Where in the World is Rebecca Today?

Friends and Family,

We hope this post finds you all well and enjoying the holiday season with your families. Our holiday season was disrupted this year by a family tragedy. Rebecca’s Aunt (in America) had a stroke two weeks before Christmas and passed away a few days later. Rebecca flew out to the US to be with her family.

This year, in lieu of sending cards, we have decided to make a donation to the Stroke Association in memory of Barbara A. Ohlinger, to aid others who suffer from a stroke.

We wish you all a happy holidays!

Love,

Tim & Rebecca Lockley

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Due to work and family illnesses, Tim’s mum invited us over for breakfast on Christmas Day, and dinner on Boxing Day, leaving us on our own for most of Christmas.

We purchased Christmas Crackers (poppers) and I made us a turkey with all the trimmings. A few days before we found fresh cranberries at ASDA, so I made up a batch of cranberry sauce for us to share with his family.

At home, I usually woke up around the time that Mom would get up to put the turkey in the oven – sometimes as early as 6. Surprisingly, even though we weren’t having our turkey until the evening, I was awake bright and early on Christmas and had to wait for Tim to get up!

A few weeks before Christmas, I decorated a stocking for Tim (with a train on the front!) and filled it with candy, (US) railroad pins, and a pair of novelty boxer shorts. Tim took his cue from me, and I had a stocking filled with candy (he filled anything “hollow” like a coffee mug and a make-up bag with chocolate!) and other small items. Tim also gave me a few books, but the best present of all came in a little tiny box from H Samuel. Tim gave me a beautiful ring with a butterfly on it! Apparently he almost didn’t have the ring to give me. He had to have it sized and was told to pick it up on Christmas Eve. He went into town before work to pick it up, and the store was all locked up with the gates down! Fortunately, they took pity on Tim and let him in since he had already picked it up, or he would have been pretty upset on Christmas!

After we exchanged gifts, we headed over to his parent’s house for breakfast and to bring over the gifts we had for them. To my surprise, I had a small pile of gifts to open! Tim’s parents gave me bedroom slippers, a pair of pajamas, and some bath products. His grandparents gave me a purple handbag (that I LOVE!), and I also received chocolate, some Doctor Who related items, and a Pashmina from his other family members. I really appreciated everything they did to make me feel a part of things.

Later in the evening, Tim and I opened a box of wine and popped our crackers. We sat in front of the fireplace and watched the Christmas Doctor Who special, the Wallace and Gromit special, and a few movies before heading to bed.

My new ring!

For more Christmas photos: http://photos.beccajanestclair.com/uk-trip-2008/christmas-2008

So random! This happened about 20 minutes prior to posting. We heard the sirens and went out to see what the commotion was…

We’re back from a long weekend on the West Coast. I owe a few blog posts of the trip, and of a trip North a few weeks ago!

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It’s December! That means Christmas and Christmas decorating! I asked Tim what he had for decorations and he told me “a small tree and some tinsel”. He dug it all out, and it turns out what he was calling tinsel is what I call garland. His tree reminded me of the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. It was a silver colour and looked a bit sparse. Unfortunately (or is that fortunately?) Tim couldn’t find the base for the tree, so we headed into town to Wilkenson’s to buy a new tree.

Tim picked out a small four-foot tree and we grabbed some fairy lights (US: twinkle lights or just Christmas lights) and a few packs of generic ornaments in red, gold, and silver. Tim also had a light-up train his aunt had given him one year. We decided to put the train in the upstairs window and the tree in the living room. We wound the extra string of lights around the banister for the steps with some garland, and it actually gives more light than the regular light did!

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