We’ve been getting into the Christmas spirit with lots of social gatherings lately.

Last Saturday night, we took the train down to Stretham to have Christmas drinks with Al and Becks. We had an awesome indian beforehand at Chilli Chutney, a place recommended by Al, and so authentic they even had Bollywood movies playing in the background. Overall a fantastic night, but we ended up having to cab home after we missed the last train by less than two minutes!

On Thursday night, John organised a “pyramid party” at a pub in Baker street, with the idea being that he invites everyone he knows, then they invite people that they know, and so on and so forth, until finally we have enough people there to take over the entire pub. We didn’t get quite that many but a turnout of around 30 people was still pretty commendable for the first time. We left around 10 PM to go and get dinner whilst the others stayed on, apparently ended up at Tiger Tiger until they closed!

Friday night saw Shelley hosting her first quiz night at our place, which Julian won convincingly. That’s the second quiz in a row in which Julian has blitzed the field, so we have to come up with some kind of handicap for him next time (like, he starts on -20 points, and each of his questions are only worth a half).

Last night we found ourselves in Kensington for Ali and Eva’s Christmas drinks (Eva is Nick’s sister). We even got to partake in the highs and lows of seeing the X Factor grand finale, which perhaps would have been more significant to us had we have watched any of the shows for the season (but given our lack of TV antenna, that’s a bit tricky). Anyway, Eva and Ali were wonderful hosts; we had a fantastic time, and it was tough to drag ourselves away at 12:30 PM, but we were both quite tired and the lure of bed was too hard to resist!

We’re back from our week long holiday in Morzine Avoriaz, France – and what an absolutely wonderful week it was!

It turns out that our chalet was about 200m walk (which is painfully far when you’re carrying skis and poles, and wearing ski-boots) from the main telecabin up to Avoriaz – a stunning town built at the top of the cliffs, which blended amazingly well into its surroundings.

From the top of the telecabin, we had access to over 600km of ski-runs, though admittedly, they weren’t all open, and we tended to do some of our favourite trails many times over. Each trail was very well signed – each 100m a new sign would be shown to indicate the name of the run, it’s skill rating (green [easiest], blue, red, or black [hardest]), and how much further there was until the trail finished.

This photo is 500m into the Abricotine trail which we must have skied down about 20 times – yep, it was over 6km long! Apart from the length, it also featured many fast downhills on which we needed to keep up our speed to get through the flat and uphill sections. Steve and I figured that at top speed, we would have been cruising down at around 80km/h – what a rush! Thank goodness we didn’t crash!

Skiing in the Swiss/French alps offered the most spectacular views, especially from the tops of the trails. The mountains stretched out as far as the eye could see, each with snow coating the tops and sides. All that skiing potential!

We weren’t sure how much skiing we were actually going to be able to do, given that Christmas falls very early in the ski season, but with the blessing of a fantastic base of snow and perfect weather almost every day, the holiday turned into the best ski trip that I’ve ever done. We even skiied on Christmas day – check out Kristy’s extra special beanie!

The only downer of our holiday was that Easy-jet lost Michelle’s suitcase, full of her clothes and Christmas presents! Thankfully it turned up on Christmas morning; however, to really sink the boot in, they also lost Ben’s bag on our journey back home! I think they’ll be getting a stern letter of complaint from the Priebe family.

But overall, Christmas 2007 was made perfect by the company of fantastic friends, some amazing skiing, and a killer location. I don’t know if we’ll ever top it!

We’re departing for our Christmas holiday in about an hour! We’re flying to Geneva, then getting a car to our chalet where we’ll be staying for the next 7 nights with Ben, Michelle, Louisa and Profileless Steve. Kirsty will be joining us on Christmas day, too! It should be an absolute hoot!

Anyway, apparently the chalet has no internet access (*gasp*!) so looks like updates will be a little slow over the silly season.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Last night was my work’s Christmas party, held at St Luke’s at Old Street.

The theme for the party was James Bond, which meant we all had to be dapper and hire dinner suits. There’s £55 I’ll never get back! Still, as Jan said – it’s not often you see IT staff dressed up, so I guess once in a while it’s ok.

Anyway, the party itself was quite good – everything was included; drinks, canapés, plus a three course meal. We had the strangest entrée that I’ve ever eaten – sweet chilli cheesecake! It was nice, but very odd to eat – your eyes tell you that it will be sweet like a cake, but in fact it was very savory. The mains (roast beef) and desert (passionfruit cheesecake) were more to my taste.

The party was scheduled to run until 1AM, but being in a neighbourhood that I didn’t know (I’d never been to Old Street before), and being told that a cab back to Chiswick would probably be at least £50, I decided to bail early to get the last tube home with a few other folks from my team. On the way out the door, a girl asked us if we were heading to the tube station; we told her that indeed we were, and she decided to walk with us. So we got chatting to her, and I asked if she had enjoyed the night.

