final festivities

i have to say, i did a pretty awesome job getting everything ready for christmas and fitting in all the most important london/family festivities before gabriel and i left for arizona on the 18th of december. in november i carefully scheduled everything in our calendar, bought all gifts, and ordered a big grocery delivery to arrive on the 23rd. and in december, i really tried to relish every christmassy moment in this amazing city and with my three excited boys. this made for a pretty great christmastime.

in the days before gabriel and i took off across the pond, we...
went to see santa!
 
 
and finished our all-from-scratch gingerbread house:

(it was so fun to really involve moses in this project this year, especially with the decorating. don't you love how he chose to put an elephant in the yard? we are serious this stuff around here - we make our own gingerbread as well as stained glass windows and special drapey snow. this year we used playdough cutters to make heart, bear and star shaped windows.)
 
and went on our traditional festive date night in mayfair:

(this year we went to dinner at sketch, which is such a funky fun restaurant. the pink dining room is pretty awesome, but the best part is for sure the bathrooms ... which were dressed up for christmas! each of those pods has a toilet as well as speakers playing different types of music in it!)
 
 
 
i love this boy and this city soooo much!

and enjoyed our decorated flat:

and also snuck in a visit to the "gingerbread city" exhibition at the v&a!
 
this was a bit of a stressful experience because all the amazing creations were displayed right at moses's eye level ... so keeping him from snatching and eating that tempting candy while holding gabriel (no buggies allowed inside) was quite the feat - ha! 

i was feeling a little sad to leave our festive little home (and especially moses and ian!) the night before gabriel and i left for arizona. but also soooo excited to be with family to celebrate my nephew's wedding!