This Christmas has been, let’s just say, one of my least favorite. I’ve missed my family terribly as well as our family traditions. Christmas in England this year have been delayed at best. Decorations and getting a tree became most of a task than an adventure. I tried so hard to do everything I could, but I just couldn’t get into the Christmas spirit. Finally, 3 days before Christmas I made my last attempt at trying to make Christmas in England feel Christmasy—I tried to make a batch of 4 different holiday treats that my mom makes every year, so I could take some into the girls at work and some for the Vidler family for Christmas day. I started making cookies as soon as James and I got home (which was 9pm) and baked until 1am resulting in a break down crying fit, and my hubby consoling me. I exclaimed, ‘It doesn’t feel like Christmas unless there’s my mom’s holiday treats!’ and I was trying so hard to do everything myself instead of asking him for help. Finally, we, together, made up all the treats and headed to bed.
That’s the sum up of me missing my family and Christmas in Cali.
With that out of the way, here’s Christmas with the Vidlers:
The ENTIRE Vidler family had to work on Christmas day, aside from 7 year old Tony who hung out with me all day. We watched TV/movies that he brought over, he opened his presents, I made him a hot chocolate with his new SpongeBob mug that we bought him for Christmas, and then we went on a treasure hunt that led to the Hotel. I planned a Christmas Treasure hunt for Tony, which he loved, that made him go from Clue to clue (like the games my parents did for us every Christmas), that led him eventually to a treasure box with a combo lock on it. He had to figure out the combination, then inside was all his favorite things: Spongebob magazine, marahmellows, sweets, a giant Christmas pen, lego starwars figure…and I even let him keep the treasure box which I didn’t plan on, but he asked me if he could keep it. :)
Doing the treasure hunt with Tony was the first time it actually felt like Christmas to me for more than a few minutes. Then we had dinner at the hotel with the rest of the family. The Hotel was closed and locked, Harry warmed up the leftover courses, Sam and Alice served/brought everything to the table, James Sr. whined impatiently (he wanted to go up and take a quick nap before having to come down and open up the bar at 6pm again for the Christmas drinking crowd), and everyone helped clear the table and get things ready for the evening before heading back to the Dam Barn to open presents.
Opening presents went faster than I’m used to. John(the eldest brother, visiting from Manchester) was impatient and wanted to open up presents and ditch the family for the pub as soon as possible….but then again, that’s the way John is. My hubby, and Alice, got me a brand new Samsung MultiView Digital Camera. It’s AMAZING! And what I wanted….just years down the line when it wasn’t the most expensive new thing on the market (hence why they went halvesies on it). It’s a cool camera—the view screen flips 180* so you can do things like a self portrait shot and still be able to look at what you’re taking a picture of on the screen. The other feature this camera has that my old camera doesn’t(a feature I would LOVE to have all the time) is SOUND on the video. For some reason my old camera doesn’t have a mic on it, so I’ve been only getting video without sound.
Anyway…I haven’t been able to test out my camera yet because the guy James bought the camera from sold him an SD card, but the camera only takes MICRO SD, so we’re sorting that out soon.
James’ big present from me this year was a Gamer bean bag Chair. It’s blue and white(Chelsea football colors, which is his favorite), and has a back rest as well, so it’s like having another chair in the flat. HE LOVES his bean bag chair. And it's HUGE! He;s obsessed with sitting in it and sometimes will opt out of cuddling on the couch, just because it's so comfy. Just as well that he's obsessed with it, cause he got some new games for Christmas as well.
Other Christmas presents, just to recap:
Greg and Annie got us a Brita water filter(James LOVES playing with it for the first time, and now we’re drinking loads more water. THANK YOU!)
Mum and Dad(McClellan) got James a pepper mill and me an electric heating pad(which we were thrilled to each get. THANK YOU!!!)
Steven and Jeni send us over these cool picture frames. (Unfortunately one of them got chipped/cracked during shipped, but they ARE still functional, and it adds more character to the frames...so thank you!)
Alice gave James a stir fry pan and a Kenwood all in one mixer, so that will be put to use. And other than that we got an assortment of personal presents….bath bombs n’ soaps, video games, Bath and Body works lotions and hand sanitizers, MALT, DVDs(Harry Potter, Easy A), etc, etc, etc. The only other thing is that mum and dad sent us over a box of ‘little presents’, but I had WAY more to open than James…simply because they didn’t know what cheap gifts they could send him, so I ended up buying him 2 cheap Music Albums on play.com to make up the difference.
CHRISTMAS soon ended, and James’ Birthday began. For his birthday we went to London(2/3 hours drive) to see a Chelsea Football match. I even put on a Chelsea jersey to cheer on my hubby's favorite team!
James wore his Chelsea Christmas hat that Tony gave him as a gift. Goofy looking, huh? tehehehe
After that we went to Hard Rock Café for his birthday Lunch/Dinner,
And then we went across the street to Hyde Park and Winter Wonderland Carnival that we went to last year.
And then we went across the street to Hyde Park and Winter Wonderland Carnival that we went to last year.
There was MUCH MORE to it than last year. There was a Bar that was literally on a rotating platform that was furnished like a Carousel.
There were cool shops like a place that made wooden ties, and another stall which homemade soaps and bath stuff that were made to look like cakes, cupcakes, etc. VERY decadent stuff.
The rest of our 2 day London was spent sightseeing, but unfortunately which we were there we were sick. I had been sick for most of December, but it got worse while we were in London and ended up giving it to James. Luckily, it was after his birthday! So, he ended up having a good birthday on Dec 26th, then everything went to crap on the 27th and things started going array.
