december

The last month of the year came quickly and I wasn’t quite ready for 2022 to end! I had such a wonderful year – from living in NYC to moving to London, spending lots of time at the shore with family and friends, making new friends in a new city, traveling the world… the list goes on for the things that I’m grateful for in 2022. As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end and while I was sad to see 2022 go, I was getting excited for what 2023 would have in store (spoiler – it’s been GREAT!). That being said, I’m going to take you back to December and recap some of my favorite things for the month!

december in london

As soon as Mackenzie left, a few days later, my friend Tonisha came to visit! If you were following along when I was on sabbatical in 2019, Tonisha and I met in Spain on our volunteer trip. She is one of my dearest friends and she moved back to Spain for a while & luckily our time overlapped. She came to visit for a long weekend and it was amazing – I hadn’t seen her since we left Spain (thanks to COVID, I couldn’t go to California to visit). Some highlights from her trip include:

Tea at the Conrad London St. James, which was Christmas themed
Winter Wonderland – we went at night this time & it was FREEZING & so hectic, but we drank steins in the Bavaria tent and pretended that we were back at Springfest in Germany in 2019
Putting my Christmas tree up that I impulsively bought and watching Christmas movies
Introducing Tonisha to my friends in London and going out in Shoreditch at the Owl and Pussycat and The Old Blue Last
Many Christmas markets!

Tonisha’s trip was short but sweet and I was very sad to see her go. Some pictures below!

After she left, I took a few days to recover because I had been going nonstop for the last few weeks. I went out dinner on my own to Noci (an Italian place I highly recommend, it was my second time going pictured above, bottom right), walking around my neighborhood, and prepped for my Christmas party that was upcoming. We made some new friends and they invited us over for a Christmas party – turns out they live a four minute walk from my flat! It’s so convenient and fun to have friends so close by. I threw a party on the 10th and it was a great time – so much so that it lasted until the wee hours of the morning & to this day, I don’t understand how I didn’t get a noise complaint (there was howling involved…). The next day we had snow in London, about three inches. It hardly ever snows in the city itself, so this was a big deal & I absolutely love the snow, so I quickly put some rain boots on and ventured out for a walk. The city was covered and it was so peaceful.

After the snow, I had drinks with my friend from London – we went to the All Bar One in Oxford Circus and his laptop ended up getting stolen! We sat at one table the whole time, so we’re not sure how it happened, but note of warning to you all, be careful down in Oxford Circus – lots of tourists & pickpockets.

My friends from work and I had a big Christmas dinner, so big that we had to split up between restaurants! We went to the Ivy Soho and in good faith, I cannot recommend you go here for Christmas dinner (I’m honestly not sure I would go here for a meal again – I did end up back in February for tea at a different location and it was ~fine~). The food wasn’t cooked well, the service was terrible, and the quality of the experience did not match the price for which we paid. I had fun because my friends were there, but we’ll be looking for somewhere else to celebrate Christmas dinner next year. To round out the night, we ended up at the Burlock Rum Room (2nd time here!) and danced the night away.

Later that week, I had another visitor lined up, my friend Sarah! Highlights from her visit include:

The Hackney Christmas Beer Festival – this was so cute, there were several breweries and it was fun trying all the different beers. We ended up at Slim Jim’s and Fox on the Green afterwards, which were two bars that were quickly becoming our regulars.
Christmas carols at Royal Albert Hall, followed by a night of complete chaos. Sarah went to meet her cousin and I ended up meeting some friends at a pub, which turned into crashing a Caribbean themed corporate party, and ended with us at this club called Fabric. To recap, I was in a club until 4 am wearing a red and white Christmas sweater… the night took a very unexpected turn to say the least! We also all managed to get the plague from Fabric so it gets a 0/10 and I will never be returning. Highly recommend the Christmas carols though, they were fantastic!
Tapas at Barrafina – delicious Spanish tapas, you know I’m a sucker for them!

After Sarah left, I got very sick (thankfully not COVID) because of Fabric and I had to get on an 8 hour flight home. Thank God for KN-95 masks and the absolute best surprise of all – a random free upgrade to United Business Class! It was my first time in business class and it was so great – there was real silverware, I had wine in an actual glass, and they gave me sparkling wine while I was settling in… a dream. It was perfect because I was secluded from other passengers with my cough (though sleeping on the flight in a mask was not my favorite – glad I could at least lie down!). I couldn’t believe my luck with the upgrade!

december at home

I was home (at my sister’s house) for 12 days. It was the longest I have gone without checking my email since I started working in 2016 and let me tell you, I’m never going that long without taking a proper break from work again. I was able to fully disconnect and be with my family and friends, which was absolutely amazing. My mom packed in every single family party you could imagine and I’m very thankful I got to see almost everyone! I think I made appetizers for 12 straight days… I had so much fun surrounded by so many people that I love. I also had a bagel the morning after I arrived and I may or may not have cried a little from joy.

I jam packed some friend visits in – I ventured into NYC to visit my friend Daniel in Brooklyn where we had dinner at his apartment, talked for hours, and shared a lot of wine (as we always do). Mackenzie came to visit my sister’s and we went for dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant (I miss good Mexican food), I saw my friend Sam for lunch and got to visit her house, and I went back to NYC with Stef where we did our annual Christmas bar crawl. We started at Veselka (an incredible Ukrainian restaurant because I was DYING for some pierogi), hit Rolf’s, Pete’s Tavern, and ended the night at Paddy Maguire’s. It’s one of my favorite nights every year and this year did not disappoint!

For family parties, we had Sprinklefest (our annual cookie making extravaganza), Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas Day, Family Christmas (not to be confused with other Christmas celebrations, this is the big Mighty Murphy Mob party, which also happened to be my brother-in-law’s birthday), and NYE. Christmastime is my favorite time of the year and I’m so glad I was home to experience it. I definitely needed a nap though when I got back to London!

Speaking of, I don’t know how it happened, but I was randomly upgraded to United Business Class again… I should have played the lottery because that kind of luck just doesn’t happen! I was very sad to leave my family, but I was looking forward (only a little, Mom, I promise) to some peace and quiet in my flat 🙂