My mother sent over a few more pictures that she’d taken at Thanksgiving.

Dasha, Carol and Nick in front of the hotel

Carol and Matthew in Belgium

Carol in front of the hotel

Daisy and Calypso relaxing in the dining room

After all our excitement on Friday night, we decided to take things easy on Saturday. After spending the morning with the police, we went to Oriel for brunch then headed out to the Kings Road to do a little pre-Christmas shopping. Later in the afternoon, we met up with Aude’s brother, Jerome, and grabbed the train back to Canterbury where we had a quiet dinner at our place.

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, we took the opportunity to put the tree up on Sunday and invited a few friends around to help us decorate it. The cats did their best to help out as well, Calypso supervising from the corner while Daisy jumped right in the middle of things. She spent her day alternatively sleeping in the box of decorations and being pissed off with Jerome (why, we’ll never know).

Mulled wine, Christmas carols on the stereo, and a fire burning away on the TV (hey, these are modern times and I don’t have a fireplace) – just what we needed to get into the Christmas spirit. Just a reminder: three weeks until Christmas!

Matthew and Jerome begin the annual “struggle of the lights” as we try to get the strings around the tree. Note the concentration on our faces…

A crowd of onlookers come to cheer us on!

Not quite like Christmas past – this year it’s all about “Fireplace: The Movie”

Is it just me, or are Anne-Laure and Neil kissing in every photo of them I take?

Is there anyone more excited about Christmas than MG? I doubt it!

MG hangs an ornament on the tree

Aude joins in the fun

Since Jerome’s mother claims that the only updates she gets about her son come from my blog, we’ve decided to start photographing him ‘ransom-style’ with a current newspaper to prove that he is, in fact, still alive.

Another year, another Christmas party, this time in an enormous marquee at Embankment Gardens in London. I’ve been wearing black tie so much recently that I’m beginning to feel like a waiter.

Matthew prepares for his first day at Vesuvio’s Restaurant

The party was pretty much your typical big corporate Christmas event, and was actually one of the better Christmas parties I’ve been to, but the entire night was overshadowed by the fact that we came out to witness a serious assault as we waited for our taxi. Basically, it was drunken partygoer vs. homeless guy, with drunken partygoer being pushed over and cracking his head open.

So instead of a nice, leisurely start to Saturday morning, we were woken up early by a Detective Constable wanting to interview us about the events of the previous evening. No doubt the staff at the Sheraton were not too impressed to see the boys in blue turn up at the door just a week after the whole Litvinenko polonium scare, thinking to themselves that another suite would be out of commission for a month!

Our witness statements prepared and our civic duty done, we decided to head out into Belgravia for some shopping. A block from Sloane Square (one of the most affluent parts of London), we came across this:

Not what you want to wake up to…

Canterbury may not be paradise, but there’s not a bone in my body that misses living in London.

My parents are on their way home as I write this blog, having spent just over a week here in Canterbury with me. It was a full trip, with sightseeing in the UK, a short day trip to France and Belgium, and lots of time for socialising. It was also the when we broke the news to them about our engagement.

Nick has been working in London for the past few months and Dasha was able to come over to visit him for an extended weekend break. As is the normal custom at my house, we celebrated Thanksgiving on last Saturday of November (because everyone is busy working on Thursday), but this was the first time I’ve had the family around my table for the day. It was really nice, and I managed to get my camera out to snap a few photos of the evening.

Dasha & Nick at my place for Thanksgiving

My father, captivated by one of Aude’s stories. A work of fiction, I’m sure…

My mother notices something on Aude’s finger

Ten bucks says that this photo makes it into the famous “Christmas letter” this year…

I’m glad at least one of us is photogenic!

Sorry, Nick, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. You’re beautiful, too…

Thanksgiving is always a tense time. Those who know me will attest to the fact that I’m a little territorial about my kitchen. Clearly the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree!

A little bit of turkey and stuffing and she’s a docile as a baby…

…although no more accommodating of the camera than any of my other friends. Perhaps she’s related to Marjory in a former life?

My parents took lots more photos of the rest of their trip, and if they send me copies I’ll try to post them here this weekend. But at least a few are up – otherwise you’d think I’d fabricated their entire visit.

The following morning we woke up to a beautiful, clear day and decided to walk around St Andrews. It was Raisin Weekend, but the town was surprisingly quiet – students in my day were made of sterner stuff. We hit all the big sights – the cathedral ruins, the castle, the pier, the harbour, and the quad. It didn’t take long – St Andrews is a small place.

St Andrews Cathedral ruins

St Andrews castle

St Andrews harbour

The main Quad at the University of St Andrews

Looking into the Quad from North Street

St Andrews Cathedral ruins

Matthew standing at the top of the pier

After careful consideration, Matthew decides not to complete the pier walk on the top of the pier (which is very narrow and about 15m above the sea). It seemed like a less-clever idea then in his student days…

Aude standing in front of St Andrews Cathedral

Looking into the cathedral

A very quick note to wish my friends and family around the world a very happy Thanksgiving. Since Thursday is not a holiday in the UK (for obvious reasons), I have traditionally celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday — and we’ll do the same again this year with my parents, Dasha and Nik. The turkey has been ordered, the shopping is done, all we need to do now is eat!