I’ve been on a break from blogging for a couple of weeks while I got ready for the holidays. And they’ve arrived! They came, they saw, they spread festive cheer all over the house! My in-laws just left this morning, and I’m looking around the house figuring out where we’re going to put everything.

Other posts on this trip: Legoland Windsor, Liberty of London!, And All the Rest of Southern England, Center Parcs, Sherwood Forest, National Tramway Museum.
The last leg of our UK trip last month was up to stay with my in-laws in Derbyshire and spend some time running around the country and running around Sheffield (which is South Yorkshire).

I never remember to take photos at Thanksgiving, I don’t know why. This photo above was the only one I have of the food. We made classic turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. I roasted brussels sprouts. My mom brought sweet potatoes and rolls, my brother and his family brought pies and his macaroni and cheese with wheat pasta. My aunt brought the yummiest bean dip and green bean casserole. It was a group effort this year, and I really loved that.

Other posts on this trip: Getting to Our Little House, Dieppe and Thereabouts, Omaha Beach.
It has been busy around here. Today was H’s last day of school, and I’ve been writing and sewing quite a bit. Plus, all of the makeover prep for this site!
So, it is taking a while to finish posting these trip photos from Normandy. I still have quite a few, but I’m going to bust them all out in one final post.
I love, love, loved Rouen. I especially loved the timber-framed buildings.

Other posts on this trip: Getting to Our Little House, Dieppe and Thereabouts.
I didn’t realize today was the 70th anniversary of D-Day, and I hadn’t planned on posting these photos. I was going to talk about Rouen and a zoo and more food. But, it seems like a really good time to just post the photos we took. My lens was filthy on that beach, I have no idea why. It was windy and sandy, I guess.

Other posts on this trip: Getting to Our Little House.
Dieppe was the nearest city to where we were staying in France. We spent an afternoon tooling around there, and we also poked around in some other gorgeous spots in the area near the little house.

I’m finally posting my photos from our European trip last month. We weren’t in the UK for very long; we stayed overnight Saturday at my father- and stepmother-in-law’s house and had a birthday dinner for Adam’s younger brother. Then the next day we had lunch with Adam’s older brother and his family (including H’s two amazing cousins, Cleo and Livi). Then we set out for Dover to take the ferry to France with my mother- and stepfather-in-law.
We stayed overnight Sunday in Dover so we could climb up to the White Cliffs.
They are white and cliffy. The view from the ferry was better, but I was too busy chasing a toddler around a moving ship to take photos. It’s beautiful countryside up there.
We’re exhausted and happy here after a great Christmas. Here’s H’s reaction to the elephant rocker her grandparents gave her for Christmas. Awesome little creature.
H meets her present. from Jackie Reeve on Vimeo.
We spent all of last week at an all-inclusive in Punta Cana with my other set of in-laws. And my BIL Thomas. It was glorious, but insanely hot and humid. And I did get a little twitchy with so little internet access. But endless beachside piña coladas definitely made up for it, as did the incredible massage I had in a hut on the beach. And H loved it; she had a solid routine down of mornings at the pool, naps in the room, afternoons on the sand. Not a bad way to bring in October.
The last week in August we set out with my mother- and stepfather-in-law on another road trip through New England. We had such a great time back in March that we decided to do it again. But this time instead of Boston and Vermont, we spent a night in Mystic, Connecticut, went back to Portland for a few days, and then finished up in Cape Cod.
The trip up to CT was insane, the traffic through NYC was so much worse than we expected. But, we did find a Shake Shack in Westport that made everyone’s mood better. I’d never been to one, but Adam had one near his old work office.
H really liked the shakes.