Quite Like, Rather Dislike: Round 8

Quite Like: Innocent Pure Fruit Smoothies

These are amazing! I tried them when we were visiting our friends in London, and when I saw them on sale at Tesco, I splurged. They're the organic-no preservatives-no gluten-no wheat- no fake kind of thing. Nathan likes to call them "free range smoothies." They're better than Bagels and Blenderz or Jamba Juice or Smoothie King or Planet Smoothie. They're more juicy than icy, which I like, and the flavor is positively explosive! I tried the blueberry and acai flavor first. Yum! Mango and passion fruit is scrummy (scrumptious + yummy, as the Brits would say) as well. Cheers!

Rather Dislike: Not Much Resealable Packaging

I've totally taken for granted the fact that most American products are resealable: crackers and cereal have the box top, cheese and meats have the zipper close, bread has the twisty tie, frozen foods have some way of sealing it to keep the contents from getting freezer burn, etc. It's not nearly as common here. Sometimes there's a little sticker on the rice or bread or whatever so you can roll the plastic down and seal it with that, but it never sticks for more than a few minutes. That's good news if you don't want more expensive and probably wasteful packaging, but it's sometimes bad news for a girl who just wants to have the convenience.

"Just put it in a Ziploc bag!" you say? Those aren't as common either. I finally found some generic zip close plastic sandwich sized bags at Tesco online, and I was really pumped about them. I've turned into one of those people who cleans the used ones out and reuses them. Up until now I've had the dual handled plastic bags, kind of like mini versions of plastic grocery bags. They work okay, but there's just too much going on with the excess plastic and the knots I tie to keep the air out. 

Listen to me... there are worse things to complain about! I guess you know it's going really well for us here when I have to whine about the lack of zip close plastic bags.

I'm off to put these just opened deli meats in my NEW (used) Ziploc bag from Mrs. Qualls. :)


So, my dear readers, if you've been to England, what do you quite like and/or rather dislike? The gorgeous countryside? The now-fabled bureaucracy? The accents? Feelings of claustrophobia on an island? If you've never been to England, what can you imagine you'd love and/or hate?  

Thank You Sandy and Bobby

I'm famous! A complete stranger sent me an amazing box of goodies! I LOVE BLOGGING!!! 


Back story: The said stranger, Sandy, lived in Washington D.C. for a while and become friends with some Taylor graduates of whom I know by name and face but with whom I was not friends (I think that was grammatically correct). When she moved to Colorado, she kept up with them through their blogs. She began following a friend of theirs, a friend of mine and fellow Taylor Communications major, and fell in love with her family's story. It was through her blog that Sandy found mine, perhaps-not-so-coincidentally because one of her original D.C. friends and I share the same fairly common married last name. You follow? 


Anyway, Sandy e-mailed me to assure me that she was a real person before sending me the sweetest package, a huge, heavy box full of goodies that just blessed my socks off. I can't believe how stinking expensive it is to ship anything anywhere these days, but to ship something huge and heavy to England?! Sandy and her husband could have a nice dinner for two at Tahoe Joe's for the price she paid to send it all here. Thank you, thank you, thank you for choosing to spoil us instead!

Okay, the reason I have five chins is because I'm trying to keep all the goodies balanced without falling. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Nathan put a box of muffin mix on my "doo rag," as he calls it. It's just a head scarf/band/thingy, a.k.a. my "I didn't shower today and I don't want people to see my greasy hairline accessory."

*Out comes the camera extender!

More garlic!  I'm FREE from the bondage of raw garlic! More straws! Woohoo! To balance all the straws, I'm going to have to put out a plea for more Crystal Light Peach Mango Green Tea mix, not that I'm being particular. Don't you all rush out at once to the post office. I'm not begging right now. I brought several boxes with us when we moved here. I'll let you know when I'm running low.

She sent me heavy liquids, like a whole carton of chicken broth (already in the crock pot making white bean chicken chili, thank you very much) and some saline solution. I couldn't believe it!

More chocolate chips! Muffin mix! Seasoning packets! Sausage! Specialty mustard! The sweetest hand-written note! I'm in heaven! 

