Turkey Day to Christmas Cheer

What a beautiful weekend of family togetherness, sunny weather, and good eats! However, Melissa was sorely missed by all of us. Here are the two girls out back before dinner. Yes, Mel, Em raided your closet for something to wear as she only brought jeans and I wanted turkey day attire.





I cooked a 18 lb turkey with all the trimmings and I baked apple, pecan, and pumpkin pies. The crust was particularly flaky this year, always a plus. I almost think we only need the turkey to cook the stuffing in as all the sides were eaten by Sunday, but the turkey is still left! We did a little shopping on Black Friday, took several long walks (always a tradition in the Kerrick household), played a little golf (dad golfed a lot), played Scrabble, had mani/pedis and took in the new xmas movie Four Christmases. Our take was a little over the top in places, but silly. Alas, Turkey Day has come and gone; Colleen and I are home alone once again. Dad, Em, and Grammie are back at their respective homes. Here I am at the end of the day...... exhausted!

The fall decorations are all packed away and I have begun decorating for the Christmas and New Year holiday. Melissa, I am missing your help in setting up and decorating the tree!!! I turned the topiary xmas lights on this evening and it looks festive already. Only 3 short weeks until our London getaway!!

Ciao Bella's!

Last week was SPRING BREAK, wooooo!!! Well, it was more like Fall Break.... but you get the picture. Two of my friends from London and I went to Italia for the week. We left Friday night...

 (no Halloween for us ergo no cute costume pictures... Colleen, you need to post yours fyi)

...and flew to Milan. Got in late that night, had to walk around in the rain to find our hotel... not the best start, but the next day was gorgeous and we had a great time exploring the city. On Sunday we went to Lake Como, GORGEOUS, I bought a house. No George Clooney sightings which was a shame, but it was still great. Then Monday morning we got up at 3am so we could catch a bus to the airport to catch our flight to ROMA at 6. Rome was amazing. The Pantheon is still my favorite sight, it is SO COOL!!! Its hard to believe that so much of Rome was built SO long ago... its ancient. We stayed at this great hotel where we met up with another one of our friends from London. Did 3 days of hard core sightseeing and on Wednesday night took a train to Florence where we relaxed until Saturday. All in all it was a great vacation, a little hectic at some points and I was definitely ready to come back to London where I didn't have to live out of a suitcase and knew the language. But I am for sure going to miss the food and wine!

So now Im back in London, back to the daily grind (which isn't so bad when your in london!!!), looking forward to Yoli's visit next weekend, Thanksgiving, and a few day trips out of the city (Stonehenge, Bath, and Brighton). It's getting cold and today we are going to see the lights turn on on Oxford Street, YAY Christmas season! I've already started listening to my music... too soon???

MISS YOU, xoxo Mel.

Fall Fun

Kevin and me at the "To The Max" charity event

Octopus for Halloween!

At the BC football game!

Colleen Goes Low

Well Colleen and I are pooped!! We just arrived home from three days at the Golf State Championship in Lakeland, Florida. Lakeland is a very cute small town about 20 miles northeast of Tampa, 3 hours or so from PVB. They played at The Club at Eaglebrook, a very nice, but difficult course surrounded by, surprise, lots of lakes! Target golf at its best. She was spectacular shooting 85 on day one in windy, temps in the 40s to start and the temp didn't rise about 63* but felt colder because of the windchill, difficult conditions. That 85 included one birdie, a 7 and a 9, so really good playing. That was her career round low for a tournament ...... until day two when she shot 82!! What a star! The conditions were cold, 39* to start, but sunny and no wind. She had a chip in birdie on hole 9 and was just steady all day. The team finished in fifth place (out of around 18 or so teams). Each team consists of 5 players and the top 4 scores from each team are counted. Overall, Colleen finished in the top half of the field which is a huge accomplishment. I'm so proud of the way she finished up her senior golf season! GO COLLEEN!!

