Happy new year! It's very late, I know, but I still mean it! Hope that you are having a great 2009 so far. It's hard to believe that we're almost through the first 2 months already!
So, things have been pretty busy in the wild world of accounting and hence, I haven't had time to be updating our blog! But I have found some time this weekend and I thought I'd fill everyone in on what's been going on...
My last update, I was about to head back to the US for Christmas. We had a wonderful time with our family and friends. It went by pretty quickly but we were so lucky to be able to spend time with so many people we love!
Chad was in Ohio for the week before I got there and after a night being stuck in Chicago on my way from London and a quick night in Mt. Vernon, we headed to Asheville to see my brother and his family and celebrate Christmas. We were greeted at the airport by the Clevenger kids!
After a short fight with the airlines because I bags didn't make it (but at least we did!) we headed to one of our favorite local restaurants, Papas and Beer. They have great Mexican food that just hit the spot because we're so deprived in London! As you can see, it's one of Owen's favorite places too!
We had a few days before Christmas to relax and enjoy Asheville. We finally went and toured the Biltmore, something we hadn't done in our many visits! It was very impressive and it was fun to be able to see it all decorated for the holidays.
Christmas was so fun with the kids and here are a few pics to share. We also spent it with my Dad, Dana's sisters Jane and Sarah, her mom, Pam and Jane's boyfriend, Brady. Here's Christmas eve, posing in front of the tree...
And here they are waiting on the stairs to run downstairs to see what Santa left...
And he left a lot! Here's Em in the midst of lots and lots of presents!
And here is Reese in one of his favorite gifts, an Ohio State t-shirt from Papa John! Ok- maybe it wasn't his favorite, but Chad and I loved getting him in it just to make Andy's orange Tennessee blood boil!
So here is the Clevenger boys rocking out to Guitar Hero World Tour! My favorite is Owen with the vocals - he loves to sing.! All supported by their number one fan, pops enjoying the show from the couch!
And here's Owen and my dad playing a little game on Christmas day. Watch out O - he cheats!
After all the Christmas fun, we had a few more days to hang out in Asheville. We had a fun dinner out with Andy, Dana and the kids!
So after Asheville, we had a few days with Chad's family in Mt. Vernon. Chad got a Wii, so we were entertained for a few days! The funniest was the boxing - here is Chad's parents duking it out! Linda was undefeated - she beat Keith, Chad and I! Looks like we need to get on her workout routine!
We also got to hang out with Luke and Erin and got see Luke play intermural hockey! He had lots of fans and they won!
After leaving Mt. Vernon, we headed to Columbus for a few days to celebrate New Years with Maya and Chad. They had a surprise birthday party for me for my 30th with a bunch of our friends, which was so fun! I don't have any photos but it was so great to see people and be able to catch up! We also had a fun New Years Eve - here they are at a party we went to bring in the new year!
And we got to hang out with Mazen too! He's so cute and getting so big! Here are a few shots!
Playing with his toys!
The little Buckeye!
Too cute!
We were so sad to leave the States because we had such a good time with everyone! Not to mention that we were coming back to busy season! It's been pretty busy but I'm hoping things slow down soon. We did have a nice break the Monday after the Superbowl though! It snowed in London and we got the most snow the city has seen in 17 years! So needless to say, they don't know what to do when it snows, so the city pretty much came to a stand still! We ended up working from home and I got out to take a few pics! It was so pretty and a nice change - I know that makes everyone in Ohio probably cringe! But it was gone in 2 days so it wasn't so hard to handle!
Trees in our park!
Snow capped scooter!
And more pics of the park!
So other than that, we have been keeping a low profile! We did have a fun night last night though. Miami University, where we both went to "Uni" as they say here, is celebrating its bicentennial this year. There were several celebrations across the US and the world this weekend and somehow Chad became part of the London distribution list as an "organizer". There wasn't a big showing, 6 of us in total, but it was fun to meet some fellow alums in London! I actually made a sign at the last minute because the main organizer had to cancel yesterday afternoon and he wanted to have a sign so people knew where to meet up! So here we are - some London Redskins/Redhawks!
So that's about all from our end. We are approaching our final 6 months here and it's so hard to believe! Time has flown! We are planning to get a lot of traveling in and start in two weeks with our first trip in about 3 months. We're heading to Prague for the weekend and are really looking forward to it. Chad has been wanting to go there since we got here and we've finally lined it up!
Hope you all are well and you'll be hearing from me more from here on out!!
xoxox,
Kari
