JOY...

"I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."  Luke 2:10-11

Joy...this word keeps coming to my mind this Christmas season.  Casey and I have the privilege of going back home to see our families this year, so our only Christmas decorations are this nativity I bought here and a Peanuts Advent calendar that Casey gave me (yes, he knows the way to my heart).

I have looked up all our favorite Christmas tunes on Spotify and have them playing everyday, but the ones we keep coming back to are the songs that truly reflect on the joy of Christ's birth.  At church we have been studying not the story of Christ's birth, but of Christ's second coming in Revelation.  This has made my joy even greater, knowing that he was, he is, and he is to come.  Unfathomable.  He is coming for us.  The tiny baby we celebrate reigns on the throne and is returning for his people.  This is Christmas....the joy of Jesus...which lasts forever.

As I mentioned above, we are going home to see our families, but we have had a taste of Christmas here in Belfast.  Last week Casey and I did our shopping in the city centre and it was a lot of fun!  There is a huge mall here (that we just discovered) with a spiral staircase and dome that overlooks the city. 

We also got to see Albert Clock, which I have been wanting to see since before coming here.  The moon adds a nice touch.

As for shopping, though it was freezing cold and windy, we had an enjoyable time visiting shops and stores picking out Irish gifts for our families.  We don't have a car so no fighting for parking spaces...just a bus ride with all our bags :)



It helps that the city has pretty lights.  Here's the city hall lit up with "Happy Christmas Belfast!"

Also to get us into the Christmas spirit, we have had a few snow showers in the last couple of weeks.  Nothing major, but for those missing the big white flakes, here ya go...

Merry Christmas everyone from the Croys :)

Feast Prepared. Faces Stuffed. Mission Accomplished.

This year was our first Thanksgiving on our own, and we decided to go all out.  I (Autumn) am a listmaker, hence the above list in preparation for the big day.  Notice pumpkin pie is already checked off as I made it the night before.

These little guys were made from the extra pumpkin filling and pie pastry.  It was also in an effort to keep Casey from cutting into the pie the night before ;)

Behold our tiny Northern Ireland oven.  It cooks better than any oven we've had before, but this picture doesn't do justice to the size of this thing.  I have to admit I was a bit nervous about the timing of cooking everything.

First thing on the list was to make the Sweet Potato Souffle.

Then.... the bird....

We bought a frozen turkey and decided we would do all the gross turkey things ourselves.  Casey volunteered to be the gut scooper, however, there was no sign of the infamous baggie of innards we were supposed to find.  So, assuming they did it differently here in Northern Ireland, Casey proceeded to violate the turkey until we thought everything was out.  Then as I went to clean the bird, out fell the baggie from the other end.  We didn't know what a "clean" turkey looked like since we hadn't done it before.

Then we got said turkey situated in the pan and in our tiny Easy Bake Oven.  Here's the done bird....

Notice anything odd about him?  After looking at a gajillion turkey cooking websites and watching a video, you'd think we would've figured out we had our turkey upside down! It still tasted good :)

Casey did an excellent job carving turkey lurkey and arranging him on the plate.

 Our finished feast!

Yum!

Oh, by the way,  we have a patio area that we have been waiting for our landlords to come close in since September.  They decided to come do it on our Thanksgiving, so we had workers outside our kitchen all day.  In this picture, there is a guy on a ladder just outside the window.  Just another joy of Thanksgiving abroad.  They had no clue why we were making so much food.

This is a happy me after making a successful meal!

We finished it all off with our afternoon snack of coffee and pumpkin pie.  

What a great Thanksgiving!  We even got to Skype with our families and I got to see my Grandma get tickled.  Priceless.

Yes, we are thankful :)

Thankfulness...

Thanksgiving is one of my (Autumn) favorite times of year.  I love the simplicity of it and the memories I have with family.  Casey and I have a lot to be thankful for this year:

We are thankful for each other.
We are thankful for Christ and His sacrifice for us.
We are thankful for our families and their love for us.
We are thankful for church family and being where we are right now.
We are thankful for all of you and your prayers for us, and of course, for reading our blog :)

On Thursday, I (Autumn) will be attempting my first Thanksgiving meal, a far cry from my Grandma's turkey and dressing, but I am sure it will be better than Snoopy's popcorn and toast on the Peanuts Thanksgiving. At any rate, I am on a turkey hunt this week in Belfast....

We cannot say again how thankful we are...
Casey and Autumn 

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." ~1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Randomness....

For the last few weeks we have settled into a bit of "normalcy" here...no sight seeing trips as Casey has been working hard on assignments and I (Autumn) have been finishing up a translation project.  However, we do have a bit of randomness to share about everyday life....

We use skeleton keys to open our doors.  It makes me think of The Secret Garden.  Anyway....

I have a few flowers around the flat (actually got them in September, but just getting around to photographing them)--an orchid, some cyclamen and some pansies.  So glad we got some flowers...they add a nice cheeriness on dull days!

