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!!!

Christkindlmarkets- Munich

I'm catching up on blogging this week and here is the recap in pictures of this past weekend in Munch.  Three countries in a week with Iceland, the UK and Germany!  We are working on filling up our passport stamps!

Big T loves trains!  This was the train from Munich airport to the city

Our first night at the markets on the Marienplatz.  Tyler has really developed a distaste for me taking photos of him.  The cute little "cheese" face has been replaced with a screaming, "NOOOOOOO!" every time I try to take a picture of him.

Mmmm gluhwein - mulled wine is tasty!  There was a gluhwein stop every few stalls.  They have you pay a 2 Euro deposit for the mug and then you carry the mug around town and can refill it.  You can keep the mug if you don't want the deposit back.  The mugs were the best souvenir so we HAD to drink quite a few of those little mugs!

This market stall had a train running around the top.  Tyler didn't want to leave.

Christkindlmarket!

Big T loves bratwurst.  We ate every meal outside at the markets.  It was festive, but cold. 

We attempted to go to the Hofbrauhaus to warm up, but it was very busy and Tyler made it clear that he had about enough of Munich for the night so we ended up heading back to the hotel.

Marienplatz markets during the day

Tyler loved the gingerbread waste baskets.  It was hard to tear him away!

Mmmmm - apple strudel 

I totally forgot to pack his stroller bundle or a blanket so we "borrowed" the hotel crib comforter.  T stayed nice and cozy!

You could keep the beer mugs too!  These were from Augustiner

Markets at the Residenz- this was not as busy as the main market and more geared toward kids.

Singing angels

Singing Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel & Gretel.  They sang in German - it was cute!

Tyler loves to say ho, ho, ho!

Market windmill

Market in the Residenz courtyard

JJ loves sweet nuts!

Our last night we decided to check out the Tollwood Festival at the site of Oktoberfest.  This was a really cool atmosphere but not great for kids.  By now Tyler again had enough of the markets!

He did get to sample some Kinderpunch before we left - hot juice mix that they put in a mug.  Some day I'm totally going to host a Christkindl party and have Kinderpunch for kids and Gluhwein for the adults in my official mugs :)  The trip was fun, but the markets were very busy and people were everywhere in Munich.  I'm glad we did it but it definitely wasn't our best trip!

Poor Tyler has had a cold for what seems like forever.  We probably aren't the best parents for keeping him outside at the markets all weekend.  He had some trouble sleeping in the hotel.  For starters he was far too big for the flimsy crib they gave us and the hotel was very dry so Tyler kept coughing.  He ended up coughing most of the night and we were all up from about 3am to 7am.  Lazy bones then kept snoozing away in our bed after his late night party until we had to wake him up at 9 to go to the airport.

Lufthansa is perhaps the best airline, ever.  They had this dedicated family check-in line, they gave Tyler a boarding pass for his stuffed animal, they gave us a whole row to ourselves in the front of the plane even though we didn't have a seat for Tyler, they gave Tyler a toy and gummy bears upon boarding, and even gave us a sandwich for our 1 hour flight!  JJ and I both realized during this trip that the European airports in general are so much better and more efficient than the airports in the US.  We have never had to wait long at all for check in or security (that is probably a statement that I shouldn't write down for fear of a jinx!)

Whoa! Tyler gets up close and personal with an airplane!  They had us board this one from a bus so Tyler got his closest view ever.  He was so excited!

The kid loves airplanes!

He was very determined to carry this luggage all the way to the car at the airport. 

Before we left for Munich we celebrated Thanksgiving with JJ's coworker's family at their home in Clapham Junction in London.  They are Americans from Chicago too and they have 3 older girls.  Tyler loved following them around - we didn't really see him the whole time.  Their youngest, Annie was happy to watch him - here they are playing with the bear.  Notice she has Packers gear on - they are all Packers fans so we made sure Tyler dressed in his Stafford jersey for the big win.  It was really nice to spend Thanksgiving with them, although we really missed our families back home.

33 Hours in Iceland!

We've been traveling up a storm in the last two weeks!  Here is the recap in pictures of our trip to Iceland.  It lasted 33 hours, including just 6 hours of daylight and 0 kids!

The sunrise and sunset was unbelievable.  This was the sun rise.  We were afraid we would miss it because we were driving to the first stop in the Golden Circle tour.  Lucky for us the sunrise lasted about 2 hours so we arrived at Þingvellir National Park with time to spare to see the sun rise.

