A Christmas Holiday in 3 Parts: Act III

Well, here we are. The last week in the States.

We spent the night with my grandparents again in East Point, watching football, and sleeping late. They bought us breakfast Monday at Cracker Barrell. GRITS.

That night, we continued our tradition of Farm Burger with Katie and Gabe Mick in Buckhead. I just love the story of my friendship with Katie. We found each other on this random roommate search engine in early 2005 while preparing to start at the University of Georgia in the Fall. We met randomly in person at the Laser Show at Stone Mountain, decided we would be roommates, and then lived together for exactly 4 months before I quit UGA and moved to Florida. Now, any normal person would expect us not to be friends anymore. But Katie stuck with me, and we visited each other every year, either in Suwanee or Florida or New Orleans, and were in each other's weddings. I am so so lucky to call her friend. And BONUS, Gabe and Clay get along.

Tuesday, we had dinner with Brent and Kate and CORA! The last time we saw them was our last night in Georgia at our last Braves game before we moved to Scotland. It was so great reconnecting with them, and they gave us hope for when we eventually become parents (whenever that may be in the distant future).

Wednesday we had ANOTHER great burger at Five Guys with Mr. Dad, and then went to Bethlehem to see Mels and Manda and get my hair cut. Nothing like some good sister time and a much-needed haircut.

Thursday, we had some lunch and then saw Josh Stewart, who is still alive, and has a job, a dog and a girlfriend. But he's still the same grumpy old man.

Friday, Sam and I drove to McDonough to see Kellie. Now, these two are another of my favorite friend stories. I met Sam at church in 2003 and she introduced me to Kellie. Somehow, we all stayed friends despite me moving to UGA, then to Florida, then to Nola, then to SCOTLAND! But they are a testament to how blessed I am to have friends who communicate better than I do. Sadly, there were no pictures taken. But here's a throwback so you get the idea.

Friday night was like high school all over again. We got besties Jeff and Clay back together, we ate some Krispy Kremes, we went by the Elam's, and spent the night with the Ritchies. Our last full day in the States started with Chick-fil-A breakfast and Mario Kart. We couldn't ask for more perfect friends.

Saturday night, we had the traditional Rowe family dinner (plus a Turner!) and then it was church Sunday, back to East Point to all-too-briefly see my Aunt Joni and Aunt Robin, and then head back to Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta Baby Girl International Airport. Oh, but not before Melody made me cry, as I'm getting in the car, so then I was weeping uncontrollably at the international terminal while hugging my grandparents and saying goodbye. As I thanked them for everything they had done for us for this trip, my Granama held my hands and said, "Carmen. God is taking care of you." How true.

I was taking funny pictures to try to stop crying.
Clay was not impressed.

We got business class again on the way back to Scotland, and I COULD say that nothing eventful happened... except around 10pm EST/3am GBT, CLAY NOTICED TIM HOWARD ON OUR FLIGHT BEHIND ME IN BUSINESS CLASS. I noticed him too, but not because I knew who he was, but because he had a long, homeless looking beard and I was hoping that Clay wouldn't get any ideas. When we landed in Manchester around 8am, Clay grabbed me and whispered, "TIM HOWARD IS WALKING BEHIND YOUUUUUU!" so I sneakily took photos of them walking together like they were best friends. Clay was ecstatic. We had a cuppa before catching the trains back to St A.

Oh, you know. Clay and his new best friend Tim Howard walking together.

Clay looks like he just saw a murder.

Getting off the plane this time around felt completely different. We knew where we were going, how to get there, and we weren't terrified of people finding out we were Americans. All in all, a good three weeks, but we were happy to be back to real life...

TAKE HIS BRAIN!

Carm

A Christmas Holiday in 3 Parts - Act II

We spent the second week in the States in New Orleans. Now, NOLA holds a special place in our hearts. It's where some of our best friends live. It's where we spent the first 3 years of our marriage, where we worked in our first church, where we got our Masters Degrees, and where we developed our love for Mardi Gras.

Atlanta is home, but NOLA is special.

Jackson Square!

We made the long drive from Atlanta to NOLA, and reconnected with John and Lauren. They were the amazing friends that graciously let us live with them for the last almost 4 months that we lived in NOLA, after the seminary kicked us out of married housing and we had nowhere else to go. Since we've been gone, Trindon is almost 4, and a bit more calm than the crazy 2 year old we left in 2013. They have also added a fourth member to their family, Sweet Caroline, and they are all so precious to us.

Caroline!

Pretty sure there were some sappy girl tears
shed during the fireworks just before this!

