Happy New Year!

Truro's midnight fireworks in Lemon Square

It's been a relatively quiet week since getting back late Monday night.  John had off of work Tuesday, so we spent it relaxing and recuperating after all of our traveling.  We were invited for movies and drinks with some friends Wednesday night, which was a lot of fun.  Good way to ease back into the week!  

Lantern lighting

We ended up making New Year's plans with a couple that we met here.  We started last night having drinks and tasty appetizers at their new house along with another couple.  We walked down the hill from their place and had a fantastic New Year's dinner at a restaurant called Bustopher's Bar Bistro.  The six of us got along really well and had quite a few laughs throughout the night.  We finished up dinner and headed to Lemon Square in Truro for midnight fireworks.  There was such a great energy as the square was filled with people watching the amazing fireworks display.  In the square we saw a lot of people dressed up in costumes which they call "fancy dress" here.  We found out it is very common for people to dress up in costumes when going out New Year's Eve night, much like the US's Halloween. 

Lift-off!

While watching the fireworks we also saw a handful of lanterns floating in the air.  We were lucky enough to be standing next to a group who lit and sent off their own wish lantern into the New Year's Eve sky.  We were told that pilots are not fans of the New Year's Eve tradition of floating lanterns as the lanterns can make it up to a mile into the sky and can supposedly be confusing for them.  But the tradition continues as people light their lantern at midnight, make a wish and release it into the night sky.  Pretty amazing to witness!  After fireworks, we headed back up to our friends' house for a late night of drinks, chatting and laughing.  A pretty incredible New Year's Eve 2010 in England! 

I love breakfast!

The rest of the weekend, we plan to hang out and maybe head to the coast for a day or two.  John has off of work Monday for bank holiday, so should be a nice extended weekend.  And John started out 2011 in a pretty fantastic way this morning....with an "American breakfast!"  Breakfast in the UK does not include french toast, maple syrup and the bacon here is very different, more like fried ham.  So I was super happy and surprised to wake up to "real" bacon and my favorite breakfast of french toast with syrup and tea.

On our way home last night, John and I took a moment to reflect on what a fortunate 2010 we had.  We look forward to seeing what 2011 brings us!