Casey just HAD to have a picture of this.....

He thinks Kurl Up and Dye is the funniest thing, so it made the randomness page. If you can't tell in the picture, it's a hair salon. Every time we walk near it we get a good laugh.

Just across the street from Kurl Up and Dye is the butcher we like to visit....I can't help but think of Scotty McCreery when we go there.  If you don't know who he is, that's ok....just enjoy the fact that we go to the local butcher and not Wal-mart to get our meat.

The last few days have been absolutely BEAUTIFUL and as you can see we have changing leaves!  Yay!  We have a huge park just down the street from us and we took a nice walk there yesterday.  Enjoy...

 Well, there you have it....

We are doing well and enjoying learning new things out and about and hoping for even more sunny weather!



Special Days

Tuesday was my (Autumn's) birthday.  It was a much needed special fun time for us as Casey had been sick again last week and the sun had been hiding everyday. 

On my birthday we decided to take a little afternoon trip to Belfast Castle. We took the #7 bus to a nice lunch in the City Centre and then the #1 bus to the castle which sits on the side of Cave Hill.  We don't have a car so the bus is our best way to travel.          

Looking down on Belfast.  The castle provides beautiful views of the city.  The sun was out most of the day which I LOVED, but it also continued to rain even with the blue sky.  I saw not one, but TWO rainbows on my birthday. 

Casey had class that night so we had to go out for a special birthday dinner the following night.  We went to a delicious Italian restaurant called Villa Italia.  Casey also gave me pumpkins and lilies for my birthday.  What a sweet hubby!

This week has been a good one for both of us as Casey is feeling better and I felt very special and loved.  Thank you to all those who sent birthday messages to me.  I appreciate it. 

Until the next adventure...

Rainy Days and Coffee Shops...

The last couple of weeks have been spent trying to get into a routine of sorts while simultaneously breaking the monotony of staying at home to study/work.  We find that it rains here most days.  Sometimes it pours sideways, sometimes the sky spits at us or does nothing at all when it looks most ominous, and sometimes, when we think it is safe to venture out, it rains while the sun is shining and the sky looks blue.  Needless to say, we get rained on a lot!  On the contrary, we see the sun a lot more than we thought we would in this country, so we are equally blessed.

One of the things I love about our city is the number of coffee shops and cafes around.  I have always loved coffee shops, and when I step into one it just feels so warm, cozy, and welcoming.  One of our goals is to visit different coffee shops, but we have found one fairly close to home that we enjoy called Common Grounds.  It's a good place for me to work on Spanish translation and Casey to tackle his reading list.  They also have great mochaccinos.

Last week we did have a couple of warm, sunny days so Casey took me to the Botanic Gardens.  Flowers are with coffee shops on my list of favorites, so I was excited!

 They had a beautiful rose garden.

 Below is the palm house.  Not only was it warm and cozy in there, but they had all kinds of tropical plants I recognized.  There were art students doing sketches inside the palm house, so that was fun to watch.  I felt too imposing to take a picture.

We also went to the Ulster Museum where we learned more about Northern Ireland and the Troubles. 

Most importantly, in the last few weeks we've settled nicely into a church family here, which has been such a blessing!  In addition to Sunday mornings, we have been going Sunday nights and have enjoyed going to someone's home for a group study.  Autumn also enjoyed a ladies' Bible study this week at the church.  We have been so welcomed at this church and someone is always willing to give us a ride or help us out when we need it.  We look forward to building more relationships and becoming involved in ministry there.

Well, the forecast tomorrow is....rain...

Oh! The Places You'll Go...

Casey and I took a trip with the International students at Queens University yesterday (Yes, it's a bit odd to consider ourselves as International students). 

The trip was to Giant's Causeway and Dunluce Castle on the North Coast of Northern Ireland and both were absolutely breathtaking!  I took tons of pictures and had a hard time choosing which ones to show.  The Giant's Causeway was a lot different than we expected with beautiful cliffs overlooking the sea, the kind of thing I have always dreamed of seeing!  We enjoyed traveling the footpaths along the cliffs and down to the Causeway.

 The next two pictures are actually of Giant's Causeway.  There are a lot of hexagonal rock formations that jut up and out into the sea.

 We kept following the paths and finding new cliffs to view and take pictures.  Absolutely gorgeous!

We then went to Dunluce Castle, which is said to be the inspiration for C.S. Lewis' creation of Cair Paravel. 

 The last picture is of a sea cave under the castle.  It may have hidden boats for escape to a nearby island or Scotland when the castle was occupied. 

We loved getting to see a new part of the country outside the city!  Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Just an update on life...

Casey had tonsillitis this week (same thing I had last week), so hopefully we will be back to normal health this next week.  Casey starts school tomorrow.  He actually is enrolled at Union Theological College (first below) which is a school of Queens University (second below).  I will be busy looking for jobs this week so please pray for both of us as we start new things.

Until next time....