Jo dreaming about her new boots...
Jo picking out her new boots...
Dad forking out the cash for the new boots...
Jo is the proud new owner of some beautiful black boots from Hobbs of London. (finally - some new shoes!) 
Somehow this picture didn't make it on the first blog, so here's a bit more...this is the family standing in front of the Randolph Hotel in Oxford, where we started our C. S. Lewis tour today....the Randolph Hotel is one of the places Lewis frequented..(and also a favorite haunt of Inspector Morse, as we learned a few days ago).
The Lewis tour was superb - we felt like we all learned a lot, and gained more understanding of the kind of person "Jack" Lewis was...the tour included his early homes, the site of his marriage to Joy, his schools and colleges, Holy Trinity Church at Headington Quarry, his gravesite (shared with his brother Warnie), and his home, The Kilns...a glorious day!
Now, a very Merry Christmas to each and every one of you. We love you and treasure you!
We have spent one glorious week in London - and let me take just a moment to mention some of the wonderful memories we are sharing--
**another opportunity to see "Les Mis", our favorite play of all-times, and we are still ready to see it yet again, given the opportunity
**Jerry and Carla riding on the bumper cars at Leicester Square--childhood revisited...
**walking through the Sherlock Holmes Museum (and yes, Bev & Richard, there IS a Sherlock--we know because we visited with Dr. Watson and got all caught
up on their lives...
**worshipped twice at All-Soul's (where Dr. John Stott was preacher for many years)
**saw Oxford through the eyes of Inspector Morse, one of our favorite British mysteries, visiting his pubs and many of the sites of filming
**Carla & Jerry stumbled on the World Premier of "Its a Boy/Girl Thing" and there was Elton John!
**shopping at Harrods, Selfridge's and Marks & Spencer
(Jo's boots have NOT been purchased yet)
The first day of our adventure - presently in the DFW Airport preparing to board.
Our two resident photographers (Jo and Carla) are already busy snapping photos, which means Mary gets a vacation from always snapping photos - and it also means Mary gets to BE in the pictures. (After our honeymoon, as my parents looked at the pictures of the occasion, my Mom turned to us and said "Mary, were you there?" Obviously I had taken every single photo!)
Our thanks to our friend, Brenda Cooke, who graciously picked us up at Love Field and transported us to DFW--what an act of love and caring! We were so excited to meet up with Carla, who was already at DFW, that we didn't even stop for lunch with Brenda. However, we hope we will make amends on our return trip.
Today - Midland and Dallas - and tomorrow London! Merry Christmas to each of you - and we hope you find a moment during this special season to check our blog and see what is happening on this Great Adventure.
Love, Mary
Greetings - may we introduce you to our new home on wheels? This was not a part of our plans for these few weeks back in Midland, but it happened--there it sat, parked in an RV park in Las Cruces NM, which we just happened to be browsing through in anticipation of going to Las Cruces camping after the first of the year, and bearing a "for sale" sign in its window. Now it is truly ours, and after the first of the year, we will put "Sweet Mille" (our first RV) on the market. We have had such a good time traveling in her, and we know she will bring joy to her next owners as well. Meanwhile, we look forward to getting better acquainted with our new rig.
Right now we are totally preoccupied with preparations to leave for London next Tuesday. We will rendevous with our kids in Dallas and fly out in the late afternoon. We are all so excited about being in London for three weeks - seeing the Christmas sights and lights, hearing all the wonderful Christmas music in St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey as well as Royal Albert Hall, and just enjoying our time with one another in this most unusual Christmas for us.
In the meantime, we pray all God's blessings on each and every one of you, as we celebrate together the birth of our Lord and Savior. It really doesn't matter where we live, or where we spend Christmas, or what language we speak - God loved each one of us SO much that He sent us Jesus! Hallelujah!
