Christmas in London is a wondrous thing.
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| Trafalgar Square complete with Carollers. Every year since 1947 in thanks for help during the war, Norway give London their 'Queen of the Forest', their best Norway spruce. Typically 50-60 years old and over 20 metres tall, this year it was a little wonky much to the Londoners' delight! |
The English know how to do Christmas, and they do it well. The lights, the celebrations, the mulled wine and cider, it's quite magical. Only, it's not cold. What is happening?! We have so far had one weekend that was quite bitter. But beyond that, the mercury has been dancing around 12 - 14 degrees. Practically tropical.
Like I said earlier, the lights here are truly something to behold. Which is a good thing seeing as it's getting dark at 4:00pm and pitch-black at 5:00pm! Back home you always had to do the Bay of Plenty Lights Trail so late at night because it wasn't dark yet! Not an issue here. I'm very lucky that I work just off Oxford Street and get to enjoy those lights and the ones in Regent Street every day.
The Christmas trees are very different too. We had a Nordmann Fir, and though it doesn't have the same beautiful scent of pine trees, they do hold decorations beautifully.
There are so many Christmas fairs, markets and ice skating rinks (that are melting, incidentally), that there are too many to see and do. We went to the ice sculpture event at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park where I obviously missed the memo that it was more of a serious, Game-of-Thrones photo shoot than a smiley one lol.
Weekends spent walking through the parks and along the canals this Autumn and Winter have been lovely.
Brussell Sprouts are a big thing over here at Christmas. Don't let that fool you into thinking they taste any better for it. Except for the ones we had for Christmas lunch when Katharine made them. They were good :-)
Christmas was bitter-sweet. I missed everyone terribly, but thanks to the wonders of Skype we got to see everyone on Christmas Eve, twice on Christmas Day and once on our Boxing Day! It was amazing. Unfortunately we were both down with colds and by Christmas Day I had no voice at all. But that didn't matter, we were welcomed so warmly in Darlington! We had a fantastic time with Katharine and Mutlu, Jamie, Suzi and Zak :-D We were very spoilt with lots of presents from them, as well as lots of wonderful presents from everyone back home - thank you so much! We very much enjoyed watching the Burts wearing their masks and guessing which British celeb they were.
Around Christmas we saw cousin Chris, Aunty Anne and Uncle David, Aunty Carol and Uncle Tom and all the Carvers. This meant food, food, wine, food and more food :-) It was such a good time.
Ah, Christmas :-)
Like I said earlier, the lights here are truly something to behold. Which is a good thing seeing as it's getting dark at 4:00pm and pitch-black at 5:00pm! Back home you always had to do the Bay of Plenty Lights Trail so late at night because it wasn't dark yet! Not an issue here. I'm very lucky that I work just off Oxford Street and get to enjoy those lights and the ones in Regent Street every day.
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| Oxford Circus lights. |
There are so many Christmas fairs, markets and ice skating rinks (that are melting, incidentally), that there are too many to see and do. We went to the ice sculpture event at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park where I obviously missed the memo that it was more of a serious, Game-of-Thrones photo shoot than a smiley one lol.
Weekends spent walking through the parks and along the canals this Autumn and Winter have been lovely.
Brussell Sprouts are a big thing over here at Christmas. Don't let that fool you into thinking they taste any better for it. Except for the ones we had for Christmas lunch when Katharine made them. They were good :-)
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| Oreo balls packed up for the train trip North |
Christmas was bitter-sweet. I missed everyone terribly, but thanks to the wonders of Skype we got to see everyone on Christmas Eve, twice on Christmas Day and once on our Boxing Day! It was amazing. Unfortunately we were both down with colds and by Christmas Day I had no voice at all. But that didn't matter, we were welcomed so warmly in Darlington! We had a fantastic time with Katharine and Mutlu, Jamie, Suzi and Zak :-D We were very spoilt with lots of presents from them, as well as lots of wonderful presents from everyone back home - thank you so much! We very much enjoyed watching the Burts wearing their masks and guessing which British celeb they were.
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| 'The Book'! |
Ah, Christmas :-)
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