So, To Sum It All Up - December in Photographs

Hi!!!

How are you guys today? I hope you're all doing well. I spent December doing lots of fun things and I took a lot of photos and I thought I would share those things with you today - I figured that sharing some Christmassy snaps with you in January would be fine so long as I'm still in the Twelve Days of Christmas right now. I hope you like it.

Obviously I started my month by opening the first window on my advent calender - this one is the Cadbury one.

 I also opened a tub of Celebrations because Christmas. 

I went to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them with Elf Girl and one of our friends.

Elf Girl and I spent the afternoon in Costa - I had a Black Forest Hot Chocolate (one of many many more festive Costa drinks) - and taking photobooth photos until our friend could meet us.

We went for a meal at Chimichanga which I would highly recommend, for both food and decor (I had sea bass in case you were wondering). I enjoyed the film - I thought it was funny and charming.

I spent quite a lot of time Christmas shopping last month and went to several shopping centres on my mission.

The Bull in Birmingham was dressed up like a Christmas pudding which brought me far too much joy, and Coventry had some super snazzy decorations, shown below.

The beautiful ceiling lights were in Hemel Hempstead - I went shopping there while staying with my Auntie the weekend before Christmas.

December was filled with delightfully wintery weather, as showcased in these shots. I was running late one morning and cut through an alley way, but then got distracted by the pretty mist and fog and took photos - I made it with about ten minutes to spare so it all worked out fine. I just thought it looked really cool.

Later on in the month, while staying with my Auntie, it was really foggy again - it took us about one hundred years to complete the drive down.

Then of course there have been frosty mornings which I love having a walk around in.

There have also been some occasions to break out the sunglasses - I love those days when it's sunny but freezing cold.

I went for a meal with my friends before we all began our Christmas breaks. We went to a local Pizza Express and swapped gifts, ate pizza, pulled crackers and posed for photos, which was great.

We also had a walk around a local Christmas market and some shops (with plenty of time spent in Waterstones) before a final stop at Costa and heading home. I did all of these things wearing the paper hat from my cracker because those little hats make me so happy, I don't even really know why.

As I've mentioned, we had a pre-Christmas meal with one side of my family the weekend before Christmas.

We had a full turkey dinner with an array of puddings available to us which was lovely.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon exchanging gifts - watching my little cousins open presents makes me so happy! - catching up and eating enough olives to sink a ship (that last one might just have been me, haha).

I made my nails look all festive too - you might remember this from here.

I saw these Shetland ponies while we were there.

They were so sweet, I just had to show you.

My parents and I went into London while staying at my Auntie's. We went to see Hamlet and also to have a walk around. We went for a stroll along Bond Street to admire the window displays. We also went to Selfridges (which was a bit overwhelming on that particular day, I'm not going to lie - really crowded, really loud music...) and to Liberty where we bought Christmas crackers and I swooned over the pretty clothes.

We saw all of the Christmas lights on display. My favourites were these gorgeous angels on Regent Street and Jermyn Street.

Later in the month I went to Stratford upon Avon where I saw these lovely lights.

I ate this snowman cupcake.

I went to see a pantomime at the Birmingham Hippodrome with my Mom, Elf Girl, my Uncle B and Auntie A and had such an amazing time.

I love pantomime and the Hippodrome outdid themselves this year. It was so fun, so well performed and visually fantastic.

Oh and I had my first Starbucks since 2015.

It was a Fudge Hot Chocolate. It was really nice.

Not shown in photos:

Two of my friends celebrated their birthdays in December and I had so much fun at both.

I received some wonderful and thoughtful Christmas presents from my family and friends which I am super grateful for.

A relaxed, and very enjoyable, New Year's Eve.

And that was what December looked like for me.
What did you get up to last month? Do you have any other comments or maybe some suggestions for posts you like to see? Let me know in the comments.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Thanks for reading!

I hope your day is marvellous!

GingerSnaps xxx

It's Showtime!!! - Theatre Review - Hamlet

Hi!!!

Just before Christmas I went into London. I had a lovely time and one of the things I did was go to the theatre. So, here's a review of the play I went to see for you to read during that little slice of time between Christmas and New Year's. Enjoy.

I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's most famous and celebrated plays, about a young man struggling to avenge his dead father for fear, uncertainty and pressure. It is also, usually, one of his longest. Not in this case, however. This production has 90 minute performances with no intervals (or re-entry if you leave the theatre, just to let you know), which I found really interesting.

In the past, I have studied Hamlet, and I enjoyed reading it, however when I tried to watch certain productions, I have no shame in saying I got bored - quite unlike me. I think it is partly to do with the length of it, partly because I think you really need the right actor to play Hamlet for the play to be at its best, and partly because of the way certain productions are staged.

For all of that, I connected with the play in this performance in a way I haven't before. The way the script has been chopped and changed was so interesting and in my opinion, the most important parts were all still there, and were maximised, by the adaptations. I found it more engaging as an audience member, which is always a good thing. I would honestly love a copy of the script just to look at how it was all done in more detail.

The entire cast were excellent. Mark Arends was absolutely fantastic as Hamlet. I'd go as far as to say that he's the best Hamlet I have seen yet - and those who came to see the show with me agreed. He commits completely to the role and performs in such a way that Hamlet's ever perplexing state of mind seems to make sense. I said earlier that I think you need to have the right person playing Hamlet for it to work, and this production certainly has the right actor. Some of my other stand out performers were Finlay Cormack, who had the challenge of playing an amalgamation of Laertes, Horatio and several additional characters and rose to it with seeming ease, and Tom Mannion who gave a fantastic performance as Claudius. The whole cast work together so well that their actions seem instinctive and reactionary rather than rehearsed, which is very impressive.

The staging of this production seems so simple, but in fact it is clever. The small space of the studio, a sofa, a box of photos and a blanket or two provide a personal feel which adds to how believable the action is, and towards the end, the props are used to add to the overwhelming emotion.

If you get the chance, I would highly recommend going to see Hamlet at the Trafalgar Studios. It's simply brilliant.

I would happily give this production five stars. And now I'll stop gushing about it.

Get tickets here.

I hope you enjoyed this little theatre review.

Have you seen this production? Do you have any comments or suggestions for future posts? Leave a comment below and tell me.

Thanks for reading. Speak soon.

Have a super day!

GingerSnaps xxx