Christmas Day 2007

Twas the Abs 1st Christmas and all through the house,

we couldn't find the floor for all the presents about.

The stockings were hung by the Chimney with care,

but Tina was done with the entire affair.

Bob got a big box (filled with a golf bag),

a scarf for Lynn,

Megan got Coasters,

and Susan spread Cheer from beginning to end.

The family all says,

as Russian Santa's fill the night,

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas Eve 2007

The night began as Christmas Eve always should,

with an Olive Garden and grilled jalapeno feast!
Only then did the craziness begin!

There were presents,

and MORE PRESENTS,

and EVEN MORE PRESENTS!

The whole family got in on the action!

So many gifts Tim vowed a reduction for retirement's sake in 2008!

But he too got in on the act!

The 1st Sansom-Vacek-Townsend Combined Christmas!

XMAS Bon Bon Day 2007

All the participants had come,

To join in the fun.

"It's crazy" said Sean,

"Check out all those Bon Bon's!"

So many the we thought we would have to use the floor,

So many they totaled 1,304!

But the help was happy and had a great day,

OR DID THEY?

Thanks for all the help! Bon Bon Day 2008 is only 365 days away!

Vacek/Brewer Family Picture Day 2007

What Abby knows best. 

Abby loves smacking things...
the table, people and the floor.

That's right, I am almost completely mobile.

I love Daddy, I love white shirts and I just ate.

The "Chill" Day

The fourth and final day in London and we are doing our best to wind things down, finish what we wanted to see and get up early tomorrow morning to get on out of here. We began our morning late. Late breakfast (even though we didn't really want to eat it), late start and we were off. Please take notice of the giant breakfast each morning... after 4 days of it Kristen is doing her best to enjoy it... and... the nemesis is BACK!

WE discovered that weekend London is MUCH more crowded than week London. The subways are CRAZY! We like week London much better! We began the day in Notting Hill. It's one of our favotire movies so we (or maybe just I) was so excited to see the Travel Book Shop from the movie. I actually stood in front of it and made Blake act out scenes with me! Just kidding! But I did say "Blake, I'm just a girl standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her."

Then, we ate the dish that I think has the most possible calories that can be squeezed onto a paper plate! Portabella Market is full of street vendors selling fresh fruits and vegetables and of course crepes! Instead of being good like all the skinny Europeans and getting fresh fruit, we of course went straight for the crepes. That's right, crepes with caramel and bananas and half a bottle of whipped cream. Yeah, the market was full of all sorts of fun vendors and antique shops. Unfortunately, since we couldn't afford vintage China or $800 antique maps, we just looked and ate our sticky paper plate full of goodness.

Even after crepes, we of course went to eat lunch. We actually found the OLDEST Pub in Kensington, which is where the fancy people of London live. We thought it was old like 500 years old... but little did we know we'd found the Luby's of London! When we got there at 2, it looked good. But then after about 15 minutes the dinner crowd started pouring in. Blake swears he heard one ask for the carrot and raisin salad! It was full of old old Irish people and guys that could drink Blake under the table! It was called The Goat, more like the OLD goat.

In order to work off our fish-n-chips and pie (mmmm... puff pastry) we took a walk through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. We saw Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana lived. After, we took off to Oxford Street. This is basically where all the uppity Euros and tourists, and those who wish to be, go to shop. Of course, all the $$$ shops are in this area. One in particular that we went to, Hamley's, the largest toy store in London. It was fun, but it had to be a parent's worst nightmare. We walked the floors and looked at everything but left quickly.

Then of course, we ate some more. Kristen had wanted to do afternoon tea service, so we found a small place across from Harrod's and had afternoon tea. Let's just say that afternoon tea is not cheap. But according to Kristen, it was good. Now we can call ourselves true British visitors. Fish-n-chips and afternoon tea!

For our last night in London we're going to head to see the Tate Modern, which is full of weird modern art I don't think even we'll get and then to a nice restaurant with a view overlooking the Thames. After a nice stroll down the river to see the sights all lit up, we'll call it a night and get ready for our 4 a.m. taxi to Victoria train station. We're averaging about 5 hours a night anyway, so why stop now! It will be a nice way to say bye to London.

It's been a great trip! We'll see you all soon!

Kristen's Favorite

We did it. We actually did it! We went to Stonehenge and a couple of other places. But Stonehenge was the highlight. 25' rocks weighing as much as 50 tons standing tall in the middle of nowhere. The wind whipping across the English plains but we saw it.


Before anything else, back to last night. We said that we would see naked Harry Potter in this play and believe me we got more than our money's worth. I don't even think that blogging about it is appropriate. Good story though. We didn't know he was going to be THAT naked. After the play we decided to make it a Harry Potter Night. We wanted to try and find the 9 3/4 platform where he goes to Hogwarts in the movie. But before that we made a few pitstops. One, I finally got my Cadbury cream egg McFlurry from McDonalds! WOOHOO! Two, Blake wanted to have a Guinness in a true English pub, so we went to one called Waxy's Little Sister. Three, we decided we needed take out Chinese at this point (1 am) so we went to a high-class establishment called (really) Special Zone 1997 and got some takeout. Then, we decided to shutdown the subway looking for Harry Potter's platform. Unfortunately, we never found it, but we did eat some REALLY good spring rolls!


