The first couple of days of 2025 were very chill as we still had Jacob visiting with us. This meant we were still spending plenty of time playing Magic and Dominion, which I will never complain about! We did manage to drag ourselves out of the house a few times for a walk around the castle. We even had a few nice sunny days!
On Saturday the 4th, it snowed! Our phones had been giving alerts all day long that it was going to snow, but it didn’t start until well after dark. The minute I noticed it was snowing we paused our game and went outside for a very chilly, wet, evening walk. Worth it to enjoy the magic of freshly falling snow! I’m glad we went out in the dark because it was all gone by morning.
Jacob left us early on the 6th, and the rest of that week was a blur of trying to fit a month’s worth of work into a week, as I was getting ready to head back to the USA at the end of the week. On the 10th I officiated a funeral that had a live bagpipe player as the music at the end. It was absolutely beautiful.
On Sunday the 12th, I led the Covenant service at Caldicot at 10am, then immediately hopped in the car for Joel to drive me to Heathrow airport, for a flight out at 3:30. I got there in plenty of time but it was a bit of a stressful morning, I don’t think I’ll be doing that again any time soon. (And one of my church ladies scolded me for it!) I booked a direct flight this time and it was so nice to go directly from London to JFK. I arrived in the evening local time, then met up with Steph to venture to our hotel for the evening.
The next day we hung out at the hotel until our ride picked us up to take us to the YCWI board retreat. We were meeting at the Crossroads Camp and Retreat Center in New Jersey. The grounds were lovely (for a mid-winter without any snow!) and the food was incredible. There were homemade biscuits almost every day. If I ever win the lottery I’m stealing their chef, Esteban, to be my private chef!
The first night there I was desperate for a Target run - I hadn’t properly been in the States for almost three years! When we learned Steph (our UK member) had never been to a Target before we ended up with a large group who wanted to be a part of her introduction to this US institution. It was super fun to wander the aisles with everyone and watch Steph marvel at everything.
The next couple days we spent hard at work on future plans for YCWI. I absolutely adore working with this group of women and for this organisation which has meant so much to me! Here is a selfie we took before departing from one another on the morning of Thursday the 16th. (Thus why I’m in my plane ride outfit instead of a cute dress!)
After a long ride to the airport (LaGuardia this time) I got on a plane that took me to Minneapolis. I rented a car and the plan was to go straight to the Magnusons, but when my dad let me know my mom was in the hospital I drove the four hours straight to Des Moines instead. I was glad to see my mom and she perked up a bit seeing me. I didn’t take any pictures of her in the hospital, you’re welcome, mom!
The next day she was doing better so I drove back up to Minnesota to spend time with the Magnuson clan. Alexyss and I did our nails together, Grant and I played a few games of magic, and we played Dominion and a fun pictionary style game with the whole fam. It was so good to see them all!
Then Saturday night it was back down to Des Moines for a night out with an old college friend, then off to church at Walnut Hills in the morning. I did a lot of driving on this trip! It’s always good to worship in the church that raised me.
After church, dad, Matthew and I made a Detroit pizza while mom was on the phone giving us instructions. It turned out pretty delicious!
That day was National Popcorn Day and the Cinemark theatres were doing BYOB - Bring Your Own Bucket! You could bring whatever vessel you wanted and they would fill it with two XL buckets worth of popcorn for only $5. It was epic. We got the popcorn, added a ton more butter, then took it back to Matthew’s place to watch all three Bridget Jones movies.
On Monday mom was able to come home from the hospital, and on Tuesday we went out for Mexican food. This was what I had been craving the most! A giant skillet full of cheese dip and chorizo - yes please!
That afternoon, dad took Matthew and I to the cat cafe in Valley Junction. I enjoyed a delicious blueberry cobbler latte while playing with all of the super cute cats!
On Wednesday it snowed, but it wasn’t quite the January in Iowa snow I was hoping for. It wasn’t any better than the snow we recently had in Wales! On Thursday my dad walked me through making Detroit pizza dough, then it was off to spend time with my covenant group. We had great fun catching up on our lives in person for once, though Sarah couldn’t make it in the end because one of her kiddos was sick. We just barely remembered to grab a selfie at the very end of our time together, and we were missing Sarah! I am so grateful for these gals and our covenant group - this summer we will have been doing this together for 10 years!
For the last weekend that I spent in Iowa, we spent a lot of family time together watching movies, making food, and enjoying the Christmas decorations my mom kept up just for me. I was pretty terrible at getting photos on this trip, but I snapped this one of mom working hard to make us a delicious pasta dish.
On Monday the 27th I said goodbye to my family and left early so I had time to stop in Ames to see Nicole for a quick coffee and a catch up, then pick up some game stuff from Brian at the store. Then I went for one last Mexican lunch with our friends Brian & Danielle and their son Aiden, and Joel’s brother Dan. I only remember to snap a pic with Nicole!
Then I started in on the long trip home - driving back to Minneapolis, returning the car, taking a flight to Chicago where I had just enough time to grab some pizza before getting on my fligh to London. I arrived at 11:30am local time on Tuesday and we were back home by the afternoon. Then it was a quick few days of catching up on work and then back on the road to Milton Keynes for a long weekend of work!
This was the meeting of the “Discerning Ordained Vocation 2” committee and we spent a jam-packed 48 hours interviewing candidates for ministry and discerning their call and whether they are ready to be sent to training. (It’s a different system here than what I am used to - in my process we had to get/pay for our training first, then go through the church system.) I have spent years on the other side of these interview processes - going through the ordination system in the UMC, then the MOCC system and transferring to full connexion in the British Methodist Church. I know how much work goes into this as a candidate, and it was incredible to see how much work goes into it on the side of the interviewers as well. I absolutely loved being a part of this and feel so privileged to serve on this committee for the next six years. Here is a photo of the altar we had set up in our interview room.
That intense work weekend started on the 31st so it rounded out the end of my January and gave a good start to February. I cannot believe how fast the first month of 2025 flew by!