Stop #1 on the Golden Circle Tour:  Sun coming up over Þingvellir National Park

Driving up to Þingvellir

Just beautiful!

More colors - I have so many pictures and each one looks different because of the different colors!

We made it - this was the side opposite the sun rise and the pink reflected beautifully on the white snow.

This is a framer!

Sorry - totally cheesy selfie but I am obsessed with this picture and the natural light - and of course the love!

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge - you literally walk through the gap that separates the Eurasian and North American Plates.  The plate you see here is the North American plate.

In the ridge!

Ice at the base of a waterfall

If you look real close you can see JJ standing on the rock formation of the North American plate!

Waterfall in Þingvellir

Stop #2 on the Golden Circle tour: Geysir.  Apparently the original Geysir (for which all geysirs are named) doesn't erupt very frequently anymore but Strokkur nearby erupts every few minutes.  This was after an eruption.

Strokkur - this was the best I could do to capture it.  It's funny you see all the people with their cameras pointed, ready to capture it because you never know when it will come!

There is also a store at Geysir with lots of wool apparel.   The stuffed wildlife made me chuckle.  The stuff was awesome but very expensive. 

Little Geysir!

On the road to the next stop on the Golden Circle tour, I made JJ pull over to take a picture of this horse.  I am obsessed with Icelandic horses - they are awesome.  Particularly this color - it's not super clear in this picture but they have this great blond spiky hair.  I like to call them Tina Turner horses

There were a ton of these trucks with monster tires.  That's how you roll in Iceland!

Meanwhile, back in Hampstead, Alison, our babysitter sent this picture of Tyler having a blast without mom and dad!

Stop #3 on the Golden Circle Tour: Gulfoss Waterfall.  This was beautiful - can you see the rainbow in the picture?  It was cool to see parts of the waterfall totally frozen over

Stop #4: Kerið volcano crater.  You just drive off to the side of the road and look at this big hole in the ground.  You can hike down it in the summer time.

Kerið selfie

Thinking about the hike - I advised that we keep moving :)

Leaving Kerið we started to see the amazing sunset you see in the distance.  JJ floored it and we raced to get to the coast in time to see the sunset. Luckily the sunset lasts just as long as the sunrise so we had plenty of time. 

We drove until we hit the coast.  I took a picture of the GPS because after a while it had no idea where we were and didn't show any roads around!

We made it to the ocean in time to see more beautiful colors!

This is where we pulled off - there wasn't anyone nearby - we had that sunset to ourselves!

JJ and our Suzuki that we toured the Iceland Golden Circle tour with!  He's driven in a lot of countries now and I'm happy to be just a passenger!

Final stop on the Golden Circle Tour:  The Blue Lagoon - a hot spring spa area.  It was pitch black when we got there and although it was lit, you couldn't see very well.  We had to look at postcards the next day to figure out what it looked like in daylight!

In our robes ready to head into the Blue Lagoon.  The algae in the water makes it blue (hence the name) and is formed by the nearby geothermal plant.  The water is said to be healing and our skin had never felt so smooth after our soak!  We got an upgraded package and got a scrub and drink in the lagoon!  It was lovely....

Meanwhile, back in Hampstead, Tyler enjoyed the Christmas lights and a lollipop with Alison.

Our hotel room for two nights.  We apparently could have had 2 more join us!

Sadly we didn't see a dazzling display of Northern Lights that we were hoping for.  We technically did see them though.  The cloud-looking band in the middle of the photo is actually a Northern Light.  Not dazzling, but still a light!

Our hotel had the best peanut butter and honey that I have ever tasted.  I had to take a picture in case I can ever find it somewhere.  We had peanut butter and honey toast both mornings.

I took this photo at the airport the first night because it was so nice to just relax in a bar while waiting for our flight on Friday instead of worry about a crazy toddler running around the airport.  Not to mention that I felt light as air not carrying on all the things that we need for Tyler on a flight.  It was the first time I had flown without him since I was working.  It was a fantastic trip but we missed Big T so much.  When we came home I ran up the stairs with tears in my eyes and arms outstretched for a hug.  He proceeded to push me over to get to JJ to jump up in his arms.  Then he wouldn't talk to me the rest of the day.  Ouch!  We have since reconciled and things are back to normal again :)