A few days later, we met up with Matt and Elise, and did all the usuals: Pizza Delicious, Faubourg, Pearl Wine Co., New Years lighting things on fire on the Bayou, grilling and playing Mexican Train. We even legit sat around an entire day and just watched football. It was magical. We made our way into the French Quarter as well, and enjoyed balmy 75F/25C degree weather, wearing shorts and no socks... IN JANUARY.

It's so funny how different this was than what I expected. I thought everything would be different: our friends have moved on and made other close friends, our friends with kids have had MORE KIDS, everyone's growing up. But it was almost like we had never left. Our friendships are just as strong, we still laugh hysterically together about the same stuff, and we still love each other so much. I love this.

I'm always terrified of losing people. I'm awful at keeping in touch because my ADD brain only sees the people here now and what's going on right here. With the way technology is now, I can skype or facetime or facebook, or text, or tweet everyone in my life, and yet, I neglect this. I've always felt like I deserved to lose friendships because I'm so terrible, and yet, they continue to love me, and continue to put forth effort to keep in touch. This is huge and I can't even begin to describe how blessed I feel because of it.

This may look like Scotland, but don't let it fool you.
Those are Kentwood cows!

We spent our last day in Louisiana in Kentwood at The Lord's Church. I cannot tell you the amount of love that we have for this place. We relate so much of our Scotland lives to our Kentwood lives. Country people really are the same no matter where you are. And our TLC family loves us like no other. Over the years, we've heard so many horror stories about ministry work from people we've known through seminary and beyond. Church people are not always the best people to work with. But we were blessed to have an amazing church family, who loved us despite the fact that we were far away and that Clay threw their children into garbage cans and wrestled them to the ground. This place and these people are so special to us!


After church, we trucked it back up to Atlanta in Little Yaris. Only 1 week left to go!

Tom Maloney - a great boss who, despite his happy face in this photo,
was ready to go hunting and said he 'needed to go kill something.'

Carm

A Christmas Holiday in 3 Parts - Act I

Well, y'all, I wrote 3 blogs about our trip back to America, and I just didn't post them for some reason. It's nearly April, so I guess it's time for me to talk about how it was...

IT WAS FANTASTIC!

As you probably know, we went home for the first time in 16 months and made our grand journey all around the South in the States, trying to soak up as much America as we could. It all started with a 26 hour journey/wait for the flight.

I got a great deal on a off-peak train from Leuchars to Manchester. I was pretty proud of myself, keeping an eye on ticket prices, and buying it like 16 weeks in advance saving us around £180. Unfortunately, "off-peak" in this situation meant leaving Leuchars at 7:47pm, arriving at Manchester Airport at 4:00am. No big deal, right? I can sleep anywhere, right?

UGH. I slept on the 1st train to York. I slept on the 2nd train to Manchester. I slept sprawled out in Terminal 2, waiting for the Delta desk to open at 6:00am (while some Christmas Critters got dressed behind me? see photo attached). I slept at the gate waiting for the plane. I remember brushing my teeth in the bathroom at the airport and looking like someone threw olive oil in my hair and then stomped on my face.

BUT. We got Business class! Perks of flying stand-by (and my grandmother being an amazing former employee of Delta Airlines). So began an 8 hour flight. Other than eating a 4-course meal, watching Elf and Tommy Boy and Parks and Recreation, and having a "Warm Cookie Break" halfway through the flight, it was pretty uneventful.

I wasn't kidding about that warm cookie break!!

Got to Atlanta around 3:00pm EST and so it began. My parents picked us up from the airport, and I finally got all the hugs that I wanted. We ate Chick-fil-A at the original Dwarf House in Hapeville, and I could have cried from all of the joy that I felt in my heart.

Mels, Truett, and Moo

 And so began the whirlwind week.
Christmas Eve/Day with the Rowes.
25th - To Melody's in Bethlehem to take a billion pictures in matching sock monkey pajamas.

26th - Breakfast with Grandparents and Aunt Carla. Marietta with the Turners. ALL of the Turners (even the ones in Indonesia!). Like my childhood all over again.

27th - We ate two meals with the Stepps in two of our favorite restaurants: Fox Brother's BBQ and Farm Burger, two amazing meals that are impossible to duplicate in the UK.

28th - Church with my parents and grandparents, then Natalie's birthday party in Walnut Grove.

29th - Breakfast with my parents, and then off to NOLA!

Are you dizzy yet? We were. We. did. not. stop. Usually, these kinds of trips last about a week, and we're used to that. Make sure we see everyone we want to see in a tiny amount of time. But 3 weeks? and with jet lag? It was going to be interesting...

Carm