Happily Ever After...

In every fairy story I have ever read the last line reads "and they lived happily ever after" but what REALLY happens in this state of "happily ever after"? I'm living it, and in this blog i will share my happily ever after. Of course, i can't promise it will be problem free or even grumpy-free, but i can tell you, this journey is the happiest I've ever been in my whole life.

We've been in England now a week. Its been a two year journey getting here, falling in love, getting married and deciding we would live in my husband's country. I should have been out of my mind with anxiety, but it has been a really smooth and easy transition so far. Not to say the shock of it all wont hit me later, but i've traveled a bit in my life, and I've had a few anxiety episodes relating to culture shock in the past. It always seems to hit me about 3 or 4 days after arrival. This hasn't happened here.

The air is so clean, the food tastes so good. Not because of some imagined euphoria, but simply because everything is so much fresher here. Of course, i don't live in London, i live in a lovely village near Market Rasen.

This morning my husband and I decided to take the children to explore the historic town of Brigg. Brigg (formerly Glanford Brigg) in North Lincolnshire, England, is a small market town on the River Ancholme with a population of 5,076 in 2,213 households. We walked the snow covered cobbled streets today, so enchanted were we that we barely noticed the cold nipping at our cheeks. We meandered through the market, stopped at a family owned bakery and explored shops, popping in and out of doors along the road. We made only a few purchases; thank you notes for the generous christmas gifts we received, some books from the book store, and stopped off to have a cup of coffee in a local pub. Michael, being a natural father, read the new "Thomas the Train" book to my youngest one while i sat and had a nice chat with my older son.

When we finally returned home and cooked dinner, we decided to take the children up the street to the local pub on the corner. They bundled up against the bluster of cold, carried their new mini flashlights and off we went. We trodded over the small wood bridge, clopping along in a unified line, off into the dark brush and trees behind the local stone homes. We emerged by an old stone church and walked further on past a graveyard that seemed older than time itself. Once in the pub, the children enjoyed a chocolate cake that would make a chocoholic run with fright. Taking a bite myself, i felt like a dog chewing peanut butter as the richness and altogether too chocolaty taste overwhelmed me. I enjoyed a slice of rasperberry cheesecake and a white wine. My husband warmed his insides with a very dark beer that appeared to be sludge from a barrel, but was advertised as a Christmas holiday promotion *YUCK*.

As we walked home i began to feel chilly, wet drops land on my cheeks. Oh Dear! Not more rain! My four year old announced "Look Mom, its SNOWING!!" All giggles and excitement the children completed their walk with faces aimed at the sky and tongues straight out. When we arrived home the children just couldn't be brought inside. Sticky clumps of snow fell from the sky like manna from heaven. Though there was little accumulation on the ground, the boys INSISTED they must play in it. I do believe this was their first time seeing snow fall of this kind. When they finally ventured back in, took a warm bath and were tucked in their beds, sleep came easily.

Today was a lovely day. I was gifted with the warmest smiles from my husband and patience through my irritability as the day started. He is a gift and makes me a much better person. He allowed me to see everything with a different sort of frame of mind. Sharing history, the richness of culture. It isn't just walking around these old places, its about experiencing them. If not for the wealth of knowledge he shares so readily, it wouldn't be half as fun.