A couple of Sundays ago, we make the little trek to Regent Street (the famous shopping street in central London). We got off the tube at Oxford Circus and walked down to Piccadilly Circus with a stop on the way at McDonalds for dinner. It was busy, cold and cool to be in the London hustle and bustle at Christmas. The lights were pretty great too.
Some of the lights on Regent Street.
Sophie has a self-imposed restricted diet. Anytime she will try anything new is a major accomplishment. Here was the mess after the first time she devoured a chocolate covered coookie (how is she possibly related to me?).
Another Christmas treat: her first sucker (a lollipop here). We went to a little Street fair in Chiswick one Saturday afternoon. It is near where the girls take their dance classes, so we popped in to look at all the fairy princess gear pictured in the background.
Southfield Primary had their Infant Nativity (Christmas Program) last week. All the classes had a song to sing and the older kids had a few speaking parts to reinact the birth of Jesus. Yes, Abby goes to a public school. No, there is no separation of church and state here. I would estimate that about 40% of the kids there are not Christian. It doesn't upset me at all, since we obviously celebrate Christmas, but as a former social studies teacher I take issue with the principle. Anyway, I know this isn't a great picture, but its with my night vision feature on my camera. I wanted to show you how Abby looked the ENTIRE time of the Christmas program, although usually she was actually waving to me and Sophie instead of just looking to make sure I was watching. See the bottom of this post for a video of her class' performance.
Here is Abby just after her triumphant 2nd ever stage performance. She loves the attention and was so proud! Also on the docket at Southfield Primary that week was the famed Christmas Bazaar where all the kids get to go shopping for presents for their family and see Santa as well. They bring pocket change and the proceeds go to the PTA. I was able to help out (as I have joined the PTA) and see Abby with her 6th grade "elves" helping her shop for us. It was fantastic. It is important to note that she did buy presents for all of us, but found a My Pretty Pony that she couldn't resist getting for herself without any guiding presence of a parent! She's played with it everyday since. :)
Here we are at our family Christmas. Sophie had been sick all weekend but perked up long enough to open a few larger presents that we aren't packing to bring to MN/IA. She also loved the jingle bells the most she stole off the front door. As you can see, we all dressed up for the occasion!
Some of the highlights were a set of exciting and motorized kitchen appliances to be added to the gourmet restaurant in the playroom. Even when Sophie was too tired or weak to sit from her being sick, she still wanted to play with the blender while she was laying down! That takes dedication - good job Auntie Kristin on the gift! Abby also got an electronic piano she had been eyeing that has several different sounds, beats, a working microphone and a record feature. I'll post from video of that perhaps on my next post. Sophie got a pretty cool ladybug play tent from Ikea. The rest has to wait until Christmas!
I think the picture of me next to Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace now falls to second place for bad pictures I am somehow willing to post of myself. I just wanted to show the "Sunday Roast" I was able to pull off for our mini-Christmas celebration. It included a pork loin in a brown sugar glaze, roast parsips (which I constantly called turnips), peas, gravy and yummy Yorkshire puddings!
On December 3rd, Tim had his first of two work holiday parties. I had only met a couple of people that work with Tim, so I was the sole spouse invited to come along. The party was in nearby Ealing at a Polish restaurant. Not surprisingly, it was more raucus than the Christmas parties I have attended for work. Of course its been a long time since I have done group shots of vodka too.
No, that's not Polish Santa. That's Ian. He took a bet that he could change clothes with the server before the end of the night. We accepted the candy-pelting Santa instead. By the way, the server got all the wagered money for being a great sport.
No, that's not a Polish Grandma. That's Ian. This has to do with the first bet. And no, this wasn't the server's outfit either.
Tim's team near the beginning of the night!Here is a little video of Abby singing at her "Infant Nativity" at school. Forgive me. This is the first time that I have both edited a video and uploaded it onto Blogger successfully. Its not difficult, but its my first time regardless!
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