England Date Night

The second stop on our travels took us to jolly ole' England.  

England, birthplace of Shakespeare and The Beatles, is a country in the British Isles bordering Scotland and Wales. The capital, London, on the River Thames, is home of Parliament, Big Ben and the 11th-century Tower of London. It's also a multicultural, modern hub for the arts and business. Other large cities are Manchester,
Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol and the university centres of Oxford and Cambridge.

Capital: London

Population: 53.01 million (2011)

Currency: Pound sterling

Ethnic groups (2011): 85.4% White; 7.8% Asian; 3.5% Black; 2.3% Mixed; 0.4% Arab; 0.6% Other;

Regional languages: Cornish 

Here are some of the cool facts we learned about England that you may not know either:

When the world’s largest diamond was transported from Africa to England, elaborate & secure journey by sea was publicized was a rouse. The real diamond was simply posted by mail.

70% of the land in England is still owned by 1% of the population, largely descended from William the Conqueror’s army. 

The Queen of England’s portrait has been on enough international money to make a progressive timeline of her aging.

The earliest known recipe for macaroni & cheese dates back to 14^th century England.

Pineapples were such a status symbol in 18th century England that you could rent one for the evening to take to a party.

The word “soccer” was first used in England before the Americans adopted it.

The oldest unbroken alliance in the world is between England and Portugal dating back to 1373

“Gropecunt Lane” was once a common street name in England, indicating probable historical centers of prostitution.

All the presidents of the USA except Martin Van Buren are descended from King John of England.(Im not sure how recent this article was..)

There’s an annual lying competition in England, and competitors from around the world have five minutes to tell the biggest and most convincing lie they can. Politicians and lawyers are banned from entering because they’re thought to be too good at it.  

After a ride on England’s first escalator, customers were offered a brandy to revive them of their ordeal.

The body of Richard III, infamous king of England, was lost for over 500 years before being found beneath a parking lot in 2012.  

In Gravesend, England, there is a whole fake town used by police to simulate dangerous situations. Fake streets, houses, parks, nightclubs, estates, aircraft, trains and tube stations are used to stage riots, robberies, hostage situations and terrorist attacks.

There is a garden in England devoted entirely to plants that can kill. The creator, the Duchess of Northumberland, felt that people ‘would be more interested in hearing how a plant killed, how long it would take you to die if you ate it and how gruesome and painful the death might be

*facts w/sources via kickassfacts.com 

For dinner we had shepherd's pie, salad and homemade bread. Cobbler for dessert.  I was surprised at how many dishes we eat here in modern day US of A that date back to traditional English food.  I also made scones- the English variety which are more of what we'd call a biscuit here, clotted cream and strawberry jam to have with tea after the movie.

Scones!

I also bought Aero bars, which are an aerated chocolate bar from the UK. We got the milk chocolate and the mint chocolate...both awesome!

Aero is a chocolate product manufactured by Nestlé. It was originally introduced to the North of England as the "new chocolate" by Rowntree's in 1935. via wikipedia

a cuppa tea and scone with clotted cream and jam...delicious!

After dinner we watched a British romance film called Atonement. It was OK. Actually, no, it wasn't that good at all, but it was fun to keep with the theme!

Christmas 2016

Sorry this is literally a month late.  I'm not sure what my deal is....anyways, here are the Christmas pictures.

Homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  Getting ready for the oven!

Zoe outside playing in the snow on Christmas Eve

both of the little monsters

and the other two little monsters ;)

Christmas morning

THANKS Grandma and Grandpa P for the cash! Straight into their Maui funds! They were so excited to be able to save some spending money for their trip.

Bella wanted a hamper hoop so bad...silly kid!  Her and Rachel both got cell phones- Samsung Galaxies, for Christmas this year, which I of course forgot to get photos of, so their actual gifts to open were fairly small.

Bella loves jerky and begged for it to be in her stocking!

Zo stoked about her kindle fire

my cake for dessert

the girls opening their joint gift

a box full of about 60 different kinds of Japanese candies...they love trying crazy candy from other countries and doing youtube challenge videos with it, and Louis and I figured Japanese would be about as off the beaten path as possible for this..

a picture pf the igloo they made with all the snow!

Greece Date Night

Browsing through pinterest, I've come across several date night ideas and themes and have decided that it would be fun to do.  It is important to me to focus on my husband and our marriage. It is a constant give and take and I don't ever want to be that couple that gets stagnant and boring, BUT, that takes active work. So, I thought it would be fun to do DESTINATION THEME date nights.  Nothing too extravagant or anything, but at least once or twice a month look up a different country and make that the evening's theme.   I wanted to make some sort of little crafty passport or something and 'collect stamps' each time or something like that, but I haven't quite got that part down yet. :)

The first stop on our travels leads us to GREECE. 

Greece is a country in southeastern Europe with thousands of islands throughout the Aegean and Ionian seas. Influential in ancient times, it's often called the cradle of Western civilization. Athens, its capital, retains landmarks including the 5th-century B.C. Acropolis citadel with the Parthenon temple. Greece is also known for its beaches, from the black sands of Santorini to the party resorts of Mykonos.

Capital: Athens

Currency: Euro

Capital and largest city: Athens; 37°58′N 23°43′E / 37.967°N 23.717°E

Population: 10.82 million (2015) World Bank

Official language: Greek

I emailed Louis a themed invitation to our evening just to get the ball rolling and I was so excited when he met my challenge and came home to our date evening with a few themed gifts... :)

My lover brought me a card, pomegranate and bread.

According to Greek superstitions, customs and folklore-
Bread
Bread is considered a gift from God. It has roots from the bible story, Sermon on the Mount, of how Jesus Christ fed thousands with the fish and the bread. The older village women always make the sign of the cross over a fresh loaf before slicing it. No bread is ever thrown away. If it is not eaten in some way or another, it is fed to the animals, as it would be a sin for it to end up in the garbage and has to be consumed.
The Pomegranate
The pomegranate is a symbol of happy times, fertility and prosperity in Greek folklore, and in some parts of Greece people take a pomegranate with them when they visit people on New Year’s Eve and smash it on the threshold, so that the household will have good luck and prosperity in the coming year.

While I was finishing up dinner, Louis and I looked up Greek facts and trivia.  I wont bombard you with all the knowledge we gleamed :), but here are a few interesting tidbits for ya:

Greece is the sunniest country in Europe.

Melbourne has the largest Greek population, outside of Greece.

Greece is the most sexually active nation in the world (get 'em!)

Waving with your palm open is considered disrespectful in Greece.

Greek men are the 8th tallest in the world.

Greece currently has the highest unemployment rate in the EU.

Greece is the only country in the world, that receives DOUBLE its population in tourists every year. 

Greek is the oldest written language still in existence.

Greece has the LOWEST suicide and divorce rates, but has the HIGHEST mistress rates in the EU. 

Greeks tend to celebrate Name Day vs their birthdays.  Name Day is when they celebrate the saint they were named after.

 For dinner, we had traditional Greek food including greek salad, chicken souvlaki, lemon rice pilaf, pita bread and lemon pantespani for dessert.

Greek salad

lemon rice pilaf

chicken souvlaki skewers

Notice my Greece invitation?!?! :)

it was delicious

After dinner we headed in for movie time.  We wanted to watch something sticking to the Greek theme and had originally chosen 300, but after watching the trailers and stuff, we decided on the newest version of Clash of  the Titans.  It still has all the Greek mythology and lore we were looking for, just with a little less gore and stuff. :)

pretty bad picture, in bad, at the end of the evening, but the only one I got of the two of us!