Christmas

It feels like I'm cheapening things to just say "Christmas Happened".  But it did.

Things as usual were hectic and frazzled despite my best attempts to scale back, and focus on what's important.  Isn't that the way it goes?

I did get a new tree.  My old $100 Black Friday Wal-Mart Special wasn't holding up any more.  I ran across this one at Costco with LED color-changing lights.  (Nick was so excited as I knew he would be. Since working with stage lighting at the school he gets very excited about these things.)  But the tree is fun.  You have the option between plain white (my favorite)

Multi-colored (Everyone else's favorite)

Or a seizure/migraine inducing option where the lights flash back and forth between multi-colored and white and faster and faster speeds. (Nobody likes that option.)

We attended several concerts throughout the month,

 

Side note- I never would have predicted that Nick would find so much joy in choir.  He loves it all, but I don't know what he loves more -the people, or the music. 

And we went to the Mesa Temple to see the lights.

Christopher figured out this whole present thing this year and had his heart set on a couple of items.  He desperately wants an x-box so he can play Minecraft on the TV, but that was a definite "NO."  So he settled on wanting one of those PowerWheels cars.

We had an old one when he was little, but he was afraid of it, and started to outgrow it without ever sitting in it, so we gave it away.  I would try to dissuade him by telling him he was "too big."  It was the one time I'd ever heard him argue that he was little.  One time he asked, "Am I too big?" I said, "Yes.  Your bum is too big."  (Which of course is a lie, he has NO bum, it's his legs that are too long, and he weighs too much.) So he immediately responded with "Then I will stand."  So that backfired.

But all month long he would ask for one and I would say "We'll see."  He did not like that at all.  I found this written on our dry erase board.-

Translation- he wrote "No we'll see  We'll See Christmas PowerWheels" (I think that last word is "box".  He told me exactly where he expects to find the PowerWheels box on Christmas morning. )

Fortunately I found a PowerWheels model that is for bigger kids (older than ages 3-5) and I found it for a stellar price, that was totally within our budget.

Of course the big present for them all, was their passports. (and the little trip we will be taking them on this summer) Which we still haven't gotten yet because BOTH parents need to go down to the passport office WITH the kids on a WEEK DAY. (Holidays excluded) And yeah.  The odds of those stars lining up are pretty rare. 

So, yeah.  Christmas happened.

Winter Formal

While I was at Zach's science camp, I got a phone call from Nick.  He was super excited to tell me that he was asked by his friend Dani to go to the Winter Formal. 

Besides being excited that he was asked, and who did the asking (he thinks she's pretty awesome),

 the fact that she used a Doctor Who reference just made it that much extra cooler.

Sadly, I was not there to help him get ready, but fortunately her dad was the photographer at the dance, so I got a few extras Ü.

Also, I'm told that he happened to be hanging out with her and some other girls when she tried on the dress, and apparently he was rendered speechless.  One of their friends teased him about it for awhile.

Anyway, I've been told he had an amazing time.

half a day in London

Back in '08, the first time John and I went to London, we had a little over a day to see the whole city.  Doable, right?  Maybe from the top of one of those double decker tour buses. (which is what we did) or from the London Eye (we did that too).  But we left feeling like we barely got to experience London.  I saw the outside of several buildings in passing, snapped a few crappy pictures from the top of a moving bus, and that was about it. It was a sample.  A taste.  And it totally left me wanting more.  You can read about that here.

So 5 years later, when I had the chance to go back with John, but would only be spending less than a day there, I didn't even really try to see London.  I did ZERO research on the sights to see, and had zero expectations.  I knew there just wasn't the time, plus, we are planning a family trip this summer and John will be working in London for a week, so the kids and I can do all the sightseeing we want then.

I mention all this so that when I tell you what I did do with my time, you may not be too judgmental. Well, some people probably still will be, but there's probably no getting around that.  I try not to fly my geek flag too proudly (I know, I totally fail) but I am raising four little geeks, and sometimes it's contagious.

Anyway, first things first.  After checking into our hotel, and as we headed to the nearest underground station,  lo and behold, what do we find?  A chocolate festival!!! 

I found my new favorite brand of chocolate.  My favorite kind so far had an orange flavor to it, and had sour cherries and candied nuts sprinkled on the top.

Then we headed to Kings Cross Station.   A platform 9 3/4 t-shirt was pretty much the one thing my mom requested as a thank you gift/souvenir for babysitting for us this week.  We were happy to oblige. 

Then we headed to the BBC offices.  I heard they had a store.  I was trying to find a particular set of Christmas tree ornaments not available in the US. (For my kids.)  I didn't find the ornaments. 

I did find a Tardis though!!! 

And a Dalek!

 

The Dalek actually scared me a bit.  I turned the corner, and there it was.  Just sitting there. Which as we all know, Daleks are evil, and although totally fictional, it can still be a little unnerving to just turn a corner and come face to face with one.

And see that?

