Christmas in London, 2007, originally uploaded by TwoCrabs.

From Mr. Crab: This is the first turkey I have ever made in my life. And surprisingly, it turned out great! I used a Jamie Oliver recipe. Mrs. Crab and Miss San Fran did all the prep work, I put it together, and less than 3 hours later, a tasty bird with homemade stuffing, sweet potato mash, Stove Stop stuffing, veg and hollandaise sauce, and a homemade apple pie made by Mrs. Crab from scratch. Yum yum!

Christmas in London, 2007, originally uploaded by TwoCrabs.

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care"

From our flat to yours, Merry Christmas from the Two Crabs!

This is our third Christmas overseas, but oddly it's only the first time we've spent Christmas in London. In 2005 we were in Prague (snowy white Christmas!); last year we were in Dubai (sunny, 80 degrees Fahrenheit).  Typical London, we awoke today to find Santa had left us a rainy and chilly Christmas morning.

It's Christmastime in the City.  London, like most cities in Europe, completely shuts down for Christmas. With the exception of a few neighborhood "newsagents" (mom & pop convenience stores), everything is closed today. The London Underground and buses and even the nationwide railroad trains are not running either, which is quite odd considering most of the 7 million people in London  -- ourselves included -- do NOT own cars. So if you want to get around, you're forced to shell out big pounds for a taxi.

With everything closed, it's brought a rare quiet calm to the city. There's not much to do other than spend time at home with family and friends. Our pal, Miss SanFran, spent Christmas Eve over at our house so she wouldn't have to take a taxi today. We spent the day watching cheezy Christmas movies like Scrooged and playing reindeer games (Jenga, Scattegories, etc) in front of the fireplace...okay actually it's a DVD of a fireplace!  We're also cooking our first turkey ever, from a Jamie Oliver recipe along with enough food to feed a small army. Woo hoo!

A few scenes from Christmas in London:

From The Independent:

London has topped the most exhaustive comparison ever compiled of the world's great cities in a finding that sees Britain's capital outstrip global rivals as a centre of economic performance and cultural significance.

Following months of research of population figures, financial markets, tourism trends, transport facilities and data relating to sports and arts events and transport, the study comes to a dramatic conclusion: London is the world's capital city.

With one of the world's most ebullient stock exchanges, a bustling and economically attractive City, the highest number of Unesco World Heritage Sites in any city, and a truly international restaurant scene that typifies its cultural make-up with more ethnic restaurants than any other metropolis, London scores highly across the board.

Full story here.

From Mr. Crab:  Having worked many years as a celebrity news and "gossip" reporter, few stories about teh rich and famous surprise me anymore. This morning, I woke up and logged onto the web and was shocked -- SHOCKED -- at the news that preteen idol Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant. She's 16. SIXTEEN!  Wonder how they're going to write that into the script of Zoey 101! 

The second big story of the day was the National Enquirer revelation that 2008 Presidential Candidate John Edwards may have impregnated a staffer, while his wife is at home suffering from cancer.  That's still developing, and the skeptics will point out that the source is a supermarket tabloid. But in my experience, these types of Enquirer stories almost always turn out to be true. 

Ok back to the grind....

UPDATE: Virgin Radio is reporting that London pop singer Lily Alley is also pregnant!  What the hell is going on today!?