Where I come from...

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I grew up in the same house, in the same town until I was 18.  For the last 8 years I have lived in 12 different areas including 3 different countries: Scotland, Wales & Turks and Caicos - soon to be 4 as we are about to leave for Canada! 

I have recently got into following all kinds of fun travel blogs of people living in new countries and having fun adventures so when I saw this 'where I come from' post by Allie over at beauty & the feast I decided it would be fun to join in too! 

Whilst my love of America is widely known, and some of my friends have been offended by my lack of patriotism to England (Laur, I'm talking about you! hehe) I do actually love where I'm from! 

So without further ado...let's talk about

Harpenden! Harpenden is a small town in the home counties, just 30 miles north of London.  It is full of leafy tree lined streets, parks and greens around every corner, more estate agents and hairdressers than actual shops, and people who are even buying second houses and pretending to live in them just to get in to the awesome school I attended - true story! It is full of cute little cafe's and coffee shops and tons of independent restaurants that you won't find in every town like Grafitti, an Italian restaurant my friends and I used to frequent where you could draw on the tablecloths and if it was good enough your artwork would get framed on the wall! 

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My happiest memories of growing up here are...

...tree climbing at Gilpin Green (despite the concrete sign planted in the ground saying 'No climbing') We would bust out our best french accents when the old ladies would come out and tell us to get down!

...bike riding at the ups and downs!

...living on the swings at old 24 Spenser Rd (my old house!)

...feeding the ducks at The River Lea

...kite flying at the common

...snow days spent sledging at Rothamstead Park

...after school milkshakes at Lassiter's

...summer wasn't summer without a trip to the strawberry p.y.o

...being an Old Georgian meant my tights were green, school hymns were sung in Latin, we played lacrosse and carried our ingredients to school in wicker baskets and we loved it! 

...Thorn's tobacconist (which was also a sweet shop) was where we always headed after school to spend all our pocket money!

...road trips to The Waffle House

...beat the clock Monday night's at Cafe Blue Dog

...scaling 'The Wall' in stripey knee high socks to and from various house parties!

...pubbing it up at The Inn On The Green & The George, where I would spend all my 'beer' money on the computerised jukebox

...London being only a 30 min train ride away, which was perfect for fun day trips (My first ever day out recorded in my baby book was to Harrod's in London - what can I say, start as you mean to go on!) We used to love the toy department at Harrod's and gaze adoringly at the little pink Barbie 4 x 4! It also came in very handy for going to see gigs in my teenage years! and for mammoth shopping trips at all our favourite haunts from Covent Garden to Camden to High St Ken and everywhere in between!

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Go check out everyone else's over at Shades of Grey and a Pinch of Pink.

A Christmas & New Year's Round Up!

If there's 3 things I love in life...it's Jesus, my family and good food! 

So as you can imagine my excitement levels are always pretty high around Christmas time since it's a time to celebrate all 3 of those things...so be prepared for a picture overload!

I started off the festive season by heading back to my hometown of Harpenden to exchange some presents with friends, an annual tradition that we started when we were 15 and still at school and that we have continued every year since.  It was extra special for me this year, since last year was the first I've ever missed due to being in the Caribbean and so I was double-y excited to be joining in the fun this time round!

It was also Caz's birthday on that very same day so we went out for a lovely meal at Strada.

How I love going back to where I grew up, Harpenden will always hold a special place in my heart.

We spent Christmas day with my mother in law Kathy, in the Braithwaite house it is a tradition to open your presents accompanied by a mince pie and cup of tea:



It's also a tradition to get yummy reminders of home like droewors!



and it's sort of a tradition for me to get baking related presents! hello extra KitchenAid bowl and cupcake oven gloves!

After the present opening, we had a delicious feast that begun with camembert and toasted bread...

followed by a turkey and gammon joint roast and the best roast potatoes around...

Once we were all sufficiently stuffed we went on a Christmas day walk to Ampthill Park...

Back home, it was time for dessert - a peanut butter & brownie 9 layer trifle By and I had made!



and fitted in a skype with Cam who's in South Africa:

and then we played By's new board game pointless followed by some Christmas movies and then bed!

