Welcome December!

I can't believe it's December 1st. On the 14th, we'll have been here for 3 months! Time has flown by. Michaelmas term will end next Friday, and then...we'll have only 12 days until we fly back to good ol' Birmingham, Alabama, to celebrate Christmas with our families. It wasn't in the original plan to come home for the holidays, but we're so glad we get to see our families and friends (and hold our sweet niece!)

There are also some other less important but wonderfully American things we're really looking forward to:

-Chicken biscuits at Chik-fil-A

-Sleeping in a queen-sized bed

-Driving-on the right side of the road. (That's both literal and metaphorical.)

You can't have it all; we knew by coming home we'd have to compromise . One of the things I was afraid to miss was snow- it actually doesn't snow here that often. But yesterday morning, Brandon pulled back the curtains and much to our surprise, it had snowed some during the night! It wasn't much- more like a really heavy frost- but it was enough to dust everything with a pretty white coating. Even if we won't have a white Christmas (which is pretty much assured since we'll be in Alabama), it was nice to have a little now.

Banbury Road

The Bodleian library

The lawn of Trinity College

And despite skipping out on the experience of an Oxford Christmas, we seem to have our fair share of opportunities to celebrate now. Last night, we attended a traditional carol service in the Sheldonian Theatre, which featured a brass band and Christmas hymns. Also, one of Brandon's lecturers gave a short talk.

The Sheldonian Theatre

Broad Street at night

I'm so grateful that we can, in a way, have it all- the old English traditions + our American ones!