Things I'm learning:

When you have 4 adults and 6 kids eating in a dungeon kitchen, you might end up with a friend on the stairs.  

• No matter how many toppings you put on a baked potato (known as Jacket potatoes here in the UK,) you always get 1/2 way through, and wish you had more.
• Khaki pants look so cute on little boys, until they get permanently stained by spaghetti sauce or Indian food.  Note to self:  buy more dark colored clothes for A!
• It's hard to feel sorry for yourself that your husband has to be out late when you invite 3 friends and their kids over for dinner.  
• Get excited to see the sun, but pack an umbrella just in case!
• When you are running late and really need your kids to hustle, they sense a disturbance in the force and move extra slowly and/or throw a fit.
• No matter how much fun you are having overseas, you miss your family at Christmas.
• England needs more good Mexican food.
• If you go in the charity shop down the street every single day, you'll eventually find anything you would ever want or need (including an Indian outfit for a 4 year old to wear to Diwali parties.)
• God is alive and well and working in England.
• Good skinny jeans that are comfortable, yet tight-fitting, are hard to come across.
• Walking everywhere and having 3 flights of stairs in your house negates the need for a gym membership.
• There is something so pleasant about walking faster than the cars are driving because they are stuck in mad construction traffic.
• You can hang a lot of heavy bags from Velcro stroller hooks on your stroller (pushchair's) handle.
• Nothing keeps a kid awake and happy like letting them play with one of those annoying singing Christmas stuffed animals the whole time you shop, and then putting it back on the shelf right before you check out.
• It makes you feel satisfied to see a bunch of Oxford undergrads camping out in sub-zero temperatures to get a house to rent in your neighborhood.  Must be the place to be!
• It will never be quiet or peaceful at our dinner table.  And, there will always be food on the floor.
• It's nice to know that my husband hasn't changed.  He was completely not fazed by all the Silicon Valley big-wigs that were at the Business school yesterday, including the co-founder of twitter.  
• Time really does fly when you are having fun.  How is it already the end of November?