Best Wishes for a Happy and Peaceful New Year to any who visit here!

We went to England for a week over Christmas. We stayed in the nice B&B in the village, Harmondsworth Hall, in a great big family room (not illustrated here).






We arrived late on Wednesday evening, and after a good night's sleep, a hearty breakfast, and a visit with the O'Briens, we went to Windsor where we visited the castle. Luckily the Queen wasn't home so we could see the place, which is not to shabby for a big house in the countryside.

That evening we went back to Windsor to see the Pantomime (Beauty and the Beast) at the Theater Royal. (Coincidentally, we noticed that Isaac and Rose's aunt Anita Graham is performing in a play in the same theater in February.) The panto. was fun, and even kept Charlotte's' interest for more than two hours.

On Friday we went back to Windsor yet again(!) to go ice skating with Adam.

In the afternoon we visited Charlotte's Great Grandmother (Lesley's mother) Olive in Hayes
. Four generations of female Reynolds's!






Saturday was Christmas. Father Christmas appeared at both Harmondsworth Hall and at the O'Brien's house.





Apparently Father Christmas had heard Patrick's request for an airplane THAT FLIES



Charlotte also enjoyed the maiden flight and the crispy cold air out in the playing field behind the primary school!




Here we are at Buckingham Palace. We rang the bell, but no one was home here either!

It was a lovely visit all around!

I cooked a leg of lamb for Thanksgiving and we had our friends Lia (the mother) and Athens (the daughter) over for dinner. It was a dark, gloomy, and rainy day, but we were snug, warm, and well-fed inside.



Lia reads to Patrick





Athena, Charlotte, and Patrick aboard the SS Patrick




The weekend turned out to be spectacularly beautiful.




We went back to the Agora and visited the Temple of Hephaestus, the best preserved temple in all of Greece.

As promised a while ago, here are some pictures of the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown in Syntagma Square n the center of Athens.



The building in the background is the Parliament - originally built as a royal palace.



The guards wear hob-nail clogs, and have a particular way of marching. They pound their left feet against the ground. It makes my knee hurt just to watch it.




Alex and Charlotte watching.




The guard are stationed here at the tomb of the unknown and in front of the Presidential palace on the other side of the National Gardens near their barracks. For the Sunday changing of the guard they close the street (barely) and a band escorts them from the barracks to the tomb, where they relieve the two on duty and head back and back.

It has been a busy month - I've been trying to hire a librarian, and the usual end of the year crunch at work has kept me busy, so I haven't been back to the blog for a while.

Monday evening was the American School's tree-trimming party in Loring Hall, the residence of the Members and some of the short-term/Annual faculty.



Charlotte and Patrick jumped right into the fun, and eventually everyone else joined in too.



We all had a very nice time.



Our tree at home is a good deal smaller than the one at Loring Hall (which must be ten feet tall), but it is planted in a pot - I got it a week ago at the Friday public market. When the holiday is over it'll go out on our terrace as a part of our growing hanging garden.