Merry Christmas to all

The past few days have been nothing if not interesting. As noted earlier, we went out on Christmas Eve to the Nutcracker held at the London Coliseum. The Coliseum is very neat-looking, decorated in a baroque style. We were only able to get one picture of the venue, as the attendants were quite militant about people taking pictures. I would have understood had we been taking pictures of the set, but nonetheless, you can find additional pictures here. Of course, Maggie wore her Christmas dress, and after much putting about, we finally found something that Dalton could wear. Most of his dress pants were too short and had turned into flood pants sometime during the past year, so he ended up wearing his school trousers. The Nutcracker itself was a bit more modernised than I would have preferred, although it was really only the first half that received the "modern" treatment. The second half was much more traditional and, in my opinion, much more enjoyable. I think if you go here you can find a short video clip of different bits of the show, as well as some clips of other shows. The dancing was quite good, as might be expected.


Afterwards, we rushed back for the candlelight service at St. Katharine's in Merstham. You can find some pictures of St. Katharine's here, but we've posted some pictures previously. The current building dates from around 1220. We made it just after the first song had finished, so got to attend the majority of the service, which was in the manner of a traditional "Lessons and Carols" service. And, after that, it was back home for dinner, some Christmas music, and then finally putting the children to bed.

Christmas morning played out here much the same as I imagine it does in households across America. Dalton was up who knows how many times during the night before finally waking us at around seven to go downstairs and see what was under the tree. Of course, upon getting downstairs, the next several minutes were filled with, "Look, Mommy! I got a ....", or "Wow! A ....!" and the sounds of ripping paper. Dalton got a couple of Lego sets, including a Bionicle, some cards, and of course, the requisite chocolate stocking stuffers, while Maggie got lots of Polly Pocket stuff, a princess dress, and some other girly things.

The most of the rest of the day was spent in playing with the new toys and preparing Christmas lunch (Mich successfully cooked her first turkey - although I can't say that I did as well with the carving), although we did stop to watch the Queen's address at around three, and tried to force the kids to go rest for a bit, although unsuccessfully. That evening, we had an invite to a friends for their family Christmas gathering, so we headed over around seven. It was very nice, and I have to say that I am very grateful for being invited. It made it feel a little more like home on a day that could have otherwise felt very lonely. One of the biggest surprises though was that Santa actually came around to visit - and brought presents for us all, Dalton, Maggie, Mich and myself included. The look in Maggie's eyes was priceless. And that wraps up our Christmas tale for this year. Until next year, Merry Christmas to all... and to all a good night.