Christmas in London

This year we decided to stay in London for Christmas and we were grateful to have my parents, my sister and her family and John’s mom and Michael join us.

Leading up to Christmas we got to enjoy a bit of the Christmas season here in London. It started with Josephine’s birthday at the end of November when we took her to the toy floor at Harrods to pick out a birthday gift. The store was already decorated for Christmas which gave it all a festive feel.

Then I took a day off of a work in early December and took Josephine to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. She rode a few rides, we had sausage sandwiches and walked around a bit. It’s basically a giant fairground with a European Christmas market feel to it.

And we of course couldn’t let Christmas go by without a visit to Santa. We went back to Fulham Palace and on the day we went, it was even snowing! Both girls had no desire to sit on his lap of course and could barely get near him enough for a picture. They would sit next to Santa only if Mom and Dad were in it too!

Then before we knew it, my parents arrived followed shortly after by Aunt Bobbie and Uncle Andy who spent a weekend in London. I took that Friday off of work and Aunt Bobbie, my mom and I got dressed up and went and had proper English tea at The Savoy. This is something I had been wanting to try for a while and with my mom and my aunt being here, it was a perfect opportunity. The room was decorated for Christmas, we had a glass of champagne, a number of tea sandwiches with of course tea followed by some really lovely desserts. I absolutely loved this experience. It was just perfect.

We checked out the South Bank and the Christmas market near the South Bank center which is all along the river. The market was small but it was an area of London we hadn’t explored so much yet so that was fun.

And then shortly before Christmas Julie and John and family arrived. One of the evenings before Christmas our group split and Julie, my mom, me and the girls all went to Christmas at Kew while the boys and Linda went to a Fulham football match.

Christmas at Kew is Kew Gardens decorated with lots of Christmas lights. There’s a designated path you follow throughout the gardens that’s about a mile long. With little ones, that mile started to feel a bit long towards the end but we made it through and I’m glad we did it.

Then of course there was all the Christmas festivities and excitement with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Santa visited and it seemed all the girls were good this year.

We really enjoyed spending Christmas at our home in London this year and it was all the more special having so much family with us. Another Christmas to remember!

New York, New York

Kristine and I were overdue for a girls weekend and chose NY as it truly is the best halfway point for me coming from London and her from San Francisco. So back in October we met on a Thursday and had a fabulous weekend in NY. In a nutshell we had rooftop drinks, randomly ran into a friend from SF (Sean Madison!), met up with our longtime friend Christian who lives there now, saw the 9/11 Memorial, did some shopping, got massages, had numerous drinks, walked through Washington Sq Park, ate pizza, took lunch to Central Park and had a blast in one of my all time favorite cities! And the bonus at the end was that I also got to see our friends from Paris, Jacalyn, Rio and their two cuties, who are living in NY. The last time I was there was with Nate in November 2010 and I hope it’s not that long before I go again. And of course a big thank you to Nate who stayed home with our girls while I got to go gallivanting around NY with one of my best friends!

France with Friends

Part 2 of our summer holiday found us going back to France. Louis and Keelin and family first came to London to spend a few days with us here and then we all headed to Nantes where our friends Jen and Nicolas were getting married in Nicolas’ home town.

We got to explore the main part of Nantes, have an amazing and authentic French dinner at Nicolas’ parents’ house and then enjoy the wedding kid free. Jen and Nicolas were so kind to arrange a babysitter for us so that we could relax and enjoy at least a few hours of the wedding. Congrats Jen and Nicolas!!

The next morning we were off with Louis and Keelin to St. Remy. We flew into Marseille and drove to an amazing villa in St. Remy where we then met up with Kristine and Aaron and family. This villa was quite massive to accommodate all of us so comfortably, complete with a swimming pool and tennis court. The kids had a blast with so much space to run around.

Over the course of the week we spent a day in the Rhone wine region, visiting Louis’ new favorite winery, Domaine de Marcoux, followed by a lovely lunch in the town of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. We drove into Avignon, visited the market and had lunch there. We relaxed at the villa, explored the cute little town of St. Remy and overall just enjoyed time with friends. The kids had a blast all together and with so much open space around the villa, they were free to roam and play without too much worry. We of course ate lots of cheese and baguettes and enjoyed French wine.

It was such a fun time...we swore we must do this again!!

San Sebastian

I will just preface this post with saying that I know that I’m way overdue. Especially being that it covers our summer holiday in September and we just finished Christmas. Life has been busy!

The time had finally come for part 1 of our summer holiday! We have always enjoyed taking vacation in September when the crowds are smaller and it’s cheaper but the weather is still good. And since this is the last year we can do this before Josephine starts school, we figured we’d take advantage one last time. The first week of September we were off to San Sebastian in the Basque region of Spain. It’s a place that we’ve talked about going ever since we moved to Europe plus it has been quite a while since we’ve been to Spain. So the perfect spot!

We flew into Bilbao and an hour drive later we were in San Sebastian. We kicked off our trip with a pinxtos tour (it’s the Basque region’s version of tapas). It had been recommended and was so worth it as we tried many different pinxtos including ones I know I wouldn’t have tried on my own. There was an amazing gambas one and even a few good ones with anchovies and we enjoyed them all with the typical wine, txakoli. We learned quite a bit and had amazing pinxtos from a variety of pinxto bars. A great way to start our week.