We had planned to get up early the 27th to go to Cambridge Theatre and snag two cheap tickets to Matilda the Musical(a fantastic show that we lucked out on seeing last year in Stratford before it because popular and went to the West End…the London Broadway basically).
Unfortunately, because we were sick, we decided to sleep in and only get there 30min before the box office opened at 10am, and there were already 15 people in line. They were only handing out 8 tickets at 5 pounds each for people under 26 years of age, and we were there too late. So instead, we ended up getting breakfast at this Café across the street from the theatre and sulking.
Sulking soon turned into happiness, when the food turned out to be amazing and distracted us from the sadness of not having gotten tickets.
After food we had a bit of time to kill, but during that time, we were traveling and ended up in Kings Cross Station, we decided to go try and find the Harry Potter bit--Platform 9 and 3/4 that we couldn't find last year because of all the construction. Wef ound it, and that also made me momentarily happy.
The other thing planned for the 27th was going to meet up with my friend Crystallynn, from California. She was in London for 2 weeks which coincided with our London trip so we planned to meet up in a pub in Camden. Unfortunately, because of a combination of tube closures and our own stupidity for staying at the Sherlock Holmes museum too long, we ended up getting to the pub an HOUR later than we had planned to meet up. With NO phone number and limited facebook access, we missed our meet up and I was completely distraught.
We ended up wanding around Camden for the rest of the day, then going back to the hotel to rest. At least the Sherlock Museum was good, right?
Here's a picture of James on a bench at Baker Street Station, the station right next to the Sherlock Museum.
The famous Baker Street Station has been connected with Sherlock for decades and there's always been little Sherlock sillouettes on the tiles on the walls, but since the new movie came out there are promotional posters too which I think adds some character to it as well.
James being Sherlock, by the Statue of Sherlock Holmes outside Baker Street Station.
Inside the house we took loads of pictures but these are the ones I liked the best with us in them.
James on one of the staircases, with the old ugly carpet on them.
Basically the museum was in the Sherlock house, 221b Baker Street, and was spread out in the rooms of the house, which carried up 4 stories. On the last one there was only a toilet(hence my weird pose here:)
Here's me in Camden, eating at one of the Moped seated bench tables outside some food stalls in the Camden Lock.
James, feeling sickies and still looking cool on the London underground.
Later that night we went for food at an American Style Diner(because James, still sick, desperately wanted a milkshake and a coke).
More travel on the tube......
I was NOT going to miss this chance again, so we located the place where they were going for lunch an hour later, then ended up killing time wandering around Trafalgar Square (which was close to where the café was).
Finally, at long last, we meet up with Crystallynn and her friend. We had lunch together, then went to this Benjamin Franklin house nearby.
It was more of a bragging rights “this is the oldest building still standing, with original floorboards, where Benjamin Franklin lived”. That sort of thing. The collest part is that they had a replica upstairs of the Glass Armonica, that Ben Franklin invented, and you could actually PLAY it! So we had a go at playing it—which is a bit like playing the piano. The gold bits on the rims of some of the glasses were the equivalent of the black keys on a piano.
The hotel was extremely nice. They upgraded our room to an Executive suite on the top floor (7th) of the hotel, which had a great big bed, and a luxury bath tub. Very nice. We like…especially free upgrades. (BTW James is being weird, he was in every shot, and made funny faces/poses in each one, don't mind what he's doing). :P
James on one of the staircases, with the old ugly carpet on them.
Basically the museum was in the Sherlock house, 221b Baker Street, and was spread out in the rooms of the house, which carried up 4 stories. On the last one there was only a toilet(hence my weird pose here:)
and a small little bit/ladder that led up to the attic, which was filled with props of luggage.
Here's me in Camden, eating at one of the Moped seated bench tables outside some food stalls in the Camden Lock.
James, feeling sickies and still looking cool on the London underground.
Later that night we went for food at an American Style Diner(because James, still sick, desperately wanted a milkshake and a coke).
More travel on the tube......
And we were back at the hotel. We sent Crystallynn a message on facebook in a desperate attempt to meet up again, and luckily, she checked her facebook, sent a message back and gave us a location they were going for lunch the next day to meet up at.
I was NOT going to miss this chance again, so we located the place where they were going for lunch an hour later, then ended up killing time wandering around Trafalgar Square (which was close to where the café was).
Finally, at long last, we meet up with Crystallynn and her friend. We had lunch together, then went to this Benjamin Franklin house nearby.
It was more of a bragging rights “this is the oldest building still standing, with original floorboards, where Benjamin Franklin lived”. That sort of thing. The collest part is that they had a replica upstairs of the Glass Armonica, that Ben Franklin invented, and you could actually PLAY it! So we had a go at playing it—which is a bit like playing the piano. The gold bits on the rims of some of the glasses were the equivalent of the black keys on a piano.
After that we hit the pub, and I introduced Crystallynn to the greatest drink ever—WKD(wicked). I keep saying it’s basically liquid Sourbelt candy in alcoholic form. AMAZING!
After that it was goodbye and goodnight for us.
After that it was goodbye and goodnight for us.
Since it’s tradition, here’s some pictures of our hotel room:
The hotel was extremely nice. They upgraded our room to an Executive suite on the top floor (7th) of the hotel, which had a great big bed, and a luxury bath tub. Very nice. We like…especially free upgrades. (BTW James is being weird, he was in every shot, and made funny faces/poses in each one, don't mind what he's doing). :P
The only other picture I have is one of James on our way back to Ross Vegas. He looks proper American Mogul here with his coffee and talking on his phone. I thought it was funny.
-JM
-JM
