Our Very British Christmas

We are getting ready to head back to the states for a very highly anticipated taste of home for the holidays.  Before we leave, we are trying to experience all that is a British Christmas and having a great time in the process!

Harrods all lit up for Christmas!

Father Christmas at Harrods was a little creepy.  They have a bunch of rooms with Father Christmas and they usher you to one of them and ask you to shut the door (probably so the kids don't see the other Father Christmases around).  Tyler didn't want any part of being shut in a room with him.  Finally he lured Tyler in by giving him a chocolate bar and we could scoot him closer to get a picture.  Based on this and his willingness to be cool after chocolate, we will probably need to have the "Don't talk to strangers who give you candy" talk with him soon :)

A Salvation Army Christmas band was playing on the High Street one Saturday.  JJ took him out there to see it live but when back in the house Tyler insisted that we open the window so that he could hear more.  He also likes to use this spot as his airplane watching spot at night.

He likes to work.  This isn't even our broom and the street didn't really need sweeping but I hope that he stays this helpful for when we really need him to work!

Horsing around with pirate hats at his Monday class

Oxford Street all lit up

We took him to the Nativity play at the church that we go to playgroup at.   Tyler enjoyed the show and playing in the pews after!

Tyler is following in the footsteps of Daddy (and sometimes Mommy) and likes to work out too!  He also loves to do pull ups with his Dad on the support beams on our ceiling

We went to Christmas at the Kew - Kew Gardens is a big botanical garden here in London that we had never been to.  One of our friends suggested going to Christmas at the Kew which looked like it would be lots of Christmas lights and festive fun.  Turns out it was very Harry Potter-like.  The trees didn't even have Christmas lights - they were backlit and there were a bunch of strange clues that maybe older kids would get into.  Here was one of the stations - learning about Plant Whisperers.  For the toddlers, and admittedly the parents, it was a bit of a bore!

Paper lanterns at Christmas at the Kew

This I'm sure is frowned upon, but Tyler liked to bat the paper lanterns :)

They did have some fun rides at the end of Christmas at the Kew which was definitely the highlight.  We learned that Big T gets very serious when on a ride, as seen in this picture.  Here he is with JJ and Tyler's friend Ellis and her mom Kat.

Ellis and Tyler then went for a little ride

"Come on Tyler, this is fun!"

Very serious again about the car.  I think he actually thought he was driving!  Meanwhile Ellis kicked back and had a blast!  I love this picture!

 

Ham and cheese sandwich dinner date after the Kew Gardens fun!

Horsing around on the soccer field

We discovered a British Christmas tradition that I absolutely love.  Christmas crackers.  I saw them at the grocery store and wondered why the Brits get so excited about crackers for Christmas but they are great!!! You get with another person and pull the little box roll apart so it snaps and inside are little treats (these were chocolates), a paper crown and a bad joke.  They had them at JJ's work Christmas dinner and it was a blast.  At one point everyone at the table had the little hats on laughing.  We got some for a little family dinner tonight - Tyler will love them.  I thought that there were actually crackers in there because of the name but they are named crackers because of the sound they make when opening.  Along with the Christmas crackers, they also had never-ending glasses of wine at this party.  We were hurting the next day and as a result I still haven't got anything packed for our trip!!!