Doctor Who and Daleks are a somewhat big thing in England.  In some circles, I guess.  (I have a whole Doctor Who write-up planned.  Yes, it's that big of a deal around here.)

And then just cause we had a little time to kill, we went to Harrod's.  It was totally crazy though.  And crazy expensive.  But I only lasted a floor or two.  I've heard there might be some more moderately priced stuff, but I didn't last long enough to find out.

Of course the whole reason we were in London was to go to a work Christmas party of John's.  He did some work for the London office, and they knew we would be in the area (if you call Barcelona being in the same "area" as London) so they invited us.  Which was cool, cause the St. Louis office doesn't invite spouses. (rude.)

And then to make matters even cooler, it was a "hat party".  At a hip and happenin' brand new 20's themed night club.   Anyways, everyone had to wear a hat.  Well, women could choose between a hat and a "Fascinator".  Which honestly was a hard choice.  After watching Princess Kate get married, and all the relatives with the crazy headwear, I really wanted an excuse to wear something like that. 

I ended up going with a simple Twenties style hat though cause I was worried about having to style my hair so it looked awesome with the fascinator.

And then to complete the look I rounded it out with an antique necklace from the 1920's, a somewhat flapper style dress,  and stripey tights.  I'd include a picture of the whole ensemble, but frankly, in my head I looked awesome, and posting pictures of myself on the internet causes me to be twice as critical of myself as I usually am, so I'm not going to spoil that for myself, okay?

And that's it.  I had to be up early the next morning to catch my flight.  (John had to go somewhere else.  We flew separately.)  Our hotel room did have a nice view though. (I guess you're just gonna have to take my word for it. These pictures aren't that great.)

The rest of Barcelona

With John in his convention all day,

I spent a lot of time by myself.  Which is fine.  Alone doesn't always equal lonely.

I consulted my handy-dandy Rick Steves' guide book (seriously, he and I are besties) and planned my days out from there.

I decided to head over to Montjuic to see the castle on the hill.  There's two ways to get there, by tram, or by hiking.  I decided to take the tram up then hike down.

In all honesty, I didn't think there was much to see up there.  I thought the moat was the coolest part.  Certainly the prettiest.  I didn't even take any pictures inside.

The "hike" down was pretty neat though.  It was technically more of a leisurely stroll than a hike, but I think all those stairs might have gotten tiring after awhile.

Seriously, it was just a whole hillside full of pretty gardens.

With random fountains.

Walking down I set my sights on a domed rooftop and headed in that direction.  I wasn't disappointed. 

At the end of the walk I found a really neat museum.

Although, to be honest, I thought the building was the best part.  So pretty.

The museum sits atop a hill as well, and they have very convenient escalators to take you down to the Olympic Village at the bottom.

(I have never in my life seen outdoor escalators before.

Other fun sights include a pretty church, (love the lacy detail work)

and a random castle/palace in the middle of town.  It looked much more interesting then the touristy one on the hill.

And finally- one of the biggest soda pop/snack machines I have ever seen.

So that's it.  Barcelona was lovely.  I wish there was time to see more of Spain, but maybe someday.

Barcelona part 2- Gaudi

I thought Antoni Gaudi deserved his own post since I took SO MANY stinking pictures.  Even then, I had trouble narrowing them down without being redundant and boring.

Gaudi was an architect who lived and died in Barcelona almost 100 years ago. 

I admit the first time I heard of him, I thought "Well, that's just weird."   And yeah, I still think most of his work borders on the strange and bizarre, but seeing it up close, I gained a new appreciation for it. 

In fact I can now say he is my favorite architect.  Honestly though, that's not saying much since I can only name one other architect, which is of course Frank Lloyd Wright, but I've never been that impressed with him either. 

But anyways, Gaudi's crowning achievement has yet to be completed, and the guy has been dead for like 85 years.  They are hoping to have it finished by the 100th anniversary of his death, but I think they have a long way to go.  Behold, the Sagrada Familia. 

It's this GINORMOUS Cathedral in the middle of the city. 

It's huge now, but I think this model of it shows the stuff they still need to do (in white).

I really really really want to go back to Barcelona in 20 years when it's all done.

The outside of the building is kinda crazy and a little off-putting, but the inside is amazing.

It's like you are this tiny little ant wandering around in a giant flower garden.

And the light coming in from the stained glass is gorgeous.

I think though that if I were to attend church there, I don't think I'd ever learn a thing.  I'd be too busy gaping at my surroundings.

Gaudi designed some other stuff in his days. 

There are several famous buildings that bare his unique signature.

I feel kinda pretentious saying words like "organic" but that's probably the best way to describe it. 

There's a really cool park he designed as well. 

He liked to use a lot of recycled tiles and ceramics in his designs.

Those buildings behind me are his as well.

Before I went to Spain, I would have said he was a bit of a nutter, but now I'm leaning more towards genius.  I hear it's a fine line though.