Off to Italy!

Quick update to say Merry Merry to all! We're off to Italy for Christmas in Venice, no complaints there. (Provided we get out of London...British Airways' potential strike caused me pause. Thankfully worry didn't consume much of me; I realized we were ticketed w/ BA the day before the strike talks finalized. Benefits of travel agent buffer and ignoring pertinent documents until the 11th hour.)

Past strike issues, the weather did manage to mangle Eurostar and has grounded several families we know. White Christmas is lovely when indoors w/ lit tree, fire crackling, eggnog in hand, etc. Outward bound? Not so much.

We've had a lovely Christmas prep week with Claire wrapping up school Friday (short day followed by lunch w/ friends and a send off to a lovely family we'll dearly miss).

And we celebrated Claire's birthday at school on Thursday -- nice to celebrate her big day before, during and after the holidays, as has become our routine.

Our weekend was lovely, catching up w/ friends for dinner, shopping, sleeping in. And Monday found us having lunch w/ Joe, a rarity given school/work schedules. In the evening Claire and I trudged through our 2 inches of snow (yes, really, but that really wet sloppy kind that ties traffic up in knots) to attend the Olympia Horse Show.

It's a fabulous must-see event (the horse show, not the snow), even for those of us non horse lovers. (I don't dislike horses but given the choice I'd hop on a bicyle or something w/ a motor.) BUT Claire is all about horses, dogs, etc. so this event was WAY up her alley -- horse competitions/horse entertainment plus dog agility competitions. It was the grand finale event so the horsemanship was truly amazing, 15 tight -- and high -- jumps in short timeframe w/ the world's best riders. Olympic medalists, the whole bit.

In addition we were entertained by the London Metropolitan horse police patrol; they are fabulous horsemen and women, putting on a great show through dozens of obstacles, rings of fire, taking off their spurs and saddles while riding around the arena, etc.

And last, Santa made his appearance, pulled in on a carriage by white horses, naturally.

Lovely event and we made our way back home through slush at midnight.

Today we whistled stuff into suitcases, cleaned out the fridge (well let's get real, the freezer -- I abhor coming home to rotten food!) and zipped off w/ friends to Santa's Christmas Cracker at Prince Albert Hall. It was a gorgeous Christmas concert featuring fabulous singing and orchestra talent, plus a very family-friendly, funny Santa as emcee. The entire crowd was pulled into dancing, singing, even manufacturing jingle bell sounds vis a vis keys and coins. The kids seemed to very much enjoy it, as did I.

And now we prepare to change up the scenery for Christmas Italian style.

However you celebrate, enjoy and more to come in 2010!