Merry 1st McEvilly Christmas!

4 months ago today I married my best friend, now we have had our first Christmas together as Mr and Mrs.  It has been a blast, so far!

Mount Shasta

Last Thursday we piled a few items of clothing, lots of gifts and a Beagle into Brian the Scion at 7.30am and hit the road to drive 700 miles in one day to Silverdale, Washington and spend the festive period with Dave, Katie and Lydia amongst other Walzs, dogs, parrots and other creatures. With a little playing around on the old iPhone I figured out the drive is pretty much the same as driving to Grenoble, Southern France within spitting distance of the Swiss Alps from my parent's house in Redditch, England.

The day on the road was fun, we saw lots of cool scenery including Mount Shashta, California (pictured) stopping plenty of times to swap driver and let Blue stretch his legs. We arrived in plenty of time to eat Katie's yummy curry and have a beer with Dave before hitting the hay.

Christmas day crept up on us in a blur of meeting family and eating lots more delicious food. Santa came to visit us here and brought Aelisa tickets to see Frank Turner open for Social D and Flogging Molly in Oakland in February and March respectfully. I got some new football boots and a Seattle Sounders hat and scarf to begin coaching the Vacaville United Girls Under 9s in January. I am excited to see how much I know about coaching and try my best to win some silverware.

Christmas day was one of the most eventful of my life, the electricity went off at the house around midday so we exercised our squatters rights to move into Dave's Dad's house while he was gone in Alaska for the holidays. Then the oven wouldn't play ball with us so the cooking had to be done at Uncle George and Aunt Patty's house while the other 16 of us (family and friends) sat around picking at finger food and watching home videos and sports. The dinner was worth the wait though, complete with Dave's first attempt at Yorkshire Pudding and Uncle Mychal's awesome mince pie and custard, both made especially to make this Limey feel at home, mission accomplished! Later in the evening I shared a glass of Brandy or two and a fine cigar with Uncle George and got to know another member of this incredible family I have married into. I was also introduced to Walz family bingo, which is a pretty sweet game to play when family get together.

Zoo Lights LURF!

Boxing Day isn't a big deal here in the USA, but last night we went to see a light presentation at a zoo in Tacoma, similar to Walsall illuminations at home it had a festive feeling and was pretty cool to see families walking around having fun together and it even rained to make me feel even more at home.

We are here until early 2012, I am excited to hang out with my in-laws some more, eat some spectacular food and see the city of Seattle before hitting the road home again and starting to be more busy. I will be a Cub Scout master, soccer coach, youth worker all voluntarily but there is also a great opportunity to get some paid work at Aelisa's work for me once I get this blasted (very expensive) visa sorted to stay in America.

To be continued.......

California Dreamin' on such a winters day.

When I was in year 11 at high school I travelled to Erfurt, Germany on a school exchange. In a music lesson we sung California dreamin' by the beach boys. It was a fun lesson, but never did I think I would live in California. Here I am, on a sunny winters day, kicking up the leaves as I take the beagle out for a sniff and the song, and the memories that go with it pop into my head and makes me grin, not just a smile but an ear to ear grin.

That one single moment made me realize how freakin' lucky I am! Living here with my beautiful wife, awesome hound in such a perfect little house.

The last few weeks have been tough, I'm not ashamed to admit I've been feeling a little homesick and worthless as I sit around the house.

Talking to my mom yesterday helped a lot, gotta love Skype! She made me realize that the only person that can help me, is me. The last 48 hours have been proactive to say the least. I have tidied the house, bugged people to let me volunteer working with kids and got some positive responses!

Starting in January I will be scout master of cub scout troop 150 on Travis AFB, a volunteer youth worker with Fairfield police department, coach of my own football team and hopefully working at a local elementary school.

2012 will be a great year for the McEvillys. So get out there, kick up some leaves, sing and enjoy the world!

Merry christmas and all the best for 2012.

Love
Liam x

Realisations



I am a hybrid of these two.



Over the past couple of weeks I have come to the realisation that I am slowly turning into my parents. Not just one of tem, a hybrid of the two. First up was Thanksgiving, we had a great time with Lydia, Dave and Katie, it was educational for me to learn traditions and have some family time, at home, at The Jelly Belly Factory where I tried a vomit flavour jelly bean and at a party thrown for us at Katie's brother's house. But I was always concious of the mess that was being created in my little home. Now I realise why Dad was always so stressed about having house guests in England. Our house sometimes had a revolving door with visitors from all over the world. And then today I leaped out of bed at 9am and just started to clean the fridge, disguarding leftovers and tidying it completely, even moving and reorganising things just as Mom always did with our kitchen cupboards.

I guess it's genetic and I should just get used to it. In other news, Blue was fed u of me watching te Blues yesterday so e bounded onto my laptop, destroying a few keys. So if this blog is missing any Us or Hs blame the hound. It has been really windy here just recently but we braved the elements to walk into downtown Vacaville on Tuesday evening to see the Christmas ligts being lit. There weren't any D list celebraties there to flick the switch, just the local churches handing out hot chocolate and the mayor as well as people from the Air Force singing carolls, it was nice. It's that time of year again, America seems to get thanksgiving over with and immedietly turns it's attention to Christmas.

We are planning on driving the 12 hours to Seattle to spend te festive period with Dave, Katie and Squid. It should be fun. Hot tub on Christmas day, yes please. On a side note, as I am not working (visa is pending) and have $10.44 to my name, how do I ask the wife for the cash to buy her a gift this year? She will be inderectly buying her own gift....The joys of being a house husband!