Mom is here, December 15-21, 2014

We had our wives Secret Santa exchange at an Italian restaurant called, DaMario. I had the ravioli and it was yummy! Apparently this was a place the Princess Dianna had been to, so they made an interesting painting of her looking longingly at a pizza. I got some cream soda (really hard to find here!), nail polish, and Bert's Bees body cream set. Thanks to Kate my Secret Santa! We had some fun with the English tradition of the Christmas crackers. Ours had a fortune, crown, and a mustache inside.

DaMario's

Ravioli=YUM

Princess Diana

On Wednesday my mom arrived from Houston!!! It was so exciting to see her AND she made it before Harvey arrived. She helped me decorate the tree. We were not planning on putting one up, but I'm glad we did. The house seems more Christmasy already!

Cricket checking out the loot Granny brought

Mom is here!

Thursday my mom and I went to check out the famous London pantomimes. We decided to see Cinderella at The New Wimbledon Theatre, because my mom had a friend recommend it AND Linda Gray from the tv show Dallas was the guest star. I was not familiar with a pantomime, I thought it meant no words just acting out. It really is a big thing here at Christmas time. Its a great way to expose kids to the theatre at a lower price and not so stuffy environment. So it was the basic story of Cinderella but with current songs, innuendos, jokes from Dallas, and jokes from London. I didn't get some London jokes, but some I did I must be becoming more of a local! You are encouraged to interact with the cast, yelling things out like "its behind you"... At one point they all put on cowboy hats and did a line dance to Sweet Home Alabama when they were talking about Texas (a bit random of a song, but that's the British way). My mom loved seeing Linda and we both enjoyed the show. If you are in London in panto season, you should go check one out.

Linda Gray as Fairy Godmother

Good seats

Wahaca for lunch

Friday, we ventured back to St. Paul's Cathedral. At the Thanksgiving service we got the Christmas schedule and saw they were having a "Ceremony of Carols". Well, this was not at all what we were thinking. I thought it would be Christmas songs we knew, but it was a little boy choir singing some British composer's music. They did have great voices and and wished they would have sung Carol of the Bells, they would have been perfect! It was great for my mom to see the beautiful church where Princess Dianna got married, and the Queen had her jubilee ceremony. After the concert we went with the Stones to The Diner SoHo. Josh realized we had been to it before in a different location when we first moved to London. We all got breakfast and it was pretty delicious. The hash browns were the best I have ever had...better than McDonald's!

39 Weeks at St. Paul's