Christmas Travels.

John's team is fortunate this year, while every other team in the league has a game on December 23, Trefl Sopot has a "bye". While we were hoping to possibly make it home for Christmas, it became evident that would not be the case when the practice schedule was announced. We were only to have off the 22-25 and while we contemplated traveling somewhere, I wasn't keen on the idea.

I am a traditionalist. I listen to the same music every Christmas. I bake the same bread, make the same cookies. I always use white lights on our Christmas trees. We always do our big dinner on Christmas Eve. The thought of not being in our own place, to wake up in the morning to the smell of homemade cinnamon rolls did not sound appealing at all. John, and the other hand, thought it would be just fine to be away for Christmas. We tried finding flights that would get us home by the afternoon of the 24th, but nothing seemed to be working. So, we decided to just stay here. The thought of being stuck in an airport on Christmas day sounded miserable to me.

But as the time went on, I just started feeling a bit trapped. As if the walls of this tiny apartment were closing in on me. Thanks to pregnancy sickness causing me to throw up a couple times a day, we haven't ventured out as much as normal. I started missing home, and wishing I could sleep in my own bed for just one night. I kept thinking about Christmas last year, and just how special it was. I even woke up one night, tossing and turning unable to fall back asleep... when suddenly I just started sobbing. (I am blaming it on the hormones.)

All that to say, when John's coach graciously changed the practice schedule allowing more travel time, I conceded that we should get away. Forget traditions, we'll make it an untraditional Christmas this year. We won't be with extended family anyway, so we might as well be somewhere fun and new together. When we found good flight times and prices to a city we've always wanted to visit but have never made it to, we didn't do any comparison of flights to other cities.... we just booked it. (Which is rare for me, I like to know all my options first.)

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Yep, we are going to LONDON! I am thrilled at the prospect of speaking English; I adore the British accent. Our list of sights to see is quite extensive and I don't think we will manage to fit everything in before the entire city shuts down on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. (Including public transportation, which is what we will be using.) And we don't know where we will eat on Christmas Day as everything is either closed, crazy expensive, or too far away from our hotel. But, I will embrace it all: the adventure, the busyness of the city leading up to Christmas and the quiet serenity of the city on Christmas Day. We will celebrate the birth of Jesus as a little family, our last Christmas just the three of us. And yes, I will even embrace room service if I have to.