Also on our trip today, Windsor Castle. We saw the gorgeous state rooms where the queen entertains and lives. Also, Queen Mary's dollhouse! It had miniature works of art, miniature crown jewels and even working plumbing and heating! We also FINALLY got to take a picture with a FUZZY HAT! 


After Windsor castle we headed to Stonehenge, amazing. Windy, but amazing. It's hard to imagine how those rocks got there, or why anyone wanted to put them there in the first place!

Then over to Bath, which we loved! Bath was the site of the Roman Baths. It was originally a temple where the British Romans came to worship the Celtic god of water. Now the water is a little green and you can't even touch it or your hand will fall off. Really! It's also a really cute town where all the buildings are made of the same buttery yellow bath stone. We took a little break and had a Cadbury dark chocolate hot chocolate. YUM! You can see there is a theme here. It's called eat as much Cadbury as possible before leaving London.

Tonight we're headed out to dinner and then to plan our last day in London. Talk to you tomorrow!

Another City, Another Dome

The second day of our London vacation started later than the first day, but with much more rest. Kristen and I went to sleep early Wednesday night in order to make it through Thursday. We got up, ate our full English and got on the train to Leicester (pronounced Lester) Square to search for some discount theatre tickets. But of course, in true Vacek fashion, we not only did not pick up discount tickets, we got expensive Naked Harry Potter tickets. For those of you who do not know, Daniel Radcliffe is in a play called Equus, where he apparently goes full frontal. GREAT! Obvious sarcasm.

Our travels then led us to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard where a British band plays When The Saints Come Marching In. Interesting. It was fun, but crowded, and Kristen was mad that she did not get to take a close up picture with one of the guys in the funny fuzzy hats. Maybe some other time...

  

Then, since we we're on vacation we had to climb a dome! We went to St. Paul's where we climbed the "easy" 524 steps to the top of the dome. We were altogether unimpressed with the steps, but the cathedral was beautiful! The mosaics are much more ornate than St. Peter's.

After, we took a trip to Trafalgar Square where I used my crazy upper body strength to hoist myself up and take a picture with the Lion. Actually, we had to sit up here for a while until someone came by to take our picture. We were in a lot of other people's pictures though! We're so popular!


Now we're off in a rush to see Naked Harry Potter! Tomorrow is our tour to Windsor castle, Stonehenge and Bath. Should be lots of fun!

Ok, so I said I was going to be funny this time so here's my joke... Why did the pelican cross the road? To ditch the paparazzi! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!


Seriously though, these people chased this poor pelican down the road for like 20 minutes in St. James Park. Poor pelican! I would've bit them!

See you tomorrow for the pile of rocks!

London Calling!

After a little trip to the President's Club (Hey! We're getting used to this!), a flight where every SINGLE flight attendant on the plane knew we were Jen's neighbors and wanted to give us drinks, and about two hours of sleep a piece we did London in true Vacek style. We're WORN OUT!

Today was gorgeous so we started with the London Eye. You could see for miles! It was a great way to start the day as we got the lay of the land.


Then on the GREAT (note the extreme sarcasm) advice of one of the London Eye ticket givers, we decided to make the "30 minute" walk to the Tower of London. An hour and a half later we FINALLY got to the Tower.


We did the full tour with one of the Beefeaters. He had his share of corny jokes but it was really informative. We basically had the place to ourselves. We heard rumors of crazy lines, but we didn't have any! We saw the crown jewels (a 520 CARAT DIAMOND... Blake's going to get me one of those for my birthday) and learned all the history of the tower. By the way, the Tower Bridge is the Colosseum of London. We'll have fifty million pictures of it for everyone when we get home!


By this time we were STARVING, so our first official meal in London was 40 dollar hamburgers and BOY were they good! After walking all day nothing takes better than a burger. Even if it is like eating a 20 dollar bill! I also learned NEVER to get in the cute red phone booths. They smell like week old pee...


After that fun we saw many dead people, all in one place. Westminster Abby was beautiful. There were just a LOT of dead people, a LOT. Mary Queen of Scots, almost all the kings and queens... pretty cool.

For our last stop we made our way to Harrod's. WOW. Seven floors that are each as big as a mall. We spent about 20 minutes getting lost in the toys. They have an entire Macy's size area for just toys. One whole room is nothing but stuffed animals! We fit in with the bougie Londoners quite well though and had a little Harrod's coffee and sweets break. Blake's tiramisu was yummy!

With all that fun behind us, we're going to make it an early night and hit the ground running early in the morning again. We're planning to make it to Notting Hill (so I can take my Travel Book Company picture!), St. Paul's, Blake's going to have a Guinness in a true London Pub, and maybe see a play. Should be another awesome day!

Tomorrow we'll be MUCH funnier. Today the Vaceks are TIRED...