This is what I had for dinner last night, plus probably six more cracker creations that I'd already eaten. Nathan was at the library until 10 p.m., so I dove right into the goodies and made myself some mac and cheese and some cracker/sausage/cheese/sweet-and-spicy-mustard creations. There's nothing quite like food to make you feel like you're in America, and it don't get no more American  than boxed mac and cheese, people.

Here Sandy with her husband, Bobby. They look so fun! I'm coveting her gorgeous glossy hair. 

Sandy, I want to be more like you! I really admire you for 1) commenting on a stranger's blog (mine), 2) e-mailing the author of the blog (me), and 3) sending the author and her husband (us) some really wicked-cool treats. Thank you so much!

Sidenote: I rarely, I mean rarely, ever comment on people's blogs who I don't know personally. Actually, I don't think I ever have... except maybe at The Sartorialist once... oh, and at Kendi Everyday once. I told her her hair looked rad. She actually commented on my comment and said that rad was the raddest compliment. I was really stoked! All that to say, I'm really inspired by Sandy to reach out to people whose blogs I look forward to reading. It's such a huge boost to keep writing and sharing and hopefully encouraging others. 

Deep breath... I guess this means I need to come out of the blogstalking closet and confess to Davi. She's so cool! I'm scared...

A Socialized Medicine Reflection

I must say, I've been very touched by some readers' concern for my health since being here. It has been a frustrating process, trying to navigate the socialized medicine system, but in some ways it's been easier. First of all, everyone we've met has been very kind, the nurses especially. I really like them. Secondly, all we had to do to see a doctor was show a utility bill and our IDs to confirm our address and we were in the system. We haven't paid a dime for a single visit or any medical supplies or prescriptions, which as been amazing seeing as how we just don't have a lot of money to spend on copays. We were going to the doctor a lot before we left the States to take care of any medical issues, and at $50 a visit, it really added up.

What's been tough has been the ssssllllloooowwwwnnneeesss of getting things done. In order to see a specialist (anyone besides a general practitioner), I have to make an appointment with the GP, go to the GP, and then listen to the GP tell me that he/she will request an appointment with a specialist for me. Then, I have to go home and wait for a letter to come in the mail telling me when my appointment is with that particular specialist, which could be months. Months for an endocrinology appointment. Months for the insulin. Months for the supplies. Thankfully it's all here now.

The other thing that has been difficult is the lack of communication between them and me, them and them, and them and anyone else in the medical profession. I haven't seen the same doctor twice since I've been here, and each time I see someone new I feel like I have to "start over" with them: explaining who I am, telling them an abbreviated version of my medical history, showing them my papers, them making copies for my file, yada, yada, yada. I don't have a relationship with any ONE doctor. No one I've met here says "my doctor" because no one has one. They go to "their surgery" (clinic) where they see whoever is on that day. There has to be something lost in that lack of relationship between doctor and patient, I think.

I called recently to follow up about my blood tests from Thanksgiving Day. I figured no news was good news, but I was curious as to what my A1C was. I learned that they don't call people after testing unless it's bad news. Good to know... After pressing for my results anyway and getting shuffled around the office a bit (some things are the same in both countries), a diabetes nurse told me my number and proceeded to advise me about how to handle my disease. She worried that my score was "too good" and that I should come in for a management class. "I haven't seen your file before now, and I know all of our diabetic patients," she said. "Have you been to our surgery?"

I wanted to say, "I've practically lived at your surgery for a few months, but you must have been on holiday. Does anyone there talk to anyone else?" but instead I said, "Yes ma'am, I have."

All that to say, 1) Thanks for your concern for me and my health, 2) There are flaws in the both US system and the UK system, 3) I am absolutely not slamming the kind-hearted people in the National Health Service here in England, but their system is not efficient. If I had undiagnosed cancer and went in with stomach pain or something and had to wait months to even be referred from a GP to a specialist of some sort, I'd be really ticked, and then I'd be dead.

