Our week in Cornwall, England for Christmas is turning out to be short, but super sweet! This is the very first housesit we booked way back in April when this world wandering trip of ours was still mostly a dream. It's hard to believe that we are both already here, and almost gone since it is also the shortest housesit we have booked.
The home we are staying in is incredibly lovely. The building itself originally housed the Sunday School for the old Chapel which is also now a renovated home next door. When the church built a new building in the early 2000's both of these buildings were available for a new future. The people we are housesitting for bought the old Sunday School and turned it into a gorgeous modern home with high ceilings, an open floor plan, the biggest kitchen island I've ever seen, and plenty of warmth and coziness. I really cannot emphasize enough how much I love this house. It's the perfect place to spend a week relaxing after the busyness of our 15 days on the road.
Another huge plus of this housesit - the pets are amazing! They actually have three dogs, but the biggest one (he's seriously huge) did go into a kennel for the week. The two we are taking care of, Hugo and Crystal, are two of the sweetest pups I have ever met. They love to snuggle so much! This is Hugo and I think he's my favorite, mostly because he doesn't shed (shhh don't tell Crystal).
Seriously every time we get on the couch these two are right there with us. (Actually, anywhere we go in the house they are right there with us, they love people.) I took a nap one afternoon and both dogs snuggled in with me. They love to be under the blankets when they sleep which is super cute.
Our other favorite part about this house - it has the best shower we've encountered since leaving the United States. The water pressure is amazing, it gets really hot, and there's actually a spot to put shower stuff! (One of our Air BnB's had a great shower but I hate having to put shampoo on the floor. It's the little things.)
Christmas morning here dawned cold and foggy. When we took the dogs out for their first walk of the day we couldn't see more than a block away. I was dreaming of a white Christmas, and I suppose this was a white Christmas of another sort!
For the day, Joel and I decided to stick to our personal tradition of a cheese plate and cheesy Christmas movies. They have a great TV here and there's a channel that plays Christmas movies all day long so we were set! We brought some cheese with us, and our hosts bought us a box of biscuits (aka crackers) to go with our cheese since they knew how much we love it. This was a very kind gesture that we appreciate. We also ate the rest of our salami from the Christmas market in Chester! Fun fact: those peanuts have been with us since Cyprus. (That kind of sounds gross but they are a great "just in case" snack and peanuts don't go bad, right?)
We already celebrated a full British Christmas with Steve back at the beginning of the month, so we didn't feel any pressure to do anything super fancy for the day. We did, however, make sure to watch the Queen's speech! Every year she gives an address to the nation on Christmas day, so we donned our Christmas crowns and listened to what she had to say. If you're curious you can check it out on YouTube!
Really the whole week has been a lot like our Christmas day - lots of watching movies, snuggling with the dogs, walking the dogs, eating cheese, and writing. I'll be sad to leave on Sunday but I am excited for what is next - a British New Year's Eve with Steve and friends, then a new 2 month housesit in Street, England!
I hope whatever holidays you celebrate were merry and bright!
XOXO, Bethany