Lakeland was a really cute town. I stayed with a few other golf parents at a boutique hotel, The Terrace Hotel, in the downtown area. It overlooked a beautiful lake that had a promonade around it with gardens and a place where they hold concerts in warm weather. It was within walking distance to some good restaurants and the hotel had a fabulous restaurant where we ate dinner after round one. I would say the only downfall was that it was near the train tracks and it seemed like a train went by every 2 hours all night long! So, if you are a sound sleeper, great, but for me, not so great. These 3 days marked a milestone for me as a parent, my last school sporting event! Enjoy the pics.

Quick Update.

So I don't have a ton of time to chat/blog. BUT here are some photos of my AWESOME trip to Leeds Castle, the Dover Cliffs, and Canterbury. SO pretty!

Madrid, Edinburgh, and more London

My passport has been getting A LOT of action these past few weeks...

Two weekends ago, I spent a few days in Madrid, Spain, visiting my roommate Yoli. She is studying in Espania this semester and invited me down to stay with her and her 70 year old host parents. It was a great trip, SO beautiful and different from anywhere I had ever been. Spain has been at the top of my traveling list for a while now, so I am very happy that I got to experience it. 

Yoli's host family was so friendly and accommodating despite the language barrier (they don't speak any English and I don't speak any Spanish... it was interesting). The Senora made us lunch and dinner everyday, it was so interesting (and delicious) to have real spanish cuisine. It seems like Yoli is having a blast in Spain. I can't wait for her to come up and visit London in November!

Last weekend, two of my girlfriends and I traveled up to Edinburgh, Scotland for a little girls trip. What a weekend. Edinburgh is so different from London. Everything is extremely old (or at least old looking) and green! It was a very managable size so I feel like I really got to experience the whole city. I flew up late friday night, and saturday we did a walking tour of the city, went to Holyrood Palace (which is where the Queen stays when she visits), and went on a ghost tour at night. Then on Sunday we toured Edinburgh Castle and went on the Scottish Whiskey Experience before we flew back to London. We even tried Haggis, a traditional Scottish dish of Sheeps liver, heart, and lungs mixed together and boiled in the Sheeps stomach.... needless to say, we didn't finish it. But hey, we tried! It was a great, but very busy, vacation.

Despite my love of traveling, it is great to be spending a weekend in London. I can't get enough of this city, there is just SO much to see. On Wednesday's and Thursday's I have only one class which is over before 11, so I've taken to exploring on those days during the week. Usually I have some sights to go visit for my Architecture of London course so I will go see those then explore the area around them. Yesterday I found this great vintage shop next to a church I was supposed to visit. They are selling real fur rabbit coats for 69 pounds.... I might be making a return visit (mom?).... haha. 

I miss everyone bunches and can't wait to share the city with you when you come to visit. I have a few things lined up that I want to do (ice skating at the tower of london anyone?). I also really want to look into getting tickets to a show (Im thinking Wicked) sometime soon. I think it would make for a nice evening. Hope everyone is doing great up in Boston and down in Florida!

xoxo, mel.

Can we get some authority please?

Revolt of the Nihilists

This op-ed from The New York Times' David Brooks came out a few weeks ago, but I keep coming back to it. We are in the midst of an exciting, volatile, and historical time. Regardless of who is elected president next month, we are in dire need of some real authority - political and economic alike. What we have and have had isn't working, and I feel strongly that change is imperative.

As a nation we have lost a sense of "community" that was at one time representative of what it meant to be an American - high-powered execs and politicians are skimming off the top (even in the face of bankruptcy and the federal bailout, AIG spent 400K on an executive retreat), hostile bipartisanship threatens the effectiveness of our state and national leaders, and everyone is concerned only with number one -- themselves. Where is the unifying thread? The sense that we are all in this together?

I'm not sure that we have hit rock bottom yet, but I believe that as we navigate, and eventually overcome, these economic, social, and political crises, our nation desperately needs some authority in order to emerge hopeful, strong and united.