Our Christmas in London

Pic of us on our street in front of our flat...love the lights!

And then then there were 5 of us:-) The Farrar Family arrived on the 23rd. Steve, Lee, and Batten!!! Burr and I were so excited we were bouncing off the walls. They were all fresh off their flight (except for Batten who was quite disappointed he did not sit in first class) so after checking into the hotel and showing them our flat we went out for drinks! (Pic of Anne and Lee at hotel when they arrived).
Pic of the crowded tube!!! The esaclators stopped working so we were hoofing it...Farrar's are way down below.
We went to Vertigo 42 and Bleeding Heart. Vertigo is at the top of the Nat West Tower and its the highest point in London that is public. Its a fun Champangne bar (very similar to the John Hancock bar in Chicago). It was a fabulous view and I would recommend it to all who visit london! At Vertigo...

The 24th Burr took Steve, Lee, and Batten down to Bourough market while I waited for our groceries to be delivered and to get ready for our Christmas Eve Party. He called about 11 saying that Bourough was only half full and wanted to know if I needed help. I thought to myself....well YES I need help but no clue how you can help, I have £200 of groceries scattered all of the floor because I have not figured out how to get anything in the tee tiny fridge we have. The flat is a disaster as we have 1 house guest plus me and Burr so its just a very tight squeeze, you know? So I'm standing in the middle of the kitchen thinking Yes you can help but I don't even know where to start!?! AHHH. Well they ended up coming to help. Lee cooked with me while the boys went and ran errands all around London. At least Batten could see how it would be to have to go get 5 things all about a mile apart!
After we cooked and got all ready for the evening festivities we went to the Carol Service at Westminister Abbey.
Luckily Steve and Lee arrived at the church at 1:45 for a 4pm service. They wanted in the queue until 3 when they started letting people inside the church. I took a taxi and arrived at 3:15 (perfect timing on my part)....although the Church is NOT heated!!! It was SO SO SO cold in the service. People did not take off their coats or scarves - which the boys happen to not bring....The service was beautiful though and we had great seats thanks to them arriving so early. (Outside Westminister pic below).... Yes there were 14 of us at the Christmas Party!! Thanks to Charlie we figured out how to work these Christmas Crackers. Look at Charlie trying to get Batten to do this correctly - haha!!! Yeah we did it!! And we all got crowns in them!
Christmas Eve party was super fun. There were 14 of us in our tiny flat but it was a great time to be around family celebrating and such.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the night was when everyone left about 11 and it was Burr, Batten, and myself left....now this would alright but we had the following things to do:
1. Make Egg Breakfest casserole for brunch on the 25th
2. Make Frances' homemade rolls from scratch
3. Brine the turkey
4. Clean every dish and glass in the flat (literally - the party we used EVERYTHING).

(This is the picture of Anne and Burr after the party and before the cooking....YIKES!)
On top of the things we needed to do - all of us had drank a LOT of alcohol. So we had to do all the things very tipsy. Here are some pictures.... The best is when Burr and Batten decided to make a brining mix with some vegetable stock and beer. Or perhaps when Batten was holding the hot vegetable stock out the window to cool it off before we put it in the the bag with the turkey. Finally, the fridge was WAY too small to fit anything so Burr had to carry the turkey and the rolls to the utility closet 3 floors below us which was the coldest and safest place we could think of at the time to store our food for the night. Needless to say Christmas morning was a little slow after going to sleep about 2 am.

Christmas Day David, Rachel, and Ellie Kent came over for Christmas Brunch. It was so fun to have Ellie there - she is absolutely adorable!!! After brunch we opened gifts. Lee helped me make Christmas dinner and thanks to my Christmas gift from mom and david (meat thermometer) the turkey was good - my oven cooked it about an hour faster than we expected!!!

The star of Christmas Brunch!!! Isn't she adorable! Eleanor Kent 7 weeks.
This is "Christmas Pudding" - I promised my friend Nicola we would try it. Well, we did and I do not like it. Its fruit cake! And special fruit cake because its suppossed to made a month in advance - GROSS. All of us tried a bite, even covered in brandy cream it still was not delicious.

. The boys on Christmas Day. Below the girls (below). Rachel and I wore the same dress! haha

The 26th was girls and boys day!!! The boys went to a pub, football match, pub, and move. The girls went to portabello market, hamley's, Billy Elliot, and tea at the Ritz. It was fabulous!

Here are the boys on the way to the Fulham vs. Tottenham match

The 27th we went to Tom's Kitchen for Sunday Roast/brunch - yummy. Followed by the Lion King and turkey leftovers!

The last day we went to the Tower of London, Harrods, and Wodka. The Polish restaurant - Wodka was delicious - sour cherry, carmel, vanilla, and lemon. The carmel and sour cherry were by far the best.

Look at that carafe! We love how they have the shape of the ice bucket is carved just for the vodka carafe!

This morning the Farrar's left. It was quite sad to be left alone in London without anymore family:-( But hopefully we will have some more visitors soon!!! (hint hint).

Miss and Love you all
Anne