Christmas in London

For Christmas, my parents and grandmother came to visit us in England! First they spent a few days in Oxford and got to see our apartment as well as to meet some of our friends here. The Gotzs and the Flamms brought their little ones over, which definitely brightened up everyone's day. My grandmother had been eager to meet little Miss Millie Flamm because they share the same name! I had shown her Amanda's blog with little Millie singing when I was last home in the States, and even days later Grandma was still talking about how exciting it was to finally meet the other Millie.

We had a bit of an adventure getting to a suitable place to stay in London, as the place we were supposed to stay in, while it looked elegant on its website, turned out to be a real dump (to put it politely). So we stayed in a Best Western the first night, and then moved to the replacement flat, which turned out to be right around the corner from Harrods!


The weather was typical England, overcast and damp, but it wasn't brutally cold. Here's me at the Serpentine in Hyde Park enjoying some hot mulled wine

They had a little Winter festival set up in the park with rides and little gift vendors.


Here's Paul enjoying some poffertjes, a Dutch mini pancake that is absolutely delicious! He was nice enough to carry my backpack for us even though it's a "girl" color.


Most of the touristy stuff wasn't open on 24-26 December, but we at least got our pictures in front of some landmarks. See if you can guess where we are!





(that's Paul's silhouette!)


Touristy things we saw: Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, BigBen, London Eye, Covent Garden, Hampton Court, the British Museum, Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London, and loads more stuff we walked by. It was Paul's first time in London, and I think we managed to see (albeit from the outside) most of the major tourist attractions.

We had a Christmas eve dinner of a beef roast, and a turkey dinner for Christmas day. It was so nice to be staying in a flat so we had use of a full kitchen and dining room. I had made pepparkakor beforehand so we could have some Swedish cookies for dessert. We also tried the local Christmas specialties: mince pies and Christmas pudding with brandy sauce from Marks & Spenser's. I can't say I'd order those over chocolate cake, but it was nice to try the traditional food.

Also on Christmas Eve, we attended a midnight mass at an Anglican church down the street. It was tough being our first Christmas without Grandpa, but it was nice to be able to go to church as a family and to remember the blessings that we do have. Paul and I know that our lives aren't going to stop changing nor slowing down any time soon, and it's important that we remember how much we love our families and try to spend time with them whenever we can. Christmas is an emotional time, and I know it was especially so for my Grandmother. We are so happy she could spend this Christmas with us, traveling all the way from Rhode Island to be here.

On the way back from London, Paul and I stopped at a little French cafe in Paddington Station- guess what the name of the cafe was!