It's Christmastime!!

I love Christmastime.

I love the decorations, and lights, and the trees, and the smell of cloves and cinnamon.  I love picking the perfect gift for people.  I love wrapping presents.  I love steel drums and sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top.

Christmas lights at Harrods

I'm not sure if its because it all makes up for the cold and the rain and the snow; or if its because my birthday falls three days before Christmas but I love everything about Christmas.

My favourite thing is decorating the tree and since I was thirteen have decorated my tree by myself, choosing a colour coordinated theme and doing my best to make it look like a perfect department store tree.  Every ornament is painstakingly placed to achieve the perfect balance and I don't finish until every branch is just right.

So, it was a very big deal for me to let The Big One help decorate this year.  Last year I was able to delay the inevitable by giving her her own miniature tree to decorate.  This year she would not deterred.  A year makes a huge difference in hand-eye coordination; and where as last year it took her over an hour to decorate her two-foot tree, this year she was done with her tree in 15 minutes flat.  And that's when she turned her attention onto the big tree.

There's no colour theme (unless rainbow counts as a colour theme), there are two many yellow/gold ornaments clustered at the bottom or the tree (her favourite colour), and the top is decorated with a homemade peacock.

But... (to quote The Big One's current favourite song)

I don't care, I love it!

Sunrise over Chelsea

I am not a morning person, or more specifically, I am not a pre-dawn person.  During the summer when the sun rises at 3:00am, I am happily up at 7:00am and ready to start my day.  In the winter, however, I can easily sleep until 11am.

I've never understood why some people get excited about watching the sunrise.  For starters, you have to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to witness it.  Then, having grown up on the west coast of California, it's hard to imagine anything more magnificent than the sun setting over the ocean.  I love how the sky changes from cerulean to orange to red to violet to indigo and finally to black.  Every dusk is different but always equally gorgeous.

This morning I saw the sunrise for what is probably the third time my entire life, and I was surprised by how beautiful it looked.

Dawn

It makes sense that the sunrise should look the opposite of the sunset, but I'd never noticed before.  Maybe the three other times I've been up early enough to see the sunrise I've been busy complaining about the fact that I'm up so early.  I just don't recall the different colours in the sky, it seemed that it was pitch black and then it was light outside.

Sunrise over Chelsea

If I see another few of these sunrises, it might make up for having The Small One wake me up in the wee hours of the morning.

Where is the Nomad?

Went to The Nomad pop-up cinema tonight.  Usually they set-up shop around town, pull out their big white tarp and show movies in specially chosen outdoor locations (like Brompton Cemetery for a Halloween screening.). But because its December they set up their outdoor Christmas screenings inside at The Lookout in Hyde Park.

I wanted to go yesterday when they were screening The Muppets Christmas Carol.  The Big One is a Muppets fanatic, although I still haven't gotten her to understand that they are in fact Muppets and not just puppets.  Unfortunately, I couldn't do the Muppets screening and get to the MK gig, so I opted for today's screening instead.

Today they screened Elf, which I figured would agree with The Big One's new found love of Santa Claus and "Mommy TV".   Plus, in addition to the movie they had arts and crafts activities and marshmallow roasting, so even if the movie wasn't a hit she would still have a good time.

I've passed The Lookout before, but never really knew what is was.  Tucked away, hidden behind trees and shrubs in the middle of Hyde Park is the home of the Isis Education Centre, which feels very much like a tree house even though it is firmly planted on the ground.

The Lookout Hyde Park

Before the screening they also had a mulled wine bar and an insect petting zoo with the largest cockroach I have ever seen.  Giant cockroach doesn't exactly fit in with the Christmas theme, but I think they were promoting some of the regular activities available at The Lookout through the Isis Education Centre.

Nomad's mulled wine bar

I would highly recommend a Nomad screening if you haven't checked one out and The Lookout if you're looking for a cool venue to hold an event.

Michael Kiwanuka at the Troubadour London

Just got back from the Michael Kiwanuka gig at the Troubadour.  I love this guy and you know I was excited to see him because I went out on a Monday night, to a standing room only venue, with what I'm quite certain is a broken toe (but that is another post.)

I doubt if all the Troubadours are owned by the same people, but pretty much everyone I have ever been to from London to LA has been the same, dive bar (or faux dive bar) with amazing sound.  The London Troubadour feels a bit more authentic than most.  The kind of place where you expect to see up and coming artists, so it's something special when you get to see some like MK when they're already established.  There were probably no more than 100 people there this evening.

He tried out some new songs, some old ones from his debut album, Home Again, and a really old one which he said was the first song he ever wrote that was good enough to have someone else hear.  As always the music came with some conversation and a few anecdotes about the songs.  One thing was pretty obvious - he is not one of those over produced musicians whom sound completely different live than they do recorded. Totally worth it, although I am not looking forward to the 6:55am wake up call to get ready for school.  Nor, sadly, what is likely to be a 4:00am "feed me" from the small one.