Reigate Castle

We spent Xmas and New Year’s with my stepdaughter near London. She’s an amazing cook and spoiled us rotten with an array of tasty meals, including: pheasant and chestnut stew, clementine cake, juniper and lemon ice cream, cranberry ice cream, and much more!

She lives by the Thames, so we also enjoyed strolls along the waterfron, as well as the occasional stop at the riverside pub, where we enjoyed half pints of pear cider and a proper plate of fish ‘n’ chips with mushy peas.

I enjoy visiting grocery stores around the world, and England is no exception. I get a kick out of their cough medicine for example, Thanks to the descriptions, dry and tickly vs chesty, you know exactly which type is right for you.

Naomi and I rang in the New Year on our own, alas, because Larry had to fly back to the states. Why? Because his passport ran out of space for new stamps!

Up ‘til 2016, this would have been no big deal. Back then, you could simply get more pages stapled into your existing passport . These days, you are required to get a brand new passport.

As you can imagine, getting one on such short notice was tricky. I’ll spare the details, but he managed to get an in person appointment in Dallas.

The upside to all this, is that he got to ring in the new year with our Texas family, so all was not lost.

He also dropped off a large suitcase of souvenirs and superfluous clothing at our house. This means we are down to one big suitcase and two roller bags.

He put one of the roller bags into an empty big bag, so we’ve got plenty of room for souvenirs now.

I must say that with each trip we take, we get better at packing.

It had been roughly 20 years since my stepdaughter and I shared the holidays together, so this was a real treat.

As always, our time together flew by and saying goodbye was hard. Still, I am very grateful for the time we spent together.Read more