This guy says it best, I think. He's English. He thinks that the NHS needs to be privatized, and I tend to agree with his reasoning, especially toward the end of his video. The quote that made me nod my head the most was something along the lines of, "The only thing more unresponsive than large insurance companies is the government."



I don't mean to offend people who are excited about socialized medicine, nor do I want, in any way, for this blog to become political or a place for people to debate in the comments section. These are just my reflections as a person with a chronic illness on my personalized experience with two very different health care systems on both sides of the pond. Man, that last sentence had a lot of prepositional phrases. Sorry.

Meet Frank

This is Frank. Frank is not our dog, so don't get excited. Frank belongs to Mike, who is our landlord's caretaker. Mike can been seen doing gardening and fixing-uping and those kinds of things. He makes our little enclave of homes idyllic. Anyway, Frank has a lot of energy, and when Mike is busy working, Frank likes to come over and say "hi."

I'm usually on the computer when I hear a little bang on the door from his paw. "Hi Frank," I say back. "Frank, I don't know if you noticed, but it's pouring down rain and only 37 degrees outside."

Frank doesn't seem to mind but wants to play ball anyway. For all you dog lovers out there, I'm ashamed to say that I did not play with him. The weather, you see...

Thank You EBQ and CLQ

I LOVE care packages! Unlike the good mail, which I rip open right away, I wait to open boxes until Nathan is around so we can document the experience. We got one yesterday from Mr. and Mrs. Qualls, dear Whitefield friends from Atlanta.

First, I just loved this picture because his face is saying, "How 'bout a hug?"

I tried opening the package with the scissors, but I was having a bit of trouble, so Nathan took over. He had some trouble too. They sure packed it really well! We finally got it open...

And holy moly, it was AMAZING!!! It's like Mrs. Qualls took notes on every post, my every quite like and rather dislike, and put a package together accordingly. Straws, Dove soap, gum, chocolate chips ("because your four pounds won't last forever," she said), hair dye, etc. Sigh... What they didn't realize would be an extra bonus for me was all of the Ziploc bags they were packaged in. I was really excited about those too. What a blessing!

With baby lotion in my right hand and a huge jar of minced garlic in my left, I was over the moon! I grabbed Nathan by the collar and said, "Do you even realize how many hours of mincing garlic are in this jar?" 

Nathan's favorite item in the box was a little gadget to screw the digital camera on. It's so he doesn't have to do the one armed stretch as usual. He's holding it out with no camera on it in this picture. You'll see what it does in the next two.

Amazing!

Thank you so much EBQ and CLQ! You blessed us so much!

Uncle Bob, Your Prize

I found this print at the outdoor market this weekend, and I think it's very wintry, perfect for our January contest winner. Nathan and I walk on the path where this picture was taken very often, and when we're lucky, we get to see people rowing as well. 

Congratulations Uncle Bob! I'm going to try to mail this out to you tomorrow.

What's a Girl Gotta Do to Keep Warm?

Cold barn + feathery, furry hooded vest + warm bathrobe = Hunchback of Notre Dame

I Got a Six at the Sun Stare

In effort to fight unemployment (me)/working from home (him) cabin fever, Nathan and I took a walk toward the country instead of the city. We did a little loop around a farm, similar to the walk we took on Christmas day, but we didn't go all the way up to the prison this time. :) 

 Look! No snow! The glasses sure do help with the notification of this fact.

I've got my feathery, furry vest on. It's sweet.

The light was beautiful and we decided to hoof it to the top of the hill and play the sun stare game, a la Brian Regan. "That's not a good activity." 

The only difference between this picture and the previous one is that Nathan has his stomach sucked in.

An update on the job search: it's been feast or famine, and today was a good day. I visited a school and did some observations. It was good to be in around kids again. They're so funny! Recently there have been some promising leads with another university temp job and with school contacts. I just need to stay focused, keep pursuing different leads, and not get overwhelmed. Thanks for your prayers and well wishes.

