Ho ho ho

One benefit of living over here is that the Christmas marketing machine grinds into gear somewhat later, and less aggressively, compared with the American post-Halloween holiday barrage of recent years. So when we went to the Winter Wonderland carnival in Hyde Park this morning, all the holiday stuff really felt fresh and new (at least to me), like the first day of the season.


It was, for example, the first time I heard Bing Crosby's White Christmas this year-- a song whose imagery is not entirely far fetched in London right now, with a few inches of snow having fallen over the city last week. Of course, this being England the snow shut down most of country for a few days -- airports, trains, schools -- which is not accustomed to snowfall especially this early in the year. As a Washington DC native I felt right at home. Our lives were not particularly affected by the chaos, aside from a minor delay to my return flight from Moscow (which made London look balmy by reaching 15 degrees below zero fahrenheit when I was there), some inconvenience dragging the stroller through the slush by Karen, and fun for Sadie learning to make snowballs.


Today's carnival was great fun though. A mild, sunny day following a prolonged cold and gloomy spell. A chance for Sadie & Parker to meet an English-accented Santa Claus (and who seemed to leave both of them with a more positive impression than his American cousin from the Livingston, NJ shopping mall a year ago) -- a blue yo-yo was requested by Sadie, who also mentioned to Santa that her little brother wants a car. A ride up on the Ferris wheel with great views of Hyde Park and central London. And lunch at a Jamie Oliver place that was about the best street food I've ever had.

In other news... yesterday brought Parker's first haircut, which was unfortunately not caught on film due to the extreme difficulty of the task, engaging any potential photographer including Karen, two Turkish barbers and a violently protesting Parker. The first image came a bit later in the day, when I snapped his 15 month picture. Haircuts make me look younger but in Parker's case he looks suddenly older, like he's jumped from being a baby to a little boy in a day. He is also changing super-fast these days, walking more confidently, developing more of a personality as he learns new words and displaying his first "tantrum", from what I can tell, which involved laying on his stomach, pushing himself backwards with his arms and hollering for now apparent reason. Charming as far as  tantrums go... but I'm sure that's just the tip of that iceberg.


Otherwise all (mostly) well. Karen's been battling with a prolonged sore throat and cough -- a lot like what I had for most of November -- that has also made it hard for her to sleep. Despite the sleep deprivation, we called in the sitter last night and had a good time out in Camden listening to live folk music at a cool place called the Forge, a 20 minute walk from our house. Starting to get geared up for heading home in a couple of weeks.