Kernovich Abroad: English Flu Hits the Kerns

We figured out a new way to shed the extra pounds of Thanksgiving, get sick! After basking in the delight of pulling off a full Thanksgiving dinner for the first time, we unfortunately did not get the chance to enjoy many leftovers. Saturday morning as we were finishing putting the rest of Tyler's room together, nausea hit me out of nowhere. Sure enough it progressed into a nasty flu bug. Luckily JJ was home and could take care of Tyler and ESPN America was showing the Michigan game so I could lay on the couch and watch TV all day. I went to bed early on Saturday night and woke up in the middle of the night sick again. JJ got up to check up on me and then he felt his wave of nausea hit. We were both a mess! Thankfully by Sunday morning I was feeling a bit better and could take care of Tyler while JJ was feeling the worst of his flu. And also thankfully Tyler did not get sick. I'm still hoping that it was the flu and not food poisoning from our turkey :)

It was unfortunate that we were both feeling bad this weekend because there was a big Christmas festival in Hampstead right outside our door. Sunday was a beautiful day and I wanted to get Tyler out of the sick house so we walked around a bit. At the festival were carnival rides, reindeer, ice skating, music and lots of food and shopping. There was also Santa there but I wasn't feeling up for waiting in the long line so we will have to see Santa in the US! It would have been fun to spend the day walking around but it wasn't in the cards for the Kerns this year. The tree lighting ceremony was right outside our door on the High Street so we all ventured out for that Sunday evening. There was a big build up to the tree lighting and there was a loud countdown and lots of cheering when it lit up. Our delicate flower, Tyler, was scared of all the loud noises and started crying just after the tree lighting. We took that as our cue to leave and maneuvered through the crowd to get back home. Hopefully next year we are all feeling more up for the festival.

Yesterday we were both feeling a bit better but JJ was still feeling weak and queasy so he worked from home to fully recover. This was nice because we didn't get a chance to take our photo for the Christmas card over the weekend so we popped outside at lunch and took some photos. I had this grand vision of Tyler popping out of a photo booth wearing a Santa hat with a London scene in the background. My vision wasn't totally achieved but we took a couple good photos and had to get creative when Tyler refused to wear the Santa hat. You will have to wait for the actual Christmas card to see the real photo but I've posted some outtakes below.

We will be home for Christmas in just over a week and I can't wait! It's so strange to not decorate for Christmas this year. Every year for the past 10 years or so I would spend part of Thanksgiving weekend decorating the house from top to bottom with Christmas music playing loud. We even got a real Christmas tree the past four years. But all my decorations are in storage this year and there is no point in trying to decorate this place since we are leaving so soon. So we will just enjoy the decorations of others when we are home!

Now today we went to the Community Center again for music class. Tyler was tentative again with the other kids around and hung close to me. The songs make me laugh. They are for the most part the same as the children's songs in the US but have a little different spin. For instance on The Wheels on the Bus, instead of saying at the end of the verse "All through the town" they say "All day long." Then for Ring Around the Posey instead of saying "Ashes, ashes, we all fall down" they say "Achoo Achoo, we all fall down" (like the sneeze - weird!). There were other strange differences and songs I didn't know, but Big T and I sat back and watched and I sang what I knew and a good time was had by all.