Boxing day was spent at By's dads house.

Even Obie joined in with the festivities!

We had a nice meal and then the boys competitive side came out through some olympic event playing on the Wii.

After they were all played out, we headed north to Shropshire to spend some time with my family.

We had a giant present opening session upon our arrival - check out the size of my stocking!

By got some fajita and taco kits for lots of Mexican fun...

and I got tons of baking goodies plus this giant lindor chocolate ball! how cool! 

I also loved going round the house and snapping all the decorations! 

I really should have taken a photo of the tree whilst all the presents were still underneath! 

and thanks to Mara's Bon Appetit, Martha Stewart magazine and new dessert book we were treated to tons of yummy bakes over the next few days like taco pie, sweet potato slow cooker soup, butternut and mushroom risotto, emperor's pancakes, banoffee pie and magic bars to name just a few!

Of course the highlight of the whole of Christmas had to be pointless! I've lost count of the number of times it was played in Shropshire but inevitably it would be the first thing my mom would ask to do daily!  and it's such a fun game that it never got old! 

She won the first night we played it...

and spent the rest of the time trying to regain her champion title and the coveted pointless trophy, to no avail! There were SO many laughs during the many games we played of rubbish answers that people gave so that made it even more entertaining! like when Dad was going to pick 'Richard Beckham' as a member of the Beckham family or when he tried to talk Mom out of picking Buzz Lightyear as a character from Toy Story because 'why would a space man be in a film about toys'! or when Mom was delighted with picking 'Highbury' as an answer for a premiership football ground (since she's not really up on her sports) only to discover it's called Emirates these days! and Mara had too many for me even to know where to start! haha

When Mel and Arne arrived from Bruges a few days later we introduced it to them too...





and with their arrival they also brought us some yummy Belgian treats!



and it was time for another round of present opening! By added to his ever expanding hot chocolate collection with some real Belgian hot chocolate sticks - he was pretty pleased with them!



and Mel stuck to her annual tradition of seeing how many bows would fit on her head...



Usually we hit the shops alot when we all get together but fortunately for the boys it didn't happen too much this time around although we did make a special trip to Chester & Cheshire Oaks one day to check out the sales...with uggs and hats at the ready (it was a chilly day!)

...and to have lunch at this amazing place:

I was so desperate to eat there that undeterred by there not being a free table available for 3 hours when we stopped by, we opted to sit outside! Yes - it was a freezing cold day...and it may have also been raining but when Root Beer Floats, Milkshakes and Pulled Pork are involved then compromises have to be made!

It did not disappoint...here are Mom and Mel showing off their Root Beer Float and Triple Mint Oreo shake!







and then the food came...and it was definitely worth it! A chili dog with the cutest little bucket of fries for the veggie in the family...check the irony!



and the most amazing American meatfeast platter! with pulled pork, brisket, bbq sauce smothered ribs, dry ribs and of course some fries and slaw!



It certainly kept us going, even after all the sales shopping through the crowds at Cheshire oaks, we managed to muster up enough energy to put a tannoy out for Mel and Mara when we temporarily lost them!!

You may have observed that Dad was missing out on the American BBQ fun...well don't you worry because he was having his own fun at home with a jack hammer and our back garden!



For New Year's Eve, we got some fireworks - I made some cupcakes and me and the girls dressed up in dresses, fancy tights and colour co-ordinated our crazy patterned nails too!

Apparently the boys didn't know what all the fuss was about, so it was t-shirts and jeans for them! (as they entertained themselves rubbing balloons against their heads and sticking them to the ceiling...good times!)

Of course what were we doing just before the clock struck 12? playing another game of pointless! but we made it out in time for a little disco on the drive as the countdown began...



and By and Arne put on quite the display.  The highlight was when the grand finale firework fell over and started shooting out everywhere and even heading towards us at alarming speed! We were laughing pretty hard at that point...some of us a little too hard! but what better way to bring in the New Year!

so I'll leave you with some sparkler fun that we had! here's wishing all of you a Happy New Year too! Hope 2012 is a great one!





Well done for getting to the end of this post!