Last day

 Friday was my last day at home for this trip. :-( After lunch and packing we decided to go out for a bit so we didn't end up just sitting around moping. Which we would do. So we headed to Bewdley, mainly because they have Teddy Gray's sweet shop there. The weather was nice though cold.

By the river

Seagull craziness.

 Teddy Gray's is the best. It's an old fashion sweet shop and used to belong to my great Uncle who created it. Unfortunately it no long does so we don't get any discounts. But it is still very cool and only in the Midlands! I stocked up on some cinder toffee and some more herbals (a very Black Country thing - I love them!) while mom and dad got ice-creams. It was too cold for me!

Teddy Gray's

Lots of sweets 

Enjoying their ice-creams.

 Bewdley is very nice though it appears they have to chain their recycle bins to the rails, which doesn't say anything good.

In case of theft!

 It was a nice walk along the river, but we headed back early as it was getting dark and cold.

Sunset on the river

We had to be up and at Birmingham airport for 6am to check in for my flight on Saturday morning so we didn't do much on Friday night. I always hate going back. It never seems like long enough. It is so nice being home with my family and I really miss mom and dad when I leave. It's hard when you are completely on your own and I worry about mom and dad and really miss them. But I need to get paid! 

I flew to Newark, a long 8hr flight with the same movies as the way there. However I did get my first ever free upgrade! I was so happy. It was only to economy plus, but hey, I'll take it. I got extra leg room. I didn't think a free extra inches leg room would make that much difference. But it does!

Luckily I had packed a fair amount of food as the GF meal was minimal. This time they didn't even try to substitute things in. My desert was a juice box! And they feed us lunch at 10am, an hour after take-off. It was a very long 6 hours until the snack (2 suspicious tasting sandwiches in my case.) 

I had an 8 hr layover in Newark, NJ (though it was only supposed to be 6). At one point I got a little worried as the weather turned and I couldn't see the end of the nearest planes wing, let alone the runway.

The snow descended.

Luckily it cleared. Because of the extra delay I didn't get to my hotel in Seattle until 1am, 28 hours after leaving home. A very long trip!

New Years and Moonshine

We didn't do much on New Year Eve. Both mom and dad were at work during the day so I worked and went out for lunch with Sarah for a catch up. On the evening we stayed in and mom cooked an amazing meal. We also started on the Prosecco mixed with a raspberry liquor.

Posh dinner again

We never made it to dessert - we were just too full. We chilled out, watching TV and listening to music until midnight. And of course drinking a bit more wine. We had probably too much. Ok, definitely too much but it doesn't happen often.

A little merry

Happy New Year selfie

Dad also decided to start a new New Year's Eve tradition - whiskey and chocolate log. He was very happy with this decision. :-)

Chocolate log and whiskey tradition

Today, after a visit from my sister and Oz, we went to visit my aunt and uncle, taking the moonshine with us. I managed to bring back 3 different types of moonshine with me from the States; classic, strawberry, and peach. Moonshine is an experience. 

Moonshine

We only did little tasting as everyone had over indulged the night before. But they do say hair of the dog.  The peach was my favorite. The strawberry, not so much. And the classical definitely has a warming feeling. They are all 40%, 80 proof. I still have the rest of the jars back in Blacksburg. (They are from heavy mason jars so I put them in more portable plastic ones for the trip.)

Sort of enjoying it? 

Before tasting

Dad after tasting!

The expression after the first taste is the best bit. We all moved to more sensible tea and coffee after though. Turns out I am not a fan of the Hair of the dog method!

Bridgnorth and camera trip

On Saturday we took a walk out to get some air and I treated mom and Dad to a breakfast in Bridgnorth. Thankfully we took the vertical railway up the hill (and walked down).

Enjoying the railway 

View over Bridgnorth and the river

Long way up.

We had a nice breakfast at a very little cafe which also sold lots of craft things.

Breakfast

 And after looking around a few shops and getting some things for New Year Eve, walked down the the lower Town.

View on the way down.

Today after being up early for a Skype call with a collaborator who never showed (on a Sunday morning as well - sometimes I really don't like my job!), Dad and I went for a walk to St.Mary's Church to play with our cameras. It was a little bit cold!

Frost 

Ice.

St. Marys Church is a lovely little church which has graves over 200+ years old in the graveyard, though I think the church is older.

