Christmas in London

So London is known for going all out for the Christmas and New Year's holidays. Something about the cold, rainy weather all fall means that people really get decked out with decorations - and there are just a million things do to around town. Our first year here, we had a brand new baby and barely left the house for the holidays. But our second year, the baby was now a year old and we wanted to see everything. Both of our mothers came to town, so we hit the sights. 

Carnaby Street

First- Carnaby Street is a smallish street in the middle of the downtown area that gets super decorated every year. This year's theme was the Oceans, so all of the decorations were made of reclaimed plastic. It was so cool that we took my mom, and then went back a few weeks later with my mother in law. 

Birthday and Decorations

I guess this will forever be a problem with having a December birthday - but we celebrated the baby's first birthday and then decorated the tree. We will have to find ways to separate the events and avoid his birthday just being consumed by the ever-expanding holiday season. He didn't seem to notice this year though. 

School Stuff

So if you've seen Love Actually, you know that there is a British tradition of doing the nativity play at primary schools and everyone gets a part. We are constantly surprised by the amount of religion included in the public school system and must always remind ourselves that there is no separation of church and state here. We were hoping he would get the part of the 2nd lobster- and were surprised to find out he had chosen the part of the bad guy, Caesar. (Caesar is bad because he required the census- which we explained isn't actually a bad idea, but the point was lost on him.) Anyway- he did great - he had one of the few speaking roles but commanded stage with authority! Later, I got roped into helping out at the school's Christmas Fair. We've also come to learn that meeting Santa in advance of the holiday is a thing they do here - but you don't sit on his lap. No mall Santas here.  Instead, he sits in something called a "Grotto", and the kids take turns awkwardly standing nearby to tell him what presents they want. It makes for weird pictures. 

selling toys and games at the fair - baby always on the hip.

chatting with Santa in the Grotto

Other Downtown Lights

The rest of the city downtown is also lit up - not nearly as cool as Carnaby, but still nice. We wandered around a bit- because it's more spread out, it isn't nearly as crowded as Carnaby - so I didn't have to carry the big kid around on my shoulders the whole time. 

Drinks at Somerset House

After wandering town to see the lights - we stopped at Somerset House for a drink. This is one of the many old, historic, probably once a royal residence, grand homes in the London area. It had an outdoor skating rink and bar area that was decked out like a wintery lodge. It was a lovely place to just sit and watch the skaters - I believe both kids fell asleep. 

Gingerbread City

After drinks, we headed to a new event called the Gingerbread City. Someone ran a competition between architecture firms and students to create houses out of gingerbread - and then created a huge display of them inside. It was amazing - everything made out of sugar- some parts were mechanized to move. Trains were moving through the whole thing. We could've stayed for hours - but everyone was getting pretty tired and cranky at this point and ready to head home. 

Christmas Day

After a pretty busy holiday season, it was nice to wrap it up with some quiet time at home just to ourselves- in our Christmas Jumpers - before heading out for our last trip of the year. 

Sightseeing in West London: Hampton Court and Kew Gardens

We were starting to feel more comfortable getting around with all four of us and wanted to do some sightseeing. Before going for a real day trip, we decided to hit two spots that are just on the edge of London. Both happened to have events going on that turned into a bit of a scavenger hunt - which was great for keeping the kiddo interested when the subject matter really wouldn't do it. 

Hampton Court and Kew Gardens

Hampton Court
So Hampton Court Palace was basically stolen by Henry VIII from Cardinal Woolsey to become a royal palace. From what I gather, it was then sort of the main palace for the royalty from the 1500s-1700s  when William and Mary decided to move closer into the city and bought Kensington Palace.  This had been on our list to see for a while, and it turned out there was a special Easter event going on- so we decided to go for it. The event was really perfect actually - there were like a dozen bunnies hidden all over the palace and grounds that each had the answer to a question about the history of the Palace written on it - and if you got all the answers, then you could get a chocolate bunny as a prize. The only problem was that the last bunny was really hard to find, but we were totally entrenched at that point, so we schlepped all over the place in search of it. Turns out, they hid it behind an ice cream truck (cheeky bastards), but then we had them all and could proudly go get our chocolate bunny and head back home. On the one hand, we were so distracted by the bunny search and baby wrangling that I feel like I missed seeing everything else - on the other hand, it did force us to visit all of the key rooms and spots and learn just a few tidbits about the history that we probably otherwise would not have heard. I guess this place (like pretty much everywhere else we've visited in the last few years) will stay on my list, in hopes we can go back again and spend more time actually learning about it.

Hampton Court Palace

I gather this is an important clock

nice ceiling

searching for bunnies

hedge mazes are just the coolest

one of the interior courtyards

feels like Versailles

well-earned chocolate bunnies

time to go home

Kew Gardens
So - Kew Gardens is the big botanic gardens in the London area (royal, of course). We had actually been here before and wanted to come back. I read that there was a Dale Chihuly (the guy who does really cool glass sculptures) exhibit in place for the summer, my mother in law was in town, so we waited for day with nice weather and made the day of it. We had a quick picnic (a standard thing for us now), and then wandered the grounds looking for flowers and trying to find all of the sculptures, which were scattered around. After everyone was thoroughly exhausted, we hopped the boat for a leisurely ride back to town.

we never leave home without a picnic these days

quick stop in the children's garden

azaleas in full bloom

roses were awesome

little boy for scale - these things are huge

these were everyone's favorite

i really liked this one

massive thing hanging down from the ceiling

time for the boat ride home

boats are better with beers

boats. beers. baby.

So both trips were a success. One lesson we quickly learned was to bring our big stroller, and fill it to the brim. We had our picnic blanket, which gives the baby a place to roll around and everyone else a place to rest and refuel, obviously snacks, all the baby-changing equipment, and most importantly - a riding board that snaps onto the stroller so the kiddo can take a break when his legs get tired, as they inevitably do. Of course it's heavy as hell, and not easy getting it onto trains, buses, and boats, up and down stairs, and pushing through gravel and cobblestones - but the alternative - putting all the stuff on our backs, the baby in the carrier, and the tired kid on my shoulders - makes me want to cry (back pain is a real thing these days). So I think we kind of have this figured out and are ready to try some day trips a bit further from home. But I'm not sure what to do about international travel now, since we can't take this beast on an airplane. We'll have to figure that out soon though, since our next trip is coming up quickly!