Fairy Lights & Palaces

I keep feeling like tonight starts our Christmas vacation even though we don't leave for Chicago for the holidays until next Wednesday. But England does not mess around with Christmas. Oh no. They take it very seriously. Tomorrow starts, for the second time mind you, a Christmas fair in the middle of town. The last one, in their defense, was called the Christmas Lighting Festival but there were 80 booths of knick knacks and food/drink and things like a carousel, a ferris wheel and various other games you'd see at a state fair for the whole weekend. They sell crazy neon raver type blinky lights each night and the crowds are nutty to get around in, but you can walk around with as much mulled wine and churros as you want, so I'm in for that.

This particular fair is the Oxford Christmas Market and it lasts through most of next week - I'm assuming because they're feeling much like us - ready to relax and enjoy the holiday by fighting the bustling hoards of consumers trying to finish up their gift shopping. Again, as long as there's wine.. fantastic. But I did notice that one of the vendors was The Fairy Light Company and it made me think of a certain Pixie and also a raclette vendor, Le Rac Shack, and that settled it. I'll be wandering around there for gifts and lunch! Yum!

It couldn't kick off a better start to the weekend honestly. Tomorrow night we head to Mike's lab's Christmas party thrown by the only other American scientist he works with. I don't know what his specialty is, but he sounds like a really nice man, accomplished in his field and is on sabbatical here til next spring or so. I'm happy he and Mike seemed to have hit it off and I'm so looking forward to meeting him and Fran Ashcroft, the scientist who hired Mike in the first place. The other post-docs who work with Mike and who I've already met have promised to don their horrible Christmas sweaters they bought just for this occasion and to get drunk. Hooray! So that shouldn't suck. We're bringing deviled eggs, which most of them have never had before so those should cinch our win for ‛The Best People To Invite To Your Work Party Ever'.

Saturday, we finally head to Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, courtesy of my Pixie friend as our wedding gift. A palace! And it's nearby! And there's no way we're going to be able to see everything there in one day but our ticket will be turned into an annual pass so we can get in for free for most of the coming year! Um.. yeah, I'm excited. Check out the website. This place is absolutely freaking gorgeous and the history.. gah. Dripping with it. Can. Not. Wait.

THEN, after that? WE'RE GOING ICE SKATING! DISCO ICE SKATING! There aren't enough capitals to express my squeals of joy properly. We attempted to gather a group to do this last week, but the timing was bad. This time it's going to happen. Hopefully Mike will not die because he's never been on ice skates in his life and me, well, I have weak ankles. Hilarity will ensue and embarrassing pictures are sure to follow.

And so to bed I do go, dreaming of mulled wine and a raclette lunch.. Ahhh..