The Monday Blues / Our Super Fun Weekend

Does anyone else have the Monday Blues? I wouldn't describe mine as navy blue, or even a lovely turqouise. Just a nice, muted, baby-boy blue. I blame my Monday Blues on my awesome weekend, which I shall now recap for you, my devoted readers.

If you'll allow me I will start with Thursday, which, while not a usual part of the traditional weekend, really kicked off the fun for us. Even though we had already been invited to a large Thanksgiving get-together taking place this past Saturday we just couldn't let the day pass us by without some sort of celebration. As you know from my previous post, our neighbors joined us for a small Thanksgiving dinner, but the fun began much earlier in the day. My wonderful parents sent us two boxes filled with home goodies and it felt like Christmas! The great thing about boxes is that they also make excellent toys:

Friday saw the OFFICIAL start of the Christmas season in Oxford! Will and I braved the cold (and I debuted my long underwear!) to join the crowd in city centre for the lighting ceremony. As a Christmas connoisseur I must be perfectly honest--the lighting ceremony was rather unimpressive. Pretty sure Baylor's Christmas tree is bigger and prettier than the shabby looking spruce that drew most of the attention Friday night. But Jamie Oliver (the Naked Chef, anyone?) was there to flip the switch (although we didn't actually see him. I got tired of being pushed around by the hoards and voted we retreat ever so slightly away from the main stage) and along with the wimpy tree some other very pretty street lights came on. Armed with a ridiculous amount of hot chocolate and marshmallows we then checked out the Lantern Parade. Luckily for you all, I took a video. Please pardon the antlers that periodically interrupt the view.

I love window shopping at Christmas time

Saturday was Thanksgiving dinner at the Followwill home. For those of you who haven't heard of the Followwills, they are a lovely American couple that took us to their home for lunch our first Sunday in Oxford. They had invited a large crew over to celebrate this American holiday and we had such a great time playing games, making new friends (some of them with amazing Irish accents!) and celebrating the Lord's goodness to us.

Before the feast.

Beautiful table filled with beautiful people.

Our thanksgiving turkeys!

Sunday was another super cold day which had us in town for church in the morning and back in town for the symphony at night! Will was given ridiculously cheap tickets through the Clarendon Foundation and so we experienced live music in the Sheldonian Theatre for the very first time. I forgot to bring my camera (I blame the ridiculous cold. It's all I can think about these days) so Google images has once again saved the day:

We returned home from the symphony to a Skype "double date" with the wonderful Chris and Megan Stevens. My cup runneth over. :)

And now it's Monday, and Monday has brought me loads of laundry, dirty dishes, messy apartment and the early signs of a chest cold. Monday, you are such a let down! Oh well, counting down until next weekend...