San Sebastian is ideal as it’s on the water with a big sandy beach but also has a cute little town with of course amazing food. The weather was better than expected so we spent a couple of days just down at the beach. It was Elaine’s first time putting her toes in the water and she loved the little waves! Josephine had a blast as well playing in the sand and chasing the waves.

We took a day to go explore Mount Igueldo. You take a funicular up the mountain and at the top you get amazing views of San Sebastian. There’s also a cute and old little amusement park at the top. We took a small boat ride that took you around the very edge of the mountain….amazing views indeed.

And on our other days we took time to just explore the city, and of course eat lots of pinxtos. It’s a great set up for those with kids because you essentially walk into a place (they are everywhere), pick out what you want at the bar, enjoy your selection with perhaps a beer or glass of wine and then you could be off to the next spot. We found it to really work well when you have kids that have only so much “sitting” time in them.

And that’s our trip in a nutshell. It was exactly what we were looking for...relaxing, beach, sun, food, wine, old town. We would absolutely go back!

Elaine is 1 - Let’s go to Bath!

Because why not? We weren’t planning on doing a big birthday party but still wanted to make Elaine’s first birthday special. So we decided to go to Bath. We had heard from a number of people that it was a must-see and a cute city. And being that it’s only an hour and a half by train from London, it was a perfect weekend getaway spot.

And people were right….it is indeed a cute little city. We took Friday off and got there by noon. I had randomly found that there was a Mission Burrito there. Named after a couple who spent time in San Francisco eating at all of the taquerias in the Mission and who wanted to bring it back to the UK. Sadly there isn’t one in London because yes we did try it (I mean really, how could we not?) and yes it was delicious!! We even contemplated going back again the next day (we didn’t).

In the afternoon we did the tour of the Roman Baths because you must see the Roman Baths when in Bath. And then after walking around just a bit more, it was time to head back and get settled for the night. This is where the fun begins. Elaine had a ROUGH night Friday night. She went down fine but woke at 1:30am and didn’t really go back to sleep until maybe 4:30am and that was sleeping on Nate. She was awake again at 6:30 and had no interest in falling back to sleep. Needless to say we were both frustrated and tired. And there went our Saturday morning in Bath as I desperately needed to go back to sleep after Nate woke up. She was already not feeling 100% when we arrived and we suspect that was the main issue on Friday night as she came down with an actual fever that following Wednesday.

So, we got a later start on Saturday than what we had hoped but we made it out still the same and started the day checking out the Royal Crescent. It’s a semi-circle of houses facing a huge park where many notable people have either lived or stayed. It was cool to see and it faces Victoria Park which was also nice to walk through.

We were then off to lunch (not Mission Burrito) and after that Nate took Elaine back to the apartment to attempt to get her down for a decent nap (he was barely successful). Josephine and I went off on a mission to get some cupcakes to later celebrate Elaine’s birthday and then wandered around the center of Bath a bit. We checked out the Pulteney Bridge, rode some buses and eventually ended up back at the apartment in time for Elaine to wake up.

Since it was a birthday trip, we couldn’t leave without singing happy birthday to the birthday girl. Elaine wasn’t so interested in her cupcake but Josephine swooped on in and had both hers and Elaine’s. What a nice big sister.

We had time to head out for dinner and then we were out the next morning. It was a short trip, shortened a bit by the unexpected. We didn’t see as much as we would have liked but we did get a good feel for Bath and would highly recommend it. It’s a cute little city and we certainly wouldn’t hesitate in going back.

Happy 1st Birthday Elaine!!! Thank you for the many smiles, all the laughter and the love you have added to our family. We love you so much!! (And of course we celebrated again on her actual birthday that following Tuesday.)

Edinburgh

Waiting for the train at King's Cross

We recently had the pleasure of more visitors here in London….my Aunt Deborah and Uncle Jim from Florida! They came to check out London but also planned a long weekend in Edinburgh and we decided to join them. We hadn’t done any traveling since we moved to London and we were ready to start exploring again. Edinburgh had been on our list of places to visit so it was perfect. Our first adventure out as a family of four.

We took a 4.5 hour train ride which surprisingly went well and felt quick. The girls both did so well! Edinburgh greeted us with true Scottish weather….cold and rainy. We arrived on a Thursday and lucky for us, that was the worst of it for the weekend. We didn’t see rain anymore after Thursday.

We had two full days to explore all of Edinburgh. With two kids we moved a bit slower but managed to check out a number of things. We went up to the Edinburgh castle where we had blue skies and great views. Of course we walked the Royal Mile and went to the National Museum of Scotland. This was great as it had a number of exhibits that were specifically geared towards kids and Josephine loved it! There was of course a whiskey tasting that Nate and my aunt were specifically interested in. And we played in the Princes Street Gardens.

Charming Edinburgh

At Edinburgh Castle

Cookie break in Princes Street Garden

Whiskey tasting

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and Edinburgh in general. It was charming with such character.  Josephine still talks about how she wants to “go back to Edinburgh”. Maybe someday….or at least back to Scotland.