A British Surprise

What a wonderful week in the Strawn Household!

Our surprise guest arrived on Sunday evening, hungry and ready to put her feet up. Jenny, otherwise known as “Tiger” to the camp world, came to the states from England for the Christmas/New Year season, spending much of her time on the mountain in Colorado, connected to a snowboard.

Jenny and I met almost 12 years ago back in Michigan, both working our first year as pool assistants/camp counselors at the Girl Scout camp that I attended as a child, five miles from my house. We taught each other the “American” and “English” languages, respectively, spent nights off discussing cultural differences and weekends off together with the other Brits touring my hometown and the surrounding area.

My favorite memory of that first summer is when nine Brits came home with me at the end of our first session. We slept all over the floors and couches and my mom and dad woke up to a surprise houseful and made a huge American breakfast of bacon and eggs and all the works.

Skip ahead to this week, Jenny, a city girl, got to see Western Nebraska and all the panhandle has to offer. Though we were not able to see everything we’d planned, we hoped to entice her to come back someday!

After Samson’s bath on Monday, we drove around town and showed her our day to day life, making potato soup for the Christmas Supper at church. As it were, we didn’t have enough people to act the skit for the ladies that night, so she played the part of the “lady who wrapped one too many Christmas presents”. Naturally, she was a hit and I think her accent helped her cause!

Tuesday, we drove to Chimney Rock and the cemetery before taking her over to Scottsbluff. We got lost looking for 11^th Ave (I was on 11^th St) and she saw a real tour of the residential area. We then drove up Monument Pass and looked out over the city, just as the sun was setting. It was beautiful.

Wednesday was naturally busy and she joined us for Advent Supper and service, where my children were so naughty, she had to sit alone while I was in the back of church, yelling at my daughter. She planned to leave that evening, but we sat on the couch talking so late, she thought she’d better stay one more night.

Thursday, we drove around looking at big tractors, which Western Nebraska has an abundance of. We drove out into the hills and tooled around as far as I dared without getting lost. As a field trip, we stopped at Mark’s work and he took Jenny and the kids on a ride on a couple of the John Deere tractors. He gave her a hat to take back to her nephew, who loves tractors, as well as a book and a ball cap for herself. After that, we went to Laura’s to visit and gather eggs. That was a first, and quite possibly, a last!

Since it was already Thursday, and she had to catch a plane on Friday morning, she decided to stay to babysit while I was at choir. Then, after supper that evening and after another late night chat, we turned in for bed.

As all good things must come to an end, she took off Friday morning, with farm fresh eggs, a few cuttings of Sarah’s plants, lots of John Deere goodies and a disk full of photos. It was great to have her here for the week and I’m still catching up in sleep from those wonderful late night chats!

Last night, Al and I watched the Red Wings game to the very end, shoot out and all. I was so hyped up from that, I had a hard time settling down to sleep. Eden crawled in with me in the middle of the night with every piece of her exposed flesh below zero Fahrenheit.

Sunday is cold and windy here. The thermometer says -2, and the wind chill is -22 right now. A good day to stay indoors with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate.