We made it home from Nürnberg in time for Christmas Eve dinner. This was our first Christmas in Germany, and essentially the first Christmas we’ve ever spent with just our immediate family. We went the extra mile to uphold our favorite traditions while creating some news ones, and making it a fun weekend so no one would miss being back in Maryland.
We decided to have shrimp alfredo for dinner as it’s one of our favorite meals. It helped that all the stores were closed and we already had all of the ingredients in the house- haha. Ryan and I cooked together and it ended up being so good; we all agreed it was probably the best we’ve had.
We all opened up one gift; matching Christmas pajamas! We’ve never done this before as a family and the kids were actually excited to dress alike. ‘Excited’ for Brooklyn means she said ‘That’s nice,’ and then I literally shed a tear that she would say something so sweet lol.
We changed into our pajamas and called some family members back home to wish them and Merry Christmas Eve, and then watched the Nightmare Before Christmas. Just as we were about to go to bed, all of the bells from the surrounding churches started ringing Their Christmas Eve peal. It was so pretty and went on for about fifteen minutes. When the bells were over, we headed to bed.
Christmas morning, we got up and opened presents. For the past two years, we have stayed with my mom on Christmas and have opened our family gifts prior to flying home. Last year, because our flight was moved up by 24 hours, we literally shredded the wrapping paper as fast as we could so we could throw what we wanted to take to Maryland into suitcases. Sadly, we recently just found several of our Christmas gifts from last year, still in their hiding spot because we forgot about them in the rush. Essentially, we have not taken our time on gift gifting and receiving since 2020. So, this year, we really tried to take our time and enjoy it.
Some of the favorite gifts were a letterman jacket for Brooklyn (which still hasn’t arrived thanks to our post office problems), a light saber for Ryan, a robe and ridge wallet for Matt, and three puzzles of our town, Böblingen, for me.
Perhaps the most favorite gifts were the Lidl Christmas sweaters I got for everyone. I rushed to Lidl the day they came out in November and fought with the hoards to get four. While on our road trip, the kids started begging and bargaining for some as everyone had been wearing them at school. I already knew I had bought them and they were waiting at home so I just smugly reminded them that Christmas shopping was over. Everyone was super surprised to open them and enthusiastically put them on.
After presents, we made our breakfast of eggs, orange sweet rolls, and scrapple. Then, we settled in for a days’ long Christmas movie marathon.
Everyone was instructed to pick a movie. Brooklyn picked Elf, I picked The Holiday, Matt picked Robocop, and Ryan picked Star Wars; Revenge of the Sith. You may have noticed that Matt and Ryan didn’t stick to the criteria but we let them slide this year.
We started with Matt’s pick, Robocop. It was ok, but did not give us the warm and fuzzy Christmas feeling so it was banned for future years. Next was my pick, The Holiday. Although we have watched the movie several times, we realized for the first time that the characters, Iris and Miles (Kate Winslet and Jack Black) had a “Christmas Fettuccine” for dinner on Christmas Eve, just like we did the night before. We decided right then that we would have a Christmas Fettuccine every year! Then, it was Ryan’s pick, Star Wars. About halfway through the movie, Ryan said we could turn it off because he didn’t like the second half. Star Wars was then banned in future years as well. 🤣 At that point, it was almost dinner time, so we agreed to watch Elf another night.
We got the house cleaned up and started prepping our dinner of orange chicken, fried rice, and loempia, which was what the four of us had voted on. Two other families joined us and Matt did all the cooking while I did a lot of the entertaining 😇.
After dinner, the adults played a long game of Phase Ten, something I have not played in years and was a lot of fun, while the kids watched more movies. It was a late night and we slept in late the next day.
It was an awesome Christmas. It was quiet and intimate. We did not have to rush anywhere or worry about upsetting anyone. And, there was no stress. While we absolutely missed all of our family and friends, we appreciated this type of quiet Christmas so much!
I worked the rest of the week as I wanted to conserve some leave. Matt and the kids were able to catch up on rest and enjoy some of their gifts. During the evenings, we did a big purge of the house and got rid of so much stuff and then did some deep cleaning. It was so nice to cross some of these tasks off the list as they stack up so much when we are traveling so much and have visitors.
We barely left the house all week, but we did make a quick trip into Stuttgart Tuesday night to have a last round of glühwein at the WinterTraum.
Friday, we departed for London, a big favorite for us! This was ‘Brooklyn’s Trip.’ At the beginning of the year, we told both kids to plan weekends away for us. Ryan immediately picked the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but Brooklyn took longer to choose. Finally upon hearing the Phantom of the Opera was ending its run in London, this immediately took precedent. It has long been Brooklyn’s wish to see the musical and London was our last chance to see it as it is already over in New York. We originally had other plans over this weekend but when those changed, we decided to make the trip over New Year’s since the fireworks has long been on my bucket list as well.
We arrived around 11am and then dashed out of the airport, to the hotel, and got checked in. Because we had tickets for a show at 2:30, I was stressed all morning that we wouldn’t make it. However, luck was on our side and the whole morning went off without a single hitch or delay.
Our room was ready when we arrived and we had enough time to make a quick stop at Tesco to stock up on snacks and drinks for our weekend.
Then, we almost immediately headed back out in order to make it to our first show of the weekend, Les Misérables, at the Sondheim Theater. Brooklyn is a huge theater fan and has also wanted to see this show for a long time.
We arrived just in time to buy a program and get to our seats before the lights went down. The show was awesome! We had all seen it previously on TV and Brooklyn has read the book, but it was a first for all of us to see it live and it did not disappoint.
