Highlights Of The Season...

• Looking at the scenery change on the train to London. The fields filling with snow, the sparkling white trees, actual deer in the woods, bunnies! Snowmen! Kids tobogganing in fields! But drat, London has only slush. Promised boys that if there is snow in any towns on the way home, we'll get off the train and roll down a hill or two.
• "It looks, it looks... It looks like winter, in a story."
• Hanging out with Mum and Dad, who I will MISS!
• Throwing seed pods onto the melting icy lake at Kew Gardens and listening to the ice go "Pwing!" Kew is so beautiful, in every season, but we will have to go back soon because I was too busy nattering with my friend Vicky to notice anything.
• "This one's label says 'nutty, rich and full-bodied' - that's us, darling!"
• The Panto: 'Jack And The Beanstalk' at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith. It was very funny, on kid and grownup levels. The actors were great, and some sang like wow. The GIANT was very cleverly done! My favorite character was the baddie, 'Evil Ingreedily', made of sugar. The Cow was played by a bull, naturally. "El Especial!"
• Pretty Christmas lights everywhere. Speaking of lights, the night view from Beans and Andrew's flat is fantastic: the Eye, the Gherkin and the rest of the city twinkle like Evil Ingreedily's sequins. Thank you for lending us your flat guys!
• Some great presents.
• Wearing hats.
• Laughing hysterically.
• "Max, you WILL go down there, you will smile sweetly, you will get a grip and remember that it is Christmas Day and little brats who throw tantrums on Christmas Day, TERRIBLE THINGS happen to them."
• "Like what?"
• "Oh, I will think of something." (he went down there and smiled sweetly, and had a very lovely day. Ten points for sensitive, understanding parental technique)
• Family Togetherness, Love, Kindness and Generosity.
• Foooooood.
• Even Claudette's famous mushroom pie, a staple Christmas Dish, made it to London thanks to modern long-distance communications.
• The Russian Ballet's "Swan Lake" on TV with explanations between acts, which the boys actually sat and watched entirely, and enjoyed, but the in-house commentary was so 'adolescent boy' that I told them I can never take them to the ballet. ("Ooooohh, shucks." Twits) The boys wondered how come they knew the soundtrack already if they've never seen the movie? Sigh.
• Good news. 2010 looking awesome already. We're heading home tomorrow, and ready to dive into the New Year, with adventures on the horizon! I'm excited!