Worlds Collide

Just got the bowls I ordered on eBay. That was seriously the fastest customer service I've ever had through the post - ever - not just in England. From "click to purchase" to doorstep, they were here in less than two days. That's the good part. The bad part is that they reeked of cigarette smoke and they're the wrong size. Ugh. I don't even have the money or heart to mail them back. I'll just deal with having three big bowls and three medium bowls. And if you know me, you know that is a big freakin' deal. I'm almost a slave to uniformity. See? I'm growing in grace.


Anyway, we had our guests over last night, and I am excited to finally post that it was a WHITEFIELD GRAD and her English husband. Yeah. Susan is being supervised by the same professor as Nathan, and we all met at the said professor's house for a Christmas lunch he hosted for his students and their significant others. We arrived there and, after taking off our coats, Professor Ryrie looked to Nathan and Susan and said, "I think you both are from Atlanta." 


"What? That's weird. I haven't met anyone in England from Georgia at all," she said.


"Us either! Where abouts are you from?"


"Vinings."


"What? No way! We lived off of South Cobb Drive!"


"Crazy! I went to school off of that exit."


"Wait. Which one?"


"Um... it's a small Christian school. Whitefield Academy?"


Long stunned silence.


Nathan (pointing at me): "SHE TAUGHT THERE FOR FOUR YEARS!!!"


The room fell quiet, and all 12 people were staring at us.


It was pretty wild. What are the odds? It turns out she was in the same class as our friend Liz, which led to the telling of all our best Liz stories, including my personal favorite - the time she sneaked in a nine month pregnant belly's worth of Coke and snacks into the Fox theater using a big shirt and some Ace bandages to hold it all in... and then saw an old boyfriend.


Anyway, we told Susan and James, her husband, (another weird coincidence since my parents-in-law are Susan and James) that we'd have them over after the holidays, and we finally did last night. It got even weirder when, over some apple dessert cake, we discovered that Susan went to a prom hosted by Nathan's old high school with Nathan's brother's good friend. She double dated with Nathan's brother and his date, and they traveled to prom in a limo together. 


"Wait! You're Andrew Parker's brother?" she said, leaning forward with wide eyes.


I just flipped open the coffee table book of our wedding to the page with Nathan and his brothers. Susan stared at it incredulously and then started back at her apple dessert cake, thinking something along the lines of, "I'm so weirded out right now." It went on and on... she camped and worked at Camp Westminster, the same camp that all the Parker kids camped/worked at, she attended church where Nathan "fake attended" when he was in his rebellious years, she shared mutual friends from both places (camp and church), etc.


"Sorry Susan..." I said. "It looks like we've been sent by your past to haunt you."


And then we took some pictures.


Good times.

 The usual pose: Nathan, me, Susan, James

Liz (the blonde, not the Victorian angel) and Susan: high school classmates reunited, if only through a Christmas card.

A Game I Actually Like

I hate games. Yes, I do. I hate them. I claim it's because I'm not in the least competitive, but really, I hate the pressure of competition because it makes me lose. So, I guess I hate to lose, which means I really am more competitive than most people because I won't even compete if there's a possibility of losing. Um, yikes.

I don't get excited about "I'll race you to the top" or "Last one out the door is a rotten egg" or "Let's play tennis" or "Want to play cards?" or anything. Nathan says that my life motto is, "Yeah... I'm not really up for that." It's really true for the most part. If left on my own, I'd be a complete bump on a log, which is why Nathan is good for me. I can balance his "Let's play on the roof" with my "Let's watch The Sound of Music," which usually ends up being a nice walk outdoors.

I've deliberately been trying to get out of myself and try new things when asked lately, which is harder for me than one might imagine. Almost every time we hang out with Sam and Em, they want to play a game. They've  known about my game phobia since we first met, so I'm convinced they keep at it for my own sanctification. Every game we've played so far I've landed in last place... Dominion, Bananagrams, etc. However, the Lord smiled upon my game playing on Friday night, and I came in second place in this wonderfully simple game: Pucket. 

All you have to do is get all of the wooden discs through a slot and onto the opponent's side using a long rubber band to propel it. It's kind of like air hockey... old school style. There are names for funny things that happen when the discs don't do what you want them to do: Gatekeeper's Dinner, Neptune's Kiss, Cardinal's Revenge, Flying Sailor, etc. Click on the picture below to read about it.

