A tale of 2 blogs...

First of all let me say that this blog will be divided into 2 parts both vastly different from the other...
Blog PART 1:
This time of year is always hectic to say the least but this year it was a bit different. We didnt have to drive 12 out of 24 hours to make our rounds, no spending the day with 2 toddlers in the car or sleeping in the same room as them at night, & getting to spend it in England with our Air Force family! BUT there also was no REAL family, no Maw Maw's dressing (even though we made it "exactly" the same...it just wasnt as good not being at her house). No putting up the tree at Gee's or seeing the faces of the people we love the most. No long talks with Paw Paw or Daddy Gee. No talking through Patti's belly to the newest member of our family...Butterbean(ette). Heck we even miss the family drama that always ensues when that many people get together! As a matter of fact we have spent numerous Holidays without them all but knowing that we CANT be with them hit me harder than I thought it would. Today on Facebook I finally got to see pictures of our family's Thanksgiving without us...quite sad but also very happy that our family had such a wonderful time...they all deserve nothing more! We actually had a great Thanksgiving & it was SO BUSY we didnt have time to think of what was to come in a few hours on the other side of the pond.
I am thankful this year most of all for our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ who died to save us all so that we may have a home with Him in heaven for all eternity & never be separated again. I am thankful to be married to my best friend & have the most precious gifts from God as my very own children that I never have to leave. I dont know how I would live with out the 3 of them!!! They make life worth living & I truly am happier than I ever thought possible & I have been that way for the 8 years Daniel has been in my life & I KNOW it only gets better everyday!
I am thankful for the health of my family & the most wonderful friends a girl could ask for! If only a few more lived next door (again). Oh I could go on forever but I wont.

Now on to our actual Thanksgiving in all its glory! First of all as you have all read we had lots of people over to our house this year because our house is well big enough to house us all, our military family. We woke up bright & early to get started on the ham & Maw Maw's dressing (for the 1st time). Everything seemed to be going great until we ran out of Chicken Broth! So I immediately became very thankful that England doesnt celebrate Thanksgiving because I was able to run to a grocery store THAT WAS OPEN (unlike any in the states if you mess up). My errands to pick up Chicken Broth, flowers, & candles took way longer than expected. I finally made it home & the British chicken broth tuned out to actually be Chicken Soup which was a whole new problem that my wonderful hubby eventually found a fix for. On a side note, one of my favorite things about England that I failed to mention in a previous post is that you can buy beautiful flowers on any street corner, grocery store & every gas station in the country at any time of year. Beautiful & because of the weather they last forever. In the states I would have paid a fortune for the arrangements I made for our feast & would have had to order them weeks in advance! I was SOOOO happy being able to get it all done that morning! And everyone knows how much I love doing flowers anyway! Ok back to the story...after getting the house cleaned, the flowers arranged , kids dressed, a quick shower & the meal started Daniel rushed off to the base to pick up some of our guests whose vehicles have not arrived from the states. Our first guests arrived & I am rushing around like a chicken with my head cut off to get everything timed just right! Keep in mind our British oven will hardly fit any traditional American Thanksgiving dishes in it. So we had arranged for the turkey to be brought to dinner. Well to make a long story short, in true Peebles fashion the TURKEY NEVER CAME!!! When I realized what had happened I proceeded to call Daniel who would undoubtably have everyone already in the van with him to tell him we had no Turkey. He of course was in shock as was I but he handled it like a champ never letting on to our guests that their Thanksgiving might me turkey-less! He dropped them off as I am still running around like crazy now trying to do the rest alone (totally throwing off the timing schedule because it was timed out for 2 Peebles to be fixing everything!!!) & went to Newmarket (the next village over & biggest town around us) to try & FIND a turkey. Please all of you keep in mind this wonderful country is nothing like the states when it comes to convenience. There arent stores on every corner or 24 hour anything much less a place to go BUY a turkey at the drop of a hat. However, my genius husband did find a solution to our turkey problem. He found the one grocery store in Newmarket that happened to have a deli & furthermore used his charm to explain to the lady what had happened & what he needed her to do :). He had them slice off big slices of turkey just as we would when carving it & he bought it already carved & warmed it up in turkey stock to moisten it up nicely when he got back home. ABSOLUTE GENIUS!!! Im sure everyone wondered where the bones of the turkey were & why they never got to gaze at the beautiful bird before we carved it up but no one seemed to mind. I proceeded to burn 2 oven loads of rolls & forgot to make the chocolate pie but after all of our turkey woes the day turned out wonderful, we had plenty to eat & everyone left happy. We had smores by the fire, a hot cocoa station, bouncey castle inside for the kids & enough pies to choke a horse! Whew...we made it through!

Blog Part 2:
Now this I KNOW, everyone reading this knows that Daniel & myself are HUGE Alabama Football fans! Well as it happens since we have moved to England our team has gotten quite good, as a matter of fact we are undefeated even after the glorious Iron Bowl of '08! We watched this weekend with complete anxiety at the thought of them beating us again & ending what is the best display of Alabama Football since our '92 season. Since we are 6 hours ahead of CST we usually have to watch the games in the middle of the night which even in a bad season is well worth it. But this year, this year it is different we are playing with the fire & intensity only produced by the great Bear Bryant himself! We all knew Nick Saban would restore our prgram to its former glory but who knew he could do it in 2 short years! If we had only known all it took was us moving to another continent to make our team this good we would have moved ages ago! This weekend we are going to Paris to Disneyland for Colin's 2nd birthday but it is also the SEC Championship. Now obviously as previously stated we had no idea we would be 12-0 at this point in the season when we scheduled our trip, the thought of going to the division title game was only a dream. So we are headed to Paris by train with no way to watch the game, thankfully Eli Gold can be heard world-wide through the glorious internet. We also have ESPN 360 but when the games are broadcast on CBS they are unable to be seen which is the case with Saturday. So we will be in 1 hotel room with 2 toddlers & a game that doesnt even START until 10 pm!!! All with our first day at Disney, our son's 2nd birthday & party with Mickey being the next day. It looks as though it is my time to show my husband & children exactly how much I love them & exactly what true sacrifice is. I have often said I would take bullet for them & die to save them, but now is where I can show them even more than that...this weekend I will have to miss even hearing the game so that my sweet Daniel can take the computer to a coffee shop in Paris & listen to the game while I get the kids in bed & ready for what is sure to be one of the busiest & best days of their life so far. If we both stay up until 3am listening to the game our wonderful kids will have no parent with any coherant thoughts at Disney the next day & we might even miss Colin's birthday party by putting our bodies on auto pilot because we are so sleepy. So I, Ashley Peebles, will regrettably be missing the SEC Chamionship for my children. There you go death might not even be this difficult, I mean after all God is an Alabama fan & I bet He will be watching! ;)
In closing to this never ending blog; I am thankful to be a FAN of the greatest team in college football (every year), a MOM to the best kids a girl could ask for, a WIFE to the bravest man in the greatest Air Force in history, a RESIDENT of wonderful & beautiful England, a CITIZEN of the greatest country in the world & a CHILD of the God! May God bless America!