Down Time

I forgot to tell y'all this yesterday, but the dinner was so different than our American family holiday dinners.  We had food that was so fresh and "real"...no casseroles or anything that left you unsure of the ingredients.  You would never have had to ask, "how'd you make this?" or "what's in this?".  It was mashed potatoes, green peas, onions, beets and carrots and a shrimp coctail.  I'm seriously not sure if they even added salt and pepper...each part of the meal was exactly as you find it in the fresh aisle of the grocery store!  The meat was a piece with one layer ham, one layer stuffing and one layer chicken (at least that's what it looked like).  Then the dessert was three options: pavlova, some cherry thing and something like cream filled bread...even the desserts didn't taste like they had sugar!  So weird...everything seemed very bland, but very good at the same time.  We ended with tea/coffee and shortbread cookies.  But everyone was crazy about a drink called Schloer...it is like an alcohol free fruity, fizzy champagne.  Apparently they only have it at Christmas, so they were all really excited to have it:). And the other thing they loved were these gifts called "crackers".  With another person, we would pull them apart at the ends, jump when they cracked open so loudly and then claim our prize that would fly out:). Nick got ear phones and I got a keychain!

So we went to do bed last night around 9pm and didn't fully wake up until 12pm today!!!  That's 15 hours of sleep!!!  We woke up a lot during the night though because there was a HUGE storm...I thought that the windows were going to bust out!!!  Also, Nick and I kept waking up at the exact same time, needing to use the bathroom.  I think we were so jet lagged that we were delirious!!!  Nick, at one time, turned on the lights and started searching the room, the bed, under the bed and even the power cords for something.  I kept asking him what he was looking for.  He kept getting so mad at me (even giving me the death look)  and he kept saying "I keep telling you and you don't understand...I don't know how else to make you understand"....ok???!!!  So I helped him search for a while for who knows what and then convinced him to find it in the morning.  He finally went back to bed and told me in the morning that he remembers doing that during the night, but that he had been confused between his dreams and reality and has no idea what he was looking for, but that it had something to do with a blanket.  Funny!  Plus, each time we woke up (three times), I had taken off my pajama pants and socks and thrown them in different places in the room...so I kept having to turn on the lights and search for my clothes...I was so confused and couldn't figure out what was happening!!!  Such a weird night for both of us!!!!

This was our view from our bedroom window when we woke up this morning...

Beautiful, isn't it?!?!?!?!  They have this view every day!!!  

Once we got up and laid around for a while, Michaela's dad decided to make everyone "an ulster fry" for breakfast.  We had no idea what they were talking about (because they kept asking "do you want fries?"), but after about an hour we had pancakes, fried toast, fried potato bread (not our type of potato bread in the USA), beans, bacon, tiny sausages and all served on plates that he had heated in the microwave!!!  Of course it was all served on fancy plates, with tea served in a teapot or coffee from a French press...everything seems so classy!!!  We laid around all afternoon, having tea and coffee and snacks, while watching movies.  We watched Despicable Me 2 (hilarious), Downton Abbey (which apparently people in the UK do not watch) and some movie with Tom Hanks and his ship being taken over by pirates.

It's after midnight here and we are going to Belfast to shop for bridesmaids dresses in the morning!  So, goodnight!