 Here's Nathan and Sam posing with the board before a friendly game. 

Before starting, you have to touch hands in the middle, and then someone says "go."

And then Sam smashes all of your confidence to pieces in 3.6 seconds. See above. 

I started out playing Sam, who beat me while giving me tips on how to beat him. Afterward, I  beat Nathan fairly quickly, which resulted in a victory dance that came out of the deepest recesses of my being. It was completely other-worldly. Then Emily and I played a match. With each other's husbands shouting encouragement to their wives, we played while we held our breath for way too long. After I finally won, we both felt like throwing up all of our milk and cookies - literally tossing our cookies - for the constant pressure of shouting in our ears and the lack of oxygen to our brains.


It was actually kind of fun.

I Miss Our House

Tomorrow we are having a new couple over for dinner, and I've come up against a few frustrations in making preparations. 


First, I was going through some recipes I brought from the States, and I'm not able to use most of them because of 1) lack of available ingredients (frozen shredded hash browns, canned pumpkin, pre-made pie crust, Cool Whip, taco seasoning, etc.) or 2) lack of proper kitchen appliances and/or some other essential item (blender, food processor, 9 1/2 x 13 baking pan, jelly roll pan [which I actually don't think it would fit in our oven, to be honest], etc.). 


Then, I broke a cereal/soup bowl while doing the dishes last night, which puts us down to only three bowls. Sigh... I already had to ask our neighbor to borrow bowls when we had company before. I thought we should at least get our grand total up to six like the rest of our dishes, so I looked online for a replacement for the one I broke along with two more. It turns out that they weren't too expensive to replace (about 3 GBP each) despite being vintage, but the shipping cost about the same as all three bowls. Grrr... Oh well. At least they're kinda cute... very Anthropologie-esque. 

Anyway, the point of this post is that while possessions do not bring ultimate happiness and simplicity is freedom and I don't need lots of things to practice hospitality and blah blah blah, today I'm finding it frustrating to go without items that I already have... in Atlanta. I have perfectly good dishes at home with place settings for 12 for every day (the whites from World Market) or for special occasions (Grandma Bonnie's china). I have muffin tins and pie platters and a cake stand/punch bowl and Le Creuset baking dishes (the latter as a wedding gift from Mrs. Camell, which make me want to kiss her every time I use them). 


And while I'm at it, we have a large dining room table gifted to us from my church family in Bakersfield that would comfortably seat eight. We have a beautiful deck with a grill. We have the most scrumptious bed and heavy - and heavenly - down comforter (which Nathan does not miss at all... he's quite happy with our "summer weight duvet"). And there's the porch swing Nathan got me for my 27th birthday. 


And, and, and... 


And it's someone else's turn to enjoy our fantastic newlywed nest, and it's our turn to serve the Lord and work and study in England, so there's no point in fantasizing about having our English friends over for dinner to Elmwood Circle on a gorgeous spring Atlanta day when I would serve chicken enchiladas and black bean soup with cilantro and lime and cheese and sour cream and lots of avocado and then finish the meal with some chocolate chip cookies and milk on the deck while the fireflies buzz around, although I've been doing a lot of that lately.


Another sigh... I've been lingering over the post with pictures of our Atlanta house way too long. Is it a sin to covet your own stuff? 


N. B. We are confident that we are supposed to be here. We absolutely love the North Barn, our neighbors, our town, our church, our friends, etc. I'm just whining. Thanks for listening.


UPDATE: On a very related note, I read this post by Amberly that totally hit me between the eyes today. Thanks girl!

The Shakespeare First Folio Returns to Durham

I spent too much time trying to re-tell the story, so here it is from Wikipedia.

