Only in London can you pause to look at a few of Rodin's sculptures as you Christmas shop. I met a friend at the Victoria and Albert Museum yesterday to do a little more shopping in their gift shop. I arrived ahead of her, so I took the time to admire the work of Rodin and some of his comtemporaries.

My people watching while tooling around the greater London area included:

a very overweight German family--which is very strange. Germans are not usually obese.
a middle aged woman with bright pink hair
another middle aged woman dancing unabashedly on the street to the tunes of a steel drum Christmas band playing to raise money to prevent child abuse
a very happy Asian couple chatting away excitedly on the bus. I'm guessing they had a good day in London
a guy on a longboard skateboard (like a grown-up guy, not a teenager) skillfully weaving through the crowds at Leicester Square

Back on Monday night I took Maddie to a Panto, which is short of Pantomime. Here in England, these are not silent plays, but kind of farcical, audience participation performances geared toward children. We went to see a funny version of the Cinderella story. Maddie loved it. The same three actors played all the roles and got all the kids involved in the story.

Today I had to take the bunnies over to our bunny boarding place. The owner wasn't available during the day on Friday, so she asked that I bring them today. They do NOT like to ride in the car. Then I headed out to Maddie's school for their Christmas party. The two second grade classes had a combined party and there were stations set up in each of the rooms. The kids were divided up into groups and went from station to station icing gingerbread men, making snowmen out of tube socks and rice, participating in a book exchange and making Christmas Crackers. Then Maddie's friend Kei came home with us. Kei is moving to Perth, Australia about two weeks after we get back from Christmas, so I had promised a little extra time with her. It only took us 40 minutes to get Kei home to where she lives way out past the school. Such is the world of playdates in the greater London area.



Maddie and friend Megan



The spread the moms put out for the party. Whoa!



Okay, so now, I'm being a little boastful. This is the bag I made for Maddie's teacher.



The reverse



The close-up. Oh yeah, I'm going to get the big head. I can drive on the left side of the road AND make a cool bag. It may not be the most impressively constructed bag ever made, but I think it's really cool. What do you want on YOUR bag?