A beautiful Southlake weekend...

This weekend just gone we got ourselves into the Christmas spirit 'Southlake stylie'. One thing I had read up about Southlake before we moved here was that they had a lovely turning on the Christmas lights celebration so this had been something I had wanted to do for a while.

However, more important tasks occurred in the morning when my lovely neighbour, Angela, took me to the local supermarket to give me the low down on buying food in the USA - and very useful it was!!!

I know some of you may find this strange but we ended up spending over two hours there - can't imagine doing that in Tesco's I am sure! Angela is clearly a foodie - so you can imagine we had plenty to discuss.  Having spent that time with her I am now really looking forward to our Thanksgiving meal tomorrow! It really does take some local knowledge to get the right brands of things, to know what is a good buy etc,etc. We have been finding the food shopping more expensive then we had budgeted for but obviously we had been buying the wrong things.  I am now fully confident that I can shop to budget! The boys made chocolate chip cookies that afternoon from the famous American cookie dough and we brought a glass jar to put them in and then gave them to Angela to say thanks.  The boys have been doing quite a bit of cooking - in fact as I write William is making scrambled eggs and bacon (turkey bacon that is) for our breakfast.
Here is a photo of the extensive British range at the supermarket:

So feeling very pleased with myself we headed out to Southlake for the turning on of the lights festivities.  We were a bit early so I managed to squeeze in a bit of shopping time in my new favourite store called Crate and Barrel (http://www.crateandbarrel.com/). Brought a wonderful little brie baker which I know I will get lots of use out of!

We then went and make appointments for the boys to have a cool haircut at a really old fashioned barbers/men's club called the Boardroom (http://www.theboardroomsalon.com/).  Seeing as nothing had actually started we decided to grab a quick bite at the Rockfish cafe. It was really busy so we sat outside to eat.  It makes me laugh as all the locals had their coats on and woolly hats and there we were in just long sleeved tops!

Here are some photos from the goings on in the square.  I have more coming but have a small technical fault - my husband - well, not him - his PC!!! Steve's photos now added at the bottom of these...

I have to say it was such a lovely evening.  The lights were incredible and there were so many art and craft activities the children could do.  Plus there were free hot chocolate stands on every corner, free popcorn and free carriage rides.  We queued up for a while but Steve was not into it and as it took ages we ended up leaving - that plus the manic group of kids next to us was driving us insane!!!

On Monday, we went to Shady glen to meet our landlady and to go though things at the house.  It's looking much emptier now but still feels very homely.  I am so excited that a week today we will be there!!! Our container arrived in Houston yesterday so wouldn't it be great if the delivery of the container coincides with us getting the keys? - I live in hope - or I sleep on the floor!!!

The boys will be starting school on the 2nd - not sure who is looking forward to it most! The is a cut through to the school from Shady Glen which means I can walk the boys to school and it should take 15 minutes.  I am really pleased about that as I think it will be great to have that time to wake up in the morning.  They start at 7:45 so will be getting up earlier from now on.  In fact, I have decided we all need to start training for the earlier hour this week so it's not too much of a shock!!

Things have been pretty quiet here this week and the boys have had time off from schooling.  All the kids here are on holiday for a week so makes it hard to get the boys to concentrate their minds.  Too much skateboarding to do!!!

Here is a short video of the boys learning their craft.

We have also developed a new way of dog walking.  I run and the boys skateboard but Tom now has Rudy pulling him along - a job he/they seem to enjoy. 

Steve has headed off this morning to pick up my new car - a VW Tiguan (brand new!).  Tiggy I shall call it!! I have to say I can't decide if I am looking forward to being mobile or dreading driving here.  I will do a solo flight later today and let you know how I get on!!!

So tomorrow we will experience our first Thanksgiving - I am really looking forward to it.  Then on Friday there is something called Black Friday.  It's kind of like our January sales but most shops open at 4am in the morning.  We plan to head off to Fry's Electronics as we need to buy items such as a vacuum cleaner, toaster and home phone for the new house.  Hopefully we can get some bargains! I think the boys will enjoy the middle of the night experience.  I expect an early Friday night...zzzzzzzzz.

Well that's it for now.  I will blog again soon.  It is lovely to do but does take some time.  Will be nice when I have all day to do nothing and I can blog to my heart's content!!!!

Take care y'all and speak soon.

Love,  Bex