One Word: Magical

Warning: this blog entry has the word ‘magical’ in it a whole lot…. I could have used thesaurus, but no word has quite the same ring as ‘magical’ so embrace it…. embrace the magic, because nothing is more magical than a Christmas Weekend in London!

All week I have been looking forward a little event I have had planned since before Halloween – a little event I like to call (drum roll please…) Christmas Weekend. And, Friday morning this most anticipated three-day affair officially began.

To begin my day, I woke up early and went on a beautiful walk around Regent Park with Brooke (my faculty advisor). It was a very chilly crisp morning, but it was refreshing to be outside with the clouds cushioning the golden hues of the leftover leaves that have not yet fallen from the trees. I love walking around that park – it is one of the things I will miss most about this city. We walked for about an hour and a half, and it was exactly what I needed to feel invigorated and energized for the days ahead.

On my way back from the walk, I stopped into a hairdresser just a block from my flat. We live on a very ‘posh’ street and so when I asked what they charge for a bang trim (upon which the French woman corrected me and said – you mean a fringe trim – which I thought was funny…) she said in her French accent – ‘I do that fo you-ah fo free…!” I was so excited, I hopped in the chair and ten minutes later it was like I had a brand new haircut simply by trimming my ‘fringe’ and nothing is free in this city, so this was my lucky morning J.

After the walk and the trim, I came home and showered and got right back into my sweats. I lay in bed and wrote my history paper (the last one!) for a little while, but as 2pm rolled around, all homework was put on hold for event 1 of Christmas weekend – our Christmas movie marathon!

We first put some brownies in the oven (a crucial element to the marathon…), then Kristy, Katie, Laura and I watched Eloise At Christmastime – one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE Christmas movies…even though the target audience is five year old girls… but they all loved it, which is confirmation for just how magical it really is J. As we ate our warm brownies, and the credits rolled on Eloise, Kelsey joined and we decided to next watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas – the cartoon classic! It had been a while since I had seen this one, so again…the magic just kept on growing J.

After The Grinch we sat around and played a game of BS (the card game) while listening to Christmas music until Brooke’s family arrived. We decided the best way to really up the Christmas spirit of Christmas weekend was to bake cookies with her children – there is something about little ones that just make everything more exciting. So I invited Lily (8), Jack (4), Brooke and her husband Tom to come over to our flat for event 2: a cookie baking and decorating party! As Christmas classics played in the background – from my Christmas itunes playlist of course – we rolled out the dough that Tom made (he is really domestic..) and preheated the oven. It was so much fun – batch after batch, we frosted and decorated and danced around to Mariah and Whitney and Aretha (whose rendition of Joy to The World – which is featured in the remake of Miracle of 34^th St. during the part where they are putting up the ‘We Believe’ signs – is truly the most uplifting song ever… J ) singing my favorite Christmas songs.

We had pizza and cookies and then even broke out the ice cream and cupcakes… it was a feast of junk food, but that was the best part! And then we all sat down and watched Elf together. The kids loved the movie, and we all huddled around Katie’s laptop on our two couches laughing and relaxing – Christmas style. It was so nice.

Saturday morning – which was magical all on its own simply because it was LYNNIE’S 22^nd BIRTHDAY – whoop whoop! - officially began day two of our Christmas weekend. Laura and I woke up and went for a walk around Regent Park (yes two days in a row… I had to run off all those cookies J ) and as we were walking IT BEGAN TO SNOW!!!! MAGIC…. It was so beautiful, and the sun was shining over the lake, and the swans were swimming as the light flurries sprinkled to the ground. It only lasted for about ten minutes, but it was a perfect way to start the morning.

When we got home, we showered and got ready. Then Katie, Kristy, Laura, Kelsey and I headed to Hyde Park for the opening day of the Winter Wonderland Christmas Festival! It was like the State Fair only SANTA-FIED… it was so exciting. They had Christmas music playing and tons of Christmas themed carnival rides, a huge snowflake Ferris wheel (and it was so big that for a split second I thought it was the London Eye … I know!). There were tons of food stands set up with cider, hot cocoa, mulled wine, chestnuts roasting on an open fire (legit…), trees lit, an ice skating rink with tons of people circling around – it was like out of a movie! We took tons of pictures (check facebook) and enjoyed the atmosphere. We are saving the ice-skating for Somerset House (which is a mansion that gets all decked out for Christmas and has a rink that we hear is the best one to skate on), so we simply walked around, had a pretzel, looked at all the specialty crafts and gifts and then headed to event 4 – Harrods at Christmas!

It is just a ten-minute walk from Winter Wonderland to Harrods. The streets were packed with busy shoppers and tourists, the storefront windows were all decorated, lights were strung through the trees – it looked just like New York City at Christmas (although New York City will always have a special feeling that not even London can trump – speaking of which - Mom, please Tivo the Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting for me, I need to see that when I come home – thanks mama boo J ), but it is simply stunning. As we approached Harrods we saw the elaborate white lights outlining the façade and knew it was just the beginning of what was to come on the inside.

Floor after floor (which Harrods all on its own is pretty magical) every inch was decorated for the holidays. In the bakery next to the donuts and croissants were elaborate Christmas cakes and gingerbread houses that were ALMOST as good as the ones Lynnie and I used to make every year. We walked all around looking at the glamorous clothes and all the Christmas themed displays. It was so busy and packed – as is the entire city this time of year. But it was so much fun.

