Our First British Christmas

On December 24th we both worked until 1130am. We got home after work and packed our bags for Christmas weekend. 

We headed towards Lincolnshire to spend Christmas with our friends who generously invited us to celebrate with them. Our other friend Plant Based Nurse happened to be going home for Christmas and so he was able to give us a ride close to Lincoln on the way to mom's.

We got to our friend's place around 8pm. We caught up since we hadn't seen each other since June. Then we took the dogs for a walk around the Cathedral.

 The Cathedral looks so beautiful all lit up in the evening.

 It was a lovely Christmas eve stroll.

We went back to their place and continued chatting into the wee hours of the night.

We got up the next morning and took the dogs for a walk through the cemetery. Our friends mum also joined in on the fun.

Nativity scene.

 It was a lovely Christmas day. Perfect for a walk. The squirrels came out to greet us.

 We went back to the house, had some festive drinks and relaxed.

 Bucksfizz drinks to start us off. Thats Sparkling wine and orange juice.
 We also made Nog for everyone. England doesn't seem to sell vegan eggnog, so we had to make it ourselves!!! The recipe for the one we made is here. We suggest adding extra dates if you like your nog sweet!

Our friend made us all an amazing Christmas dinner.

Tofurky sausage, stuffing, carrot and swede, cranberry, brusselsprouts, Yorkshire pudding, veg, gravy.

 It was all fantastic. After dinner we hung around and digested. We skyped home to our families, then watched a movie before bed.

Boxing day we got ready and headed to Sheffield.

Time to get up sleepy head!

 It took about an hour to get to Sheffield. Our friends watched a football game, while we toured around Sheffield. Our friends are season ticket holders to Sheffield Wednesday. We considered going but the tickets were too much for us to afford. We were happy to explore Sheffield though.

 We found the cathedral!

 We ended up walking in a huge circle around Sheffield, and back at the Cathedral.

 So we went inside.

Polar bear

 The catherdral had some beautiful windows.

 After we left the Cathedral we ate the lunch that our friend packed for us. (Leftovers!)

We went into Lush and took advantage of their 50% off sales. Then we made our way to Costa to have a hot drink and warm up. We picked Costa because they don't charge extra for soy milk like other coffee chains do. (I'm looking at you Starbucks) We normally go to independent coffee shops cause we're cool like that but they were all closed for Boxing Day. 

Chai Latte and Cafe Latte

 After we left Costa we had an hour before we had to meet our friends. We walked around the high street and looked at shops.

 It gets dark quite quickly in the winter. We had a 20 minute walk to where we had to meet our friends. Luckily it wasn't hard to find our way in the dark.

 Sheffield seems like a nice city. I don't think we saw all of it so it just gave us a little taste until we return again.

The next day we helped our friends take their dogs for a walk. We walked to the Lawn and played a little bit of fetch with the three dogs. Afterwards we walked around town a bit.

 We were walking around Cathedral Square which includes the Cathedral and Lincoln Castle.

 Here is one of the entrances to Lincoln Castle. Last time we were in Lincoln we went inside but not this time.

 Lincoln has a old wind mill that still makes flower. It was closed but we got to sneak a peek from outside the fence.

 Pretty sweet wind mill.

 After walking the dogs we hung out at our friends place and watched a movie (or film as they say in England). At 530pm they drove us to the meeting point where our friend Plant Based Nurse picked us in order to give us a lift back to BHAM.

 We decided to stop and take a wander around the Castle in Newark.

 The castle is just a wall. That's all that's left but it is pretty cool to see. The lights are a nice touch.

 It was dark and difficult to get a good shot of the castle.

 See how the castle is just a wall now? There is a river on the otherside but we couldn't get a clear picture being so dark and the spot lights were shining from down below on the river bank.

That's it for our Christmas trip to Lincoln. It was a nice Christmas with our friends and although it was tough to be away from our families on Christmas we were lucky to spend some quality time with our friends and enjoy a nice Christmas dinner together. Thanks guys and merry Christmas.

Check out our New Years Resolution! "Resolution for 2016"