Walkin in a Winter Wonderland

Christmas Eve was the rainiest day yet!  Josh and Chris took off early to go see the new Star Wars movie at a schmancy theater in down town London.  Chris and I took a leisurely morning at the hotel with the kids - jammy time, a few weird British cartoons, breakfast and a cuppa tea.  The idea was that the moms and kids would check out the area around Tate Modern (not open for the holiday but had some potential for cool outdoor play space).  We managed the trains over to Southwark, but by the time we got to our stop it was pouring.  The kids thought it was hilarious, but she and I (and li'l Gabe in the stroller) were scouting for any li'l place with seats and coffee to get out of the weather... that was open on Christmas Eve.

We found it!  Paul, a super cute French cafe.  Yeah, we just came from France, but hey, we were ready for whatever the universe threw at us.  There was a large high table perfect for our soggy group right in the center of the cafe, and only one person in the place.  We got drinks, sandwiches and texted the dads to come here to meet us.  The boys got giant macaroons after lunch, and we just chilled out waiting for the rain to stop (which it did), talking about Santa coming that night, the festival we were going to and some of the things we'd seen thus far that we loved.   For really not turning out how we'd planned it was kinda nice!

Winter Wonderland

That evening we headed into town to the Hyde Park Winder Wonderland Festival!  Oh, the boys were siked for this!  There was a giant wheel, lots of rides and good food.  The rain had subsided and the fair grounds were covered in hard plastic flooring, so we weren't up to our knees in mud.  We had dinner at the Bavarian Beer Gardens, shnitzels, sausages, red cabbage, potato dumplings, chips, and beer and mulled wine.  

Josh took the boys in a couple fun houses - something we don't typically see in US fairs.  They loved them!!  Josh did say that there was NO way these things would pass any kind of safety inspection in the US, but they were pretty cool.  They went on a real "Helter Skelter" slide (again, would never pass mustard here in States) and of few of the smaller rides before picking a sack full of candies at one of the sweet stands

It was a great night - we all had a spectacular time.  No we just had to wait for Santa...