Me: So, did you enjoy the meal? Did you have a good table?
Girl: My table sucked! Everyone was so boring!
Me: Oh, really? Why, who were you sitting next to?
Girl: I don’t know, some IT guys. Man, IT guys are soooo boring!
Me: Errr…. we’re all in IT… who, exactly, were you sitting next to?
Girl: Oh! I can’t remember…

I had to laugh.

Christmas in New York was very relaxed and informal for Kristy and I, and we enjoyed every minute of it! Like any good Christmas, we started off with our pile of presents.

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This year Gerrod and I bought our first ever Christmas tree. You cannot imagine how exciting I found this.

Being in the northern hemisphere, we decided to buy a live one. But since Gerrod’s not really into the idea of Christmas trees (G: I favour my Mom’s choice of Christmas tree – one that you can inflate!) we compromised and selected a dual-purpose, recyclable, ultra-functional tree.

It’s an edible tree. A potted, shaped, rosemary bush. How cool is that? When we’re done with Christmas decorations we can flavour a roast with it!

Of course, given how small it is I had to buy adorable miniature decorations that are about the size of earrings!

Now I know what you’re thinking. At 30cm, it’s the smallest tree you’ve ever seen. But think of it this way – I bet our gift:tree ratio is greater than most people’s!

Yes, it’s definitely the Christmas season, and it’s inevitable that that means Christmas parties. Our division celebrated its Christmas party yesterday – here’s a photo of Sibylle and I partying like there’s no tomorrow.

Anyway, it’s really strange having a party on a Wednesday night (but our reasoning was solid – the girl that organised most of the party left for her holidays on Thursday). And because of that, the week has felt very strange to me… I mean, usually a party is on a Friday, so what’s with having to go to work the day after a party?!

So now I’m sitting here all confused. Tomorrow is Friday, but it feels more like… well actually I haven’t got a clue. But it doesn’t feel like Friday. Though I’m not upset that it is!

One of the best things about this time of year is being able to say to someone, “Christmas is coming” when you want them to hurry up – and since it’s so close to Christmas, it’s a Double Entendre. Funny, hey?

Jokes aside, I’m somewhat amazed that it’s already mid way through December – well mid way to Christmas anyway. Since the start of December, the Christmas tree sellers have popped up everywhere. Basically they take over the sidewalk footpath with oodles of Christmas trees of all different sizes. We’ve seen them since our first Christmas here back in 2004, but never actually bought one, so we have no idea how much they go for.

I found out a few days ago that they also sell little stands for the trees, which answers my question of how are you supposed to keep them upright. I wonder when the best time to buy a fresh tree would be, if you want it to stay nice and green all the way up until Christmas?

The best thing about them though would have to be the smell, that nice fresh piney smell, or whatever it is. Sure beats the smell of exhaust fumes, anyway!

After almost two years in NYC we finally visited one of the must-see tourist attractions – The Radio City Christmas Spectacular! Admittedly, the show is aimed at young children, but since we’re so darn young at heart, we (read I) felt pretty confident we’d enjoy it.

The show first ran in 1933 as a short song and dance between movie screenings, and featured only the “parade of the wooden soldiers” and the “living nativity”. These are still two of the favourite acts, but they are now just a small part of the 1.5 hour programme.

Things we liked about the show:

• This Santa has the best looking crew of reindeer ever: thirty high-kicking rockettes sporting cute little antlers
• Watching the little kids around us jumping up and down and dancing, and one nervous little boy who kept asking his Dad, “Is it already over?” between scenes
• Seeing the Music Hall’s famous stage – with 10 separate substages that can be raised, lowered, and moved backwards and forwards over each other – in action. The band kept appearing and disappearing in this fashion
• The efforts that had been made to keep it current, such as Santa receiving messages on his Blackberry
• The parade of the wooden soldiers, which is like a precision car show, except with girls dressed as soldiers moving in perfect formation
• The 3D animation of Santa in flight, which was great after we realized that there were a pair of 3D glasses in our programmes
• The surprise of seeing an ice-skating rink rise up out of the stage with two figure skaters performing on it
• The inclusion of the living Nativity, and the retention of the name “Christmas” in the title of the show, in a country that has almost wiped the word out (replacing it with “Holidays”)
• The New York-centric plot and sets
• The visual spectacle of it all – so big, bright, colourful that it really does get you exited about Christmas

I’d give the show a 9/10. The transition from Santa into Christ was a bit jolting (like two separate shows stitched together) but other than that it had me clapping and cheering like a six-year-old. If you like all things Broadway, Christmassy or nostalgic, this is the show for you.