Shadow on the doorway

St. Marys

 I spent some time getting used to my new lens which has a nice depth of focus (so I can select limited things to be in focus - it's great for portraits).

Ivy 

More ivy 

And some leaves for a change

Frost

There are a number of very old headstones in the graveyard.

Tilting

1823

(Unintentional) moss art

After the church, we walked down to King Georges Park. I used to go there a lot when I was younger riding my bike and scrambling in the woods. Now they have put up fences everywhere. Still we took some more photos, chatted to a lovely little lady and I managed to get jumped on by a muddy dog. :-/ 

Willow

Setting sun

 We spent some time just photographing ducks and seagulls. There were a lot of them!

Looking for dinner.

 Dad was very jealous of my seagulls shot.

"Ducks" in a row

Staring contest

 Dad was just changing his lens to get a photo of the seagulls on the fence when a gaggle of geese noisily made their entrance and scared all the other birds of temporally. He was not impressed.

The geese have arrived

Once the sun set, it got really cold so we headed back where mom had us tea and coffee ready! :-) 

Christmas!

It has been great being home over Christmas. After working in the morning on Christmas Eve, Mom and I curled up on the sofa with mugs of tea and watched the Hog Father, a Christmas tradition for us. Unfortunately my sister and her partner turned up earlier than expected so we didn't get to see it all but it was more than last year! We always have hot pork sandwiches on Christmas Eve, this year long with a fair bit of rose wine. :-) Plus a chocolate roulade with some amazing Gran Marnier cream (which did not skimp on the liquor!).

Christmas day is one of the very few days over the year I don't put an alarm on. I figured as there were no children (or my sister who always gets up early), I could sleep in. I forgot about my Mom! She did wait until after 8am at least though she was up at 7am!

We have sacks of presents (little stuff) up stairs before going downstairs.

Mom and Dads sacks

Mine!

Mom opened hers quickly and gets impatient with me and Dad when we take our time. (I tend to take more than necessary just to see her reaction.) :-)

Opening presents

I got everything practical this year, as I have to fit everything into one suitcase to take back. So I got tights, deodorants, socks etc as well as a hat (as I lost one recently) and matching scarf. :-)

My sack presents

 After that it's downstairs for another cup of tea, toast, and more presents!

The tree.

Mom and Dad liked their presents from Australia! Mom got an opal necklace to match the ring I got her last time and dad got a aborigine decorated wine bottle holder.

Opening her necklace.

Happy with his wine bottle holder.

Though everyone promised not to spend much this year, we didn't really stick to it!

Mom bemused by her new iPad. 

Dad liked his new headphones though.

 I got a lot of clothes (to replace some old ones). My best present was camera stuff. I got some filters from friends (Thank you Matt, El and Clare) and a new fixed focus lens where I can do some fun things and is great for portraits.

Playing with the lens

One of moms many orchids

Another orchid 

Using the tree to play with the lens

After presents, we relaxed while dinner cooked, with a small tipple. :-) It has ben ages since I had Tia Maria but I didn't fancy either Dad's ginger wine (he is a ginger addict) or Mom's choice of sherry.
We put the table in conservatory for Christmas dinner. Usually it's because we need the room, but with there number of deaths this year (it has been a bad one!) it was just the 3 of us for dinner this year. But it's nice in there and something different.

Christmas starts and the well laid table (if I do say so myself!)

Along with a very nice bottle of Pouilly Fume (my favorite French white wine, in fact my favorite white in general!).

Cheers!

There was of course lots of food for dinner! And loads of veg. Though my dad sneakily stolen the last parsnip! It was all very tasty! None of us had room for desert. (We had that today.)

Christmas dinner

After dinner we all had a nap! Before heading to Kerry and Ozs house for a bit. They go crazy at Christmas; their tree is huge! It take sup about a 1/4 of their living room.

Crazy big tree

I got to play with the cats for a while and get my cat fix. Kerry and Oz were a little tipsy when we got there, having started drinking at 8am!
The rest of the evening was quiet one at home. Why is there absolutely nothing good on TV on Christmas night?  :-)
Today is a quiet day. We usually go for a walk (I really wanted to play with my new camera stuff!) but it's raining. :-( So some work, soe job applications, some sleep and some really bad TV (The current film is way too long but there is nothing on and we got no DVDs for Christmas). I am off to drink my Tia Maria coffee now which looks very impressive in its wine glass!
Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!

Merry Christmas!