After last week’s ridiculous self-inflicted trauma, many prayers, and what I can only credit to God’s grace, I am so happy to be DONE!!! WOOHOOO!!!
Recap: One giant paper, one giant project, and one giant Thanksgiving celebration to plan and cook. The paper was knocked out at various coffee shops, bars, and even in the LIBRARY. Woah. The project was done the night before while juggling Thanksgiving pre-cooking and turkey defrosting. Want to know something that was only funny in hindsight? I didn’t get approval to buy the groceries until Wednesday morning, at which time it was too late to set up a delivery to my building… Which meant I got to walk to the store, buy £100 of food including 15 pounds of turkey, and take it all by taxi to my third floor flat. Haha funny! Nope.
Our project for sustainable design went REALLY well! It was all based around a building remodel, and we proposed building on an atrium to allow natural heating and ventilation to the building. This would also allow us to plant inside the atrium, with plantings that absorb toxins commonly found in office environments. Cool stuff! Our professor liked it and gave us good constructive feedback for the actual submission. WOOHOO!
A diagram explaining how sunlight will enter our building at different times of the year. Neat stuff 🙂
After presenting, our professor had arranged a champagne toast (no seriously. Tell me again how cool YOUR professor is? Mine wins 🙂 ) I rushed home to help my AMAZING flat mate Willow, who volunteered to put in the turkey and get things going while I was away on campus most of the day. Seriously, thanksgiving would not have happened without this gal. Another flat mate Andrea helped get veggies chopped and cheese grated and dishes done- There is nothing that makes you more thankful than great friends who help you when you are at your most stressed and sleep deprived state. Thank you ladies!!!
People started trickling in at 7 PM, and we ate around 7:30. More than 20 people came to our Thanksgiving celebration!! I have to say, I was pretty impressed with our spread 🙂
And this wasn’t even the whole feast!!! It wouldn’t all fit on the table!
Hot spiced apple cider, turkey roasted with sage and garlic, gravy, vegetarian stuffing with spiced butternut squash seeds, cornbread, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with pecans and marshmallows, roasted butternut squash, a Chinese stir fry, scalloped corn (a family favorite) broccoli bacon salad, and pumpkin pie, apple pie, and , and chocolate shortbread bars for dessert. Charlie Brown Thanksgiving was playing in the background, lots of people gathered around to try all the different dishes (most of them for the first time) and everyone left with full stomachs.
A fair share of our lovely Thanksgiving guests!
Two awesome gents even did all the dishes, thanks Morris and Daniel!! I considered the evening a HUGE success, and left to Skype my family before going to bed. It was so nice to have a lovely group of people over to celebrate one of my favorite holidays, especially one that makes me miss home like crazy. I was still homesick, but my heart was happy too 🙂
Thanks for doing my least favorite kitchen chore, guys!!! 🙂
The next day I helped my good friend Moira from church set up her Christmas decorations, since her hip needs a replacement and no one wanted her climbing up and down a ladder to get things down! We had a wonderful day together and she even lent me some decorations for my own tree. She is a treasure everyone needs to meet.
Oh… And here’s another cool abbey I visited on Monday ;D This is Dunfermline Abbey. Also went to Edinburgh Castle yesterday… No big deal, just castle hopping everywhere.
Now, on to VACATION PLANNING!! For my own safety I won’t go into much detail about where I plan to go, but I am super freaking excited. I WILL say my plans involve backpacking, taking TONS of photos, and seeing lots of old things 😉 I will post about my travels after I meet up with my parents for Christmas!!! Let’s just say it is completely a dream come true, and I get to share it with my two all time favorite people. I can’t wait to tell you all about it!!
Love and Laughs,
-Taylor
ScottiShenanigans 
So neat! That is quite the feast! 🙂
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