On 11 July 2008 it was reported that a copy stolen from Durham University, England in 1998 had been recovered after being submitted for valuation at Folger Shakespeare Library inWashington, D.C., in the United States. The folio's value was estimated at up to £15 million.^[14] Although the book, once the property of John Cosins the Bishop of Durham, was returned to the library it has been mutilated and is missing its cover and title page.^[15] The folio was returned to public display on 19 June 2010 after its 12 year absence.^[16] Raymond Scott was jailed for eight years for handling stolen goods (he was acquitted of the theft of the copy).^[17] A July 2010 BBC programme about the affair, Stealing Shakespeare, portrayed Scott as a fantasist and petty thief.^[18]

Anyway, it's back, and I got to see it, among several other very old, old books. Bibliophiles, rejoice!

 Kipling on the left and an English hymnal on the right

Clockwise from top left... Oscar Wilde (Salome), Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice), Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist), Samuel Pepys (a personal diary) All are first editions.

Here's the first folio. The thieves ripped off the front cover and the binding to disguise its origins. Stupid!

You can click on this picture to make it bigger and read about how it was recovered. The deluded gentleman who tried to sell it is pictured on the top right, dressed with inspiration from Macbeth for his court date. A little kooky, if you ask me.

Things I've Been Learning Lately

1) I didn't realize that the food posts would be so dang popular. If I had known I'd get so many comments just with those pictures from Tesco, I'd spread them out a little more. Lesson learned.


2) One of my most recent comment-ers, Karen, just finished sailing around the world for nine months with her husband and his best buddy. You go girl! I spent quite a while reading about their adventures, and you should too. Let's hear it for former Bak-O girls around the world!


3) I have re-learned that I don't do well without a schedule. If you had seen me at the beginning of last week, you would have been depressed. Let's just say I was pretending that I was in Atlanta by not working, staying in my pajamas all day, not going outside, complaining about the weather, etc. By Thursday I had made an hourly schedule that had the very basics (read: get out of bed, shower, put on clothes you could wear in public, eat breakfast, etc.), and it has made all the difference since then.


4) Regarding jobs...Thanks to my friend Sarah, I was able to do a little transcription work from home for the marketing company she works for. I also made contact with another private school in town and will hopefully be visiting again this week and getting on their sub list. Meanwhile, I'm have active accounts with two other temp agencies (the one I got the college job with and a subbing one) and am just waiting to be called to work. I can only harass them so often each week. 


So, clearly, despite my best efforts to get a job, any job, and after way too much fretting about money, it's slowly dawning on me that God must have something he wants me to to learn/do/be during this time of waiting. I feel so helpless, which is probably a good thing, because I have been quite self-sufficient and independent since about... four years old. This is the first time in my life that I haven't been able to succeed in the area of work based on my education, achievements, hard work, and tenacity, and it's rather difficult. Rather. Difficult. That's an English way of putting it.


5) I think it's so cool how people find this blog... through friends of friends of friends. I'm so glad that Marilyn, Sandy, and Karen and who knows how many others (especially from Lorie's blog, Kristi's blog, and Abby's blog) have joined us on our adventures. 


That's it for now... I'm working on some other posts for this week. Stay warm and upright in Atlanta, people!

Third Contest Winner

Ignore the dark hair and under-eye circles and celebrate with our winner!

Name That Condiment... Or Just Leave a Comment

As usual, I was trying to take pictures discreetly and would wait until the aisle was clear before snapping a photo in Tesco. This time, with Nathan was with me, he waited until someone came into view an then said loudly, "Why are you taking pictures of food on the shelves? You are so weird!" Then I shot him a dirty look as well as the picture, and I dashed away.

No thanks.

I know what cod is, but I don't know what roe is.

If this is what American food is here, I don't want any.

Nathan wanted his picture with the oats box with his picture on the front... if that makes sense.

This made me chuckle the most... "with all the trimmings."

You have until Monday to leave a comment to qualify for the prize! Do it now!!! It must be said that if you don't leave your name, you can't qualify. Sorry. My brain power doesn't reach the heights of such knowledge.

To Uncle Bob and Aunt Deanie

Dear Uncle Bob and Aunt Deanie,


I don't have your e-mail address for some reason, and since you check the blog often, I thought I would write you a (public) note here.


