Best Xmas Ever!!!

To be perfectly honest I normally dread the holidays. Don't get me wrong, as a child I loved it because my parents adopted all the practices that came with Christmas and allowed us to participate whole heartedly. We had the tree, stockings, lights on the house, and tons of presents. As I entered my teenage years things changed. The tree stayed in it's box, we didn't put the lights up on the house, and the presents stopped completely. Then as an adult Christmas was this weird time of year because my family became divided. Some Christmas's I didn't even see my family but spent it with friends. All the while I would see or hear about my other friends wonderful celebrations they had with their families and I was so jealous. All I wanted was a happy, no drama, spirit-filled holiday.

Ok, enough with the sob story, now comes the happy part. I can honestly, say with 100% confidence that I had the best Christmas ever this year!!! It was filled with great friends, delicious food, fun presents, fireworks (yes, real fireworks), and dance party USA in my living room. Tenielle and Robyn spent hours and hours in the kitchen Christmas day whipping up an incredible meal- we had the works; turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, salad, gravy, pecan pie. Everything was from scratch. Those girls killed it in the kitchen. Here's our lovely bird, which is the traditional main dish in England for Christmas rather than ham.

People are what make the holidays special, and I couldn't have asked for a more fun bunch. It was a bit of a mixed crowd and sometimes when you mix friends it can get a bit hairy but not this time. Everyone got along so well and it turned out we were all LA orphans!

From left to right we have: Robyn, Desh, Desh's brother in law and sister, me, Vladi, and Tenielle. A mixed bag of nuts!

Now you may be wondering what are those crowns we're wearing??? Well, one of the traditions here in England during Christmas is crackers. I had never heard of them until I came here but they're basically party favors you "crack open" and there's a little gift inside and a paper crown. The way the crackers are opened is what makes it so fun and of course the popping noise!

We all know it's not a party unless there's dancing. So after our meal and dessert we cranked up my IPod and blasted the tunes. At one point, we thought we were Irish and started doing the river dance. I think that was more the alcohol than anything else.

We ended with the night with a bang, literally. Tenielle had purchased these mini sparklers the day before and we thought it would be safe and totally normally to light them indoors. No, fire hazard their!

Seriously, best Christmas ever! I don't know how I'm going to top that come New Year's but don't think I'm not going to try come tonight.

Merry Christmas

Or as they say here Happy Christmas. I wish all my friends and family a wonderful holiday and I miss all of you. I hope you are all having a wonderful day with your families. I was really hoping for snow today but no such luck, instead I woke up to this on Christmas morning. A typical rainy London day.

Today I have a group of friends coming over for Christmas, a mix of old and new. We're doing the full on meal, don't worry I'm not cooking. It should be a great time! More to come later.

Tis' the Season

Christmas time in London is so magical. People celebrate the holidays like it's going out of style. The decorations are probably the best part of the whole experience. It's hard not to get caught up in the spirit. We're not just talking about lights in front of people's house but mini trees lite up on every light post, giant rings of ribbon hanging from buildings, lite up signs that read "Enchanted Christmas in London", and even all the bridges are decked out. I'm not a big Christmas person but when Santa's thrown up on every corner and in every store you want to join the fun. Even my office is all decked out. Not just the lobby folks, but every floor and every cubicle. I'm so glad I chose to spend Christmas in London, even though I miss my family and friends. I plan on having my own little Christmas celebration here with Robyn and T Liz. So, to get things started I decided to get a tree of my own. It's nothing special but it's my way of getting into the spirit.

Isn't it cute!? It still needs a little sumthin' sumthin' on the top but otherwise I love it.

Pictures Are Worth a Thousand Words

One of my besties, my sister practically, Sahana was in town this week. As I mentioned in my previous post it was a somewhat last minute trip for her and it was for business not pleasure, but luckily she was able to swing in one free weekend. There's a lot I could say about this weekend, and trust me there's a lot I'm still saying, but as the title of my posts indicates, a picture is worth a thousands words. I will say this, I still got it (see last pic)! And I had a blast with Sahana and I can't wait until she comes back next year.

Slow Going

All in all it's been a quiet week over on this side of the pond. Work has been crazy busy with meetings, dinners, conferences. It's the end of the fiscal year thus the mayhem at work. The weather isn't helping matters much either. That, London fog they speak of, well it's here and I've been told it's staying for another three months. Everyday it's the same backdrop; grey, dark skies with non stop rain and wind. The sun has peaked out at chosen moments, but they're far and few in between. On the plus side, I'm getting a lot out of tread out of all my coats and scarves. I have a few visitors in the books that I'm really looking forward to. Unexpectedly my best friend Sahana is coming to London on an assignment for work. She arrives tomorrow and stays until next weekend. I won't see her much during the week but we have lots of fun things planned for next weekend;including a holiday party with none other than Sandy. After she leaves, my old roommate Robyn and her friend Monica arrive on the 22nd of December. We will be celebrating Christmas and New Year's together. I'm hoping for a little snow, so I"ll get to experience a true white Christmas. We plan on doing some sightseeing, for instance Stonehenge, taking in some shows, and of course doing a lot of shopping. The next couple of weeks should be action packed so stay tuned.

An Ideal London Weekend

When you think of London certain things come to mind - theatre, shopping, rain, rugby, futbol, museums, great restaurants, just to name a few. I'm happy to report that I was able to experience almost all of those things all in one weekend. It's weekend like this one that remind me why I choose to move here.



Friday, Tenielle and I went to the theatre. We went and saw Avenue Q. For those of you that haven't seen it, go see it! It is one of the funniest, well written, and "real" shows I've seen. The story was simple yet so insightful and I haven't laughed that hard in ages. We had great seats which made the experience even more incredible. Six rows back from the stage in the center. What struck me later that night was how accessible things like the theatre are here. If I were back home, I would never leave work on Friday, hop a 20 minute train to the city and catch a world renowned Broadway show. It's more like getting in my car, going down to the Edwards Theater at Fashion Island and seeing the 8:00 showing of 40 Year Old Virgin.



Saturday, I was fortunate enough to be invited to a Rugby match by the President of KFC. If you don't know what rugby is (FYI.. my mom had no idea), imagine American football without pads, men with thighs like trunks, a really high goal post, and only two 4o minute quarters. Before the game started we were wined and dined in a private restaurant where we served a never ending a buffet for lunch. I'm serious, the amount of food they kept bringing out for lunch was out of control. I got there at noon and didn't stop eating until kick off, which was at 3. The game of rugby is actually really fun to watch. It's fast paced, easy to understand, and short. I just couldn't get over how aggressive the game was. These guy tackle each other to the ground with such force and they have no protection. No pads, no helmets, nada! I'm sorry to say this, but football players back home are wussies! Rugby is a true man's game. Speaking of man, or men, rugby games are a great place to meet guys. I've never seen so many good looking men in one arena. Note to self, go back to a game but next time leave the president of KFC at home. I think it's safe to say I've now experienced all London has to offer in the way of sports; first futbol and now rugby.



Sunday, was all about shopping! My place is adjacent to one of the biggest shopping areas in London called Kings Rd. It's got every store you can think of and more. A girl could go broke and I think that girl is me. I was on a mission for some boots and a nice big handbag. The purses I brought here don't cut it in term of their size. A giant handbag is necessary because you need to keep a scarf, gloves, umbrella, water, etc with you at all times. I had no luck finding a bag, but I did manage to score a great pair of brown boots and a cute wool dress.

Definitely a memorable weekend in my book and I look forward to many more.