Afterwards, we had dinner at Caffé Concerto, a restaurant we ate at many times during our 2019 trip. Their mozzarella sticks and fried shrimp made it a firm favorite with our family and we were happy for opportunity to visit again. We were a little let down by their new, higher prices, and that what was previously a great place to stop in and get a quick, cheap bite, now became our most expensive meal of the weekend. Everyone still enjoyed our huge appetizer tower and dinners.
Afterwards, we walked over to Trafalgar Square and had a glühwein at the Christmas Market. The market was nice, and definitely beautiful, but after visiting some of the best markets of Europe, it just didn’t measure up. The glühwein was £12, which is about $15, and the cup was just paper. Then, we had to stay in a small cordoned off area to drink it, as opposed to walking around and shopping. It didn’t actually taste that great either, so Matt and I took turns urging each other to take quick shots of it. Regardless, we were happy to have been able to see it, and the Trafalgar Square tree, and then continued on to our next activity.
Next, we joined a Christmas Lights Bus tour that drove us through central London with the goal of seeing the best decorations. We didn’t actually cover much distance on the tour and we probably could have walked all that it covered, but the humor of the tour guide, and being able to sit still for an hour made it worthwhile. After the tour, we headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest.
Saturday, we were back up early for a visit to the National Gallery. Brooklyn needed to visit a gallery and complete a project on a piece of art for her AP Art History class. One of her favorite pieces of art is The Execution of Jane Seymour and we were able to visit it so she could complete her project.
We also saw several other famous pieces including Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh, The Water-Lily Pond by Claude Monet, and The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck.
Then, we did some shopping around St. Martin’s Lane and Oxford Street. We looked around, but didn’t see anything worth carrying around the rest of the day and decided it was time for lunch.
We chose a pub, the White Horse, in SoHo and had a delicious pub lunch in the cozy upstairs dining room.
Then, it was finally time for Phantom of the Opera at His Majesty’s Theatre.
The performance was phenomenal! I had seen the show once as a teenager and all of us had seen it on TV, but nothing compared to this live show. Brooklyn has been making Matt play the soundtrack in the car so it was special for him to get to see it with her. Even Ryan was enthralled for the entirety of the performance.
We hung around a little after it ended and were treated to a short encore by the orchestra where we could even film them playing. It was awesome and I am so glad we all got to do this together!
Afterwards, we walked over to Hyde Park, where we visited Winter Wonderland; a half theme park- half Christmas market, assembled during the Winter in the middle of the park. We discovered that it’s mostly themed as a “Bavarian Village,” complete with May Poles, Bier Tents, and Christmas market stalls, in addition to all the rides.
We found as we walked through, that the rides were most likely all rented from German companies that usually rent them to bierfests. The rides were all the same ones we see at Oktoberfest and all of the signs within them were in German, with English instructions handwritten next to them. It was kind of funny to go all the way to the UK to essentially visit a winter-themed Oktoberfest. It was really crowded, but we rode some rides (even Matt and I went in the funhouse), had some food, and then headed back to the hotel.
Since the kids had eaten at Winter Wonderland, they hung out at the hotel while Matt and I tried the Italian restaurant across the street. It was so good! We had fried calamari, pizza, and tiramisu, and then headed back to the hotel for bed.
Sunday was New Year’s Eve and we got up rather early again to head to Somserset House for Ice Skating. It was a clear morning as we walked there, then poured rain while we were changing into our skates, but then the sun came out again when we headed onto the rink.
Matt sat this activity out due to his knee, but was able to get some pictures of me and the kids while we skated. We all had a good time, even Ryan who is a little ice skating-challenged, and were sad when they told us our time was up.
Afterwards, we walked back through Covent Garden in order to check the decorations.
Everything was so pretty and we were glad to get there early before the crowds.
We walked around and took pictures, and then visited the Lego Store on Oxford Street, the biggest in Europe, on request by Ryan.
After the Lego Store, we chose another pub, The White Swan, for another cozy lunch.
After lunch, we went back to the hotel for a nap. When we got up, we ordered pizza from Dominoes, had a quick dinner, and then headed to Trafalgar to join the queue for fireworks.
Months before, we entered into the lottery to get the tickets into the viewing areas for the New Year’s Eve fireworks in London. The most highly sought after section is ‘Blue,’ which is directly across the Thames from the London Eye on Victoria Embankment. On the day it opened, all of us sat around a table with all our phones and laptops hoping to make it to the ticket portal. Finally, the portal opened on Brooklyn’s phone and we got our tickets!
We got in line around 7pm, and then were packed into the waiting area for about an hour, which is just about the only negative part of our trip. At almost nine, they opened the security checkpoint and we could finally enter. When we were through, we all ran down to embankment to choose our spots. We ended up almost dead center across from the Eye and in the second row of people. Luckily, the people in front of us were short so we able to look right over their heads.
For the next three hours, we listened to the DJ, ate our snacks that we brought, and watched the technicians calibrating the lights one last time on the London Eye.
Finally at almost midnight, we heard Big Ben’s start chiming the Westminster Quarters, the prelude tune it plays prior to the clock striking.chime indicating it was almost time for the countdown. Coordinating drones made a countdown in the sky over the Thames.
The crowd counted down to midnight and Big Ben chimed twelve times, following by a cannon firing after each chime. It gave me the chills to hear!
Then, the most amazing fireworks show ever!
Afterwards, we left on foot with the intention of walking to the tube. As we were leaving, the bells of Westminster Abbey were pealing for the new year, it was so pretty!
We walked and walked; the first two tube stops were closed and next one was too packed to enter. We kept walking towards the next but eventually got a taxi that took us the rest of the way back to the hotel. We were finally in bed by about 3am.
The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel one more time before heading back to Heathrow for our flight home.
What an incredible week, from our small, quiet Christmas, to ringing in the New Year in a big, loud way. We are ready for 2024!
Gilcrests Abroad 