Thanks so much for the long underwear you went to Nathan and me. It couldn't have been better timed, since we are in the throes of winter with long, cold days ahead. I'm sure we'll be wearing them very often. And I can't believe you took the time to mail the package on your moving day! I can't wait to see your new home when we come visit next. I love you so much and can't wait to see your faces soon. Do you have Skype? It's really easy to set up and it's really fun... and free! We should talk soon.


Love and miss you bunches,
Nicole (for Nathan too)

Why I Didn't Post Yesterday

I've been submerged in the lives of various Brits... The Up Series has been the most fascinating documentary I have ever seen. Roger Ebert says it's one of his 10 favorite films of all time. It was a project started in 1963 that interviewed 20 children every seven years. I've watched Seven Up, 14 Up, 21 Up and 28 Up twice (once by myself and once with Nathan) and 35 Up and 42 Up once (with Nathan). I've been watching so much, I've been dreaming about these people for the past three nights! It's going to be a long wait before 56 Up comes out... 


You should definitely check it out if you're able. There are several clips on YouTube, but I'd definitely recommend it in full length DVD. The clip above is a compilation of the life of Neil, one of my favorite subjects of the series. Watch him grow up and transform before your eyes!


Mrs. Qualls, order the Up Series for the library immediately.

Christmas Cards All Year Round

I absolutely hate getting the mail, even though the mailbox is two steps from the front door. Something about bills and junk mail and the inevitable disappointment of not getting anything exciting. When I was single, I always thought to myself while trudging to the mailbox, "If and when I get married, I want my husband to deal with this." 

However, I nearly pounce on Nathan when he comes through the front door during the holiday season with Christmas cards, ripping up the envelopes and cooing at pictures of all the beautiful babies and families we have the privilege of knowing. I've done this for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I loved opening mail for "The Sampley Family." I was petrified of opening other mail addressed to just my mom or dad or both, because I knew it was illegal and I had visions of being hauled off to jail if I sneaked a peek. Side bar: That didn't stop me from practicing the forgery of their signatures whenever I was bored and had scratch paper lying around. Missed connection in my brain, perhaps? End side bar.

My mom would put all the photo cards up on a side cabinet in the kitchen, calling it her "prayer wall" and creating a Christmas photo gallery. My sister and I had a much less sanctified purpose for the prayer wall, namely a contest judging all of the Christmas cards we Sampleys got and picking our favorite. We always chose the one with two very good looking tan and blonde sons about our age, usually pictured on some beach at sunset. I have no idea who they are to this day. I think perhaps they and/or their parents were clients of my dad's.

Anyway, since then I have continued the tradition of posting the photo cards. In Atlanta, they went on the washroom door. This picture was a from a couple of years ago. Last year the sleepover Polaroids moved to the side of the refrigerator to make room for another panel of Christmas cards. When I look at this picture carefully, I notice how much has changed in just the last two years!

 

This year I pondered where I should display our cards. We don't have a mantle or a washroom door. I originally thought I would have a line of twine and some clothespins to hang them with, but we're not allowed to put any holes in the walls. What to do? 

Well, I killed two birds with one stone when I realized that we still hadn't fixed the privacy problems in our barn. All the doors have four big glass panels: the front doors, the kitchen doors, our bedroom door, and yes, the bathroom door. There was a shade on the inside of the bathroom door, but the moisture caused it to curl inwards, making one feel quite self conscious while using the facilities.

So I just put the cards on the outside of the doors, thus removing the temptation to spy on people when the door is closed. You'll notice that most of our American friends sent photo cards, and our English friends sent real open-and-close cards that usually said "Love, the So-and-So Family xx." I'm not sure what it is about the "x", but they almost always put it with their signature. Maybe it's a hug. Like XO means a hug and kiss. I don't know. Anyway, the picture above is of our bedroom door now.

And the bathroom door! Christmas continues to trickle in, as the Royal Mail was crippled by the snow from Thanksgiving to New Years. Just yesterday we received three cards from America. Woohoo! Yay for Christmas cards!


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UPDATE: We got four more cards today! Thanks Nathan D., Justin and Julie L. , Aaron and Becky S., and Carl and Christy D.! I LOVE IT!!!