The cars parked on the left are all taxis.  This is our little town.

 

Bye for now.