il est fini

...LAST lecture of the semester was today! At the same time, it was kind of sad, because we won't ever again get to giggle as a 'small' group of 7 in Patrick's Illuminati harem over picking out noun phrases and wondering WHY in the world this is relevant . But we will, no doubt, recover from this disappointment. We are, after all, strong linguists.

Yesterday, was a Christmas lunch in the canteen at the Business School, so most of our department went and we had a looooooovely time! We had turkey and 1/4 tsp full of dressing, brussel sprouts, parsnips, carrots, potatoes and cranberry sauce. And some desserts that weren't exactly lush.

Here is a trivia fact: a single grocery store will sell 140 million brussel sprouts in the period leading up to Christmas! ONE grocery!

AND Monirah's mom sent Kuwaiti food -- stuffed vine leaves and a delectable rice that was ever so slightly curried. It reminded me of Ms. Pemmi's rice. Georgia and I ate it left over last night for dinner :) mmmm....vine leaves. I must learn how to make them.

Of course, we had Christmas Crackers and poor Georgia lost every pull, so she was quite vexed and vocal. Then, she and Dawn fought over one of my toys. And Georgia finally won (as demonstrated in picture below R. She would like it to be clear that these are not her real lips.)! As you can see, there were hats for all. And, although you can't see, noisemaker popper things that BANG! and shoot paper streamers out were present; these are mildly alarming to easily startled persons such as myself.

Last night, made the last reservation for Lisa and Ben's trip. So they had better show up now! :) Oooh, I just LOVE planning travel!

Also, have found out where will be actually staying for Christmas. And am so brilliantly excited, I could dance up and down making sqeaking noises. But will refrain since am pretending to have air of sophistication. Karsten's friend lives ON (bloody ON!) London Bridge!!!!!! This is a mere pebble-throw away from Southwark Cathedral, so that will be lovely to go to Midnight Mass. This is one of my favorite churches in London and was Shakespeare's parish church.