Two Days Before Christmas

Two days before Christmas, Mom and I stayed home, while Dad went to work.  After some research, we headed for a shopping "gallery" (a big building with lots of shops, a bit like a mall but nicer), where movies were showing.  We watched the Chronicles of Narnia:  Voyage of the Dawn Treader (in 3-D).  Next, we walked to Westminster Abbey for a Christmas service with carols.  We met Dad, who had cycled from work, and we all waited in the COLD for half an hour, then entered the large abbey.  It was a wonderful service:  we listened to boys with high voices, then older men (the choir), sing; toward the end, a lady came around and lit our candles, which we then held for the rest of the service.  The boys and men wore decorative vestments, including white robes, which I liked.

The day before Christmas, I was so excited.  Dad and I explored Portobello Market to get presents for our French relatives, Sarah and Gilles.  We went to a shop with lacquer-work (furniture with wooden designs). The shop person and Dad talked, and we got a mince pie.  Next we went home and Mom told us the Christmas packages had come. Then at 4:00 we started to make our traditional Christmas Eve dinner: home-made pasta. We used the pasta machine to help us. Then we hung the pasta to dry.

Isabel with the hanging pasta

While it was drying, we took a walk. We looked at the interesting Christmas decorations and the Christmas parties. Then when we got home we ate the pasta with a Gorgonzola and walnut sauce sauce. And on the table there were candles, nature in the form of a pine branch, cool globes and a bottle of wine.  After dinner we had a yummy chocolate course, put cookies out for Santa and went to bed.

The Crypt

Another night leading up to Christmas, Mom and I met Dad at the 'Crypt', an underground grotto below a Church (St. Pancras), decorated with art that had some kind of Christmas theme. It was COOL!!  There were funny Christmas/art installations, like making your own snow-flake using different sizes and temperatures, and a gigantic glow-worm-like thing. There was also the big hit: a Robotic Santa.

"Glow-worm":  a weird thing--art!- at the "Cyrptmas" installation

"Jedi"

"Father Christmas" aka Santa Claus!

The V&A Christmas Party

The first official day of 'break,' the Monday before Christmas, was awesome.  At lunchtime, mom and I walked to the V&A, where we met dad for a splendid Christmas lunch:  pate with fancy toast, pumpkin soup, turkey, potatoes, Brussels sprouts, gingerbread with vanilla sauce, and a brownie with pudding!  By the end we were all stuffed like the bags on Santa's sleigh.  Next, mom and I looked all over the museum; we saw so much, I can't even remember, but I do remember particularly iron and glass works, which were fascinating.

Iron Galleries: V&A

Then we went to the Staff pantomime ('Panto'), a Christmas-time play with funny jokes traditionally performed for children.  It was based on Sleeping Beauty and had funny songs and words.

Next we went to the V&A staff Christmas party.  They handed out little sandwiches, mini fish & chips, sausages with mashed potatoes, fancy nachos, and, for dessert: a brownie. We danced and talked the whole time. It was swell!

The entrance to the V&A, where the party took place.  Sculpture by Dale Chihuly.

Canaletto show at the National Gallery.

On another cold night in December (which was the coldest December for London for the past 100+ years!), we went to the National Gallery.  At the National Gallery we watched four musicians play string instruments.  We collected the chocolate hamper that mom won, and then Dad and I went to the show on Canaletto (his name means 'little canal'), a painter of views of Venice, and his rival painters. Our favourite rival was Guardi. It was very fun, and we enjoyed ourselves by trying to guess which painting was by Canaletto and which was by Guardi (or another rival).  Here are some examples:

Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal), The Molo from the Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day, circa 1733–4. 

 

 

Canaletto, Venice: The Grand Canal with S. Simeone Piccolo, circa 1740

 

 

Francesco Guardi, The Doge's Palace and the Molo, circa 1770

Three Walks in London

Walk I

Ben and Isabel in Hyde-park with all the snow

The front of Saint Pauls

Two Saturdays before Christmas we took a fun walk.  Our first stop was a chocolate festival at South Bank Centre where we tasted delicious chocolates.  Then we walked through an old market full of tasters and interesting plus good shops (called Borough Market -- a market has been on this spot since 1300, ed.).   Things like odd mushrooms, dead game birds hanging, and an animal skin with meat on the back were there!  Next we went to nearby Southwark Cathedral and then visited the market some more.  Last but not least we went to St. Paul's Cathedral.  It was grand looking.  There we sat through a service and heard choir boys with high voices sing difficult songs by Benjamin Britten.  It was wonderful!

Isabel and game birds in Borough Market

 

Walk II

A week later we took a hard, snowy walk to the British Museum.  It was snowing.  We stopped at a British department store called Selfridges.  Next we reached the British Museum and went to the Book of the Dead exhibition.  It had different rooms like "the Burial" and "the Judgment" which was my favorite room, where they weighed a heart against a feather, and if a heart is heavier, it gets eaten by "the Devourer," a monster with a crocodile head, a lion's body, and a hippo rear.  Then we walked home.

"The Devourer" and the weighing of the heart from the Book of the Dead

A dining room circa 1745: "Two Jellies and a glass of wine"

Walk III

The next day we took another snowy walk but a lot less snow.  We walked through a different route through different neighbourhoods, but my favourites were Clerkenwell and Shoreditch.  On the walk we went to another museum, the Wallace Collection.  There I sketched one painting of a dead wolf and dogs by Jean-Baptiste Oudry.  It was cool!  Then we went finally to the Geffrye Museum which had an awesome display of house interiors at Christmas from 1630 to 1990.  It was EXCELLENT!

Christmas Pageant and Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland

At my school each class does a play about what they have been doing in "literacy" (literature). My class did a play about Tudor sailors. Parents came, and we sang How do you live on a Sailing Vessel. I had 3 lines.

Left to right: Lovely, Amira, Erza(standing up), Isabel, Abna, Dahomiy, Kauther(Kal-tha)

On a cold night (also in December), we went to Hyde-Park's "Winter Wonderland." It was really magical. We saw all sorts of cool shops and fun looking rides like the mirror maze and the haunted house. Then I had a very hard cold bike ride home with Dad.