After exploring every inch, which took some time, we had worked up quite the appetite. So we took the tube to Piccadilly Circus and had some Chinese food in China Town. While it took a while for the food to come out, and the meal was slighting interrupted by some unwanted fruit flies, and a crying child who would not calm down – it was a delicious meal of sweet and sour chicken and egg fried rice – a needed culinary vacation from the usual TV dinner. Then we made our way through the crowded, frigid streets back home to get ready for the night.

Because we had such a family- oriented, G-rated evening last night, we decided to live up one of our last few Saturday nights here in London and go out to the club Tiger Tiger. We got all ready, danced around the flat a little while to ‘N Sync and Backstreet Boys (we were in an old school boy band kind of mood) and then headed out into the freezing cold night to Leicester Square, dolled up and ready to dance.

The evening had its ups and downs, but overall – the club cover charge was outrageous, the coat line was longer than the line for freaking Splash Mountain – basically, it was PACKED wall to wall with people, the dance floor had absolutely no breathing room, but worst of all – WORST WORST WORST OF ALL…. the music was complete crap. And that just kills it for me…. So after a couple of hours of being pushed and pulled around, having to turn away the creepy guys (including one who kept following me around and kept popping up behind me like Where’s Waldo no matter what I did), we took the bus home. I think there were maybe two songs I even recognized the whole night….which is weird because we have been there before and the music was great, so I guess the DJ was just on crack last night or something… and so that was a bit of a magic killer…. But today certainly made up for it!

We crashed the minute we got home – freezing of course from the cold commute. What we did not know was that all that cold weather was foreshadowing the surprise we would get in the morning.

This morning we woke up and day 3 of Christmas Weekend began, and on the agenda was a guided tour of the beautiful English college town, Cambridge. As we stepped outside to walk to the tube, we were greeted by large flakes of snow falling from the sky! It was so beautiful to see the roofs of cars coated in white and the light flurries were a welcome relief from the constant rain…that is until the temperature went up a bit above freezing, and I – without an umbrella for the first time in forever….began to realize that our day trip to Cambridge could be hijacked by some freezing cold rain.

We met with our small tour group – two girls and our guide Rob joined Laura, Kelsey and me to make six – and then we boarded the train (only after taking the classic Harry Potter picture at Platform 9 ¾) as the snow turned to rain. An hour later, we arrived in Cambridge, and despite it being about 5 degrees colder (keep in mind this is Celsius) than London, it was still pouring down freezing cold rain. Laura and I only had one BROKEN umbrella (remember Dublin…. apparently we did not learn our lesson and buy a strong enough umbrella this time either) to shelter us for the 30-minute walk into central Cambridge, which was miserable. I was literally about to turn around and get back on the train, about to cry because my Uggs were soaked through to my feet and with every step there was freezing rain shooting into my face and down the back of my coast as we battled with the umbrella to stay upright, and searched for a store that sold umbrellas (which was simply NOT HAPPENING…). I became more and more sad that our final day of Christmas weekend in Cambridge (a tour we paid good money for) was being ruined. It was hard to appreciate the information of the history of the place because we were all just so miserable standing in the pouring rain. So I stepped up and asked if we could please seek some shelter and wait it out, and everyone agreed. So we stopped in a breakfast café, warmed up – aired out my socks in the bathroom because I was just drenched – and had a hearty English breakfast and the most delicious hot mocha. That certainly lifted my spirits, and as we headed back out into the cold, we finally found a place to buy umbrellas. Rob then took us around a bit showing us all the different colleges, which are so beautiful and historic, and then left us for free time at Queen Mary’s Church.

We entered the church, getting out of the cold drizzle, and headed up over 100 winding steps to the top to see the best views of Cambridge. And as we made our way up carefully, praying our wet shoes did not slip on the stairs, I am convinced God made a deal with Mother Nature to halt her fury for a little while for all of our sanity. As we turned the last corner and emerged at the top – the sun was out, and there were blue skies everywhere… it was like some miracle – a Christmas miracle if you will! And the view was spectacular!

Cambridge is just a classic English town, and reminds me a lot of the little town featured in the movie The Holiday – only bigger and grander. The streets are all so sweet and winding, lined with stores independent and chain, whose storefronts were all decorated for the holidays. The lamppost had snowflake lights and once the sun came out, I immediately fell in the love with the town. It made me wonder how different my experience would have been had I studied in a true English college town. While I love London, I do not really feel like I have lived here. I still have to carry a map with me everywhere (and of course…an umbrella, but that is besides the point), I am constantly seeing and trying new things, which is great, but I certainly do not feel at all like a local. I don’t have a favorite café where I know the owners like the Italy girls, and I certainly do not know my way around as well as I would had I studied in a smaller town. I just loved Cambridge – the architecture, the history – it was so stunning and exactly what you think of when you think of a classic English town. Studying there would be absolutely incredible. But then again, London has its own amazing advantages and I wouldn’t trade a thing – it just showed me how different studying in a smaller setting would have been in comparison to my experience here.

After our cold day of shopping in and out of stores, trying all the while to stay warm and not catch…I think I am on cold15…. of this trip, we got back on the train and headed back into central London. While Christmas weekend ended in freezing rain, it began with a flurry in the park and a flurry this morning, and that is what I will choose to remember of the weather this weekend – a weekend that was exactly what I needed. I got to be home, hang out with the girls, and enjoy London, but most of all, I got to do it all during the most wonderful time of the year in one of the greatest cities on Earth – now that is pretty magical.

Love and hugs (and if you read through all of that, I think YOU are pretty magical…),

Jenny