By far, the coolest thing that we saw was this guy, dressed in his green tweeds
pulling a cart of mistletoe behind him and selling it to the passers-by. Is that neat or what?!
Now, let me show you something else.
This is one of the classiest malls I have ever seen. And I know classy malls! After all I do live a short drive from the Short Hills mall – daaahling!
Bath, like many cities in England, has a high street, where most of the shops are located. At the end of the high street there used to be a mall. It was pretty awful, a big concrete mass. Recently, they tore it down and put this up in its place –
On the left side is the new mall, and on the right are the old buildings.
I think that this is just swell – they have built something brand spanking new and yet it is totally in keeping with the feeling of the whole city.
I give them a thumbs up!
Did you spot the lovely little crescent moon over Bath Abbey? So sweet!
Speaking of sweet, what do you think of Clara in her new hat?
We think she looks a bit like a washer woman from the 1940s.
Millie also got a new hat.
When wearing it she reminds me of a little pastel petit four.
Here are some pictures, taken over the last two days, of life at Granny & Papa’s place.
I think that this might be one of the sweetest most beautiful places in the universe.
These last two days we’ve spent just being here – nothing really pressing on us, just being together in this gentle place (well, Stephen and Gitte are still accomplishing and doing – that is just their way – mind you, they are giving us lots of attention – but Gitte has her shop that she looks after and Stephen has had a few phone calls to make with his various projects etc).
It has been two years since I have been back and it reminds me of when Jan and I lived in London and how hard it was to go back to the hustle and bustle of London after spending a weekend in Freshford.
You can see why.
Milk bottles outside the front door, waiting to be picked up by the local milk man.
Apple juice from a local farm.
Even Granny’s knitting project lying around (for crying out loud!)
There is something about this place that is downright soul satisfying.
Jan took 280 killer photos today and it has taken me exactly 29 minutes to post these few…and it is very late here already. So, hopefully, time permitting, I can post a few more tomorrow.
Beautiful, quaint village with very SLOW broadband connection = only 10 photos for your viewing pleasure.
For tonight, anyway…
P.S To the future Mrs. Charles John Kelly – take a look at these dresses I found for your nieces today while I was shopping in Bath. What do you think? No mustard yellow on them, but splashes of cobalt blue – and a grey background which will look awesome next to that skinny suit to be worn by that trim fellow you’ll be marrying. The colors are in the same “jewel tone” family as your blue…I found the most darling mustard yellow jackets today for the girls, but very $$$ and wrong size…will tell you more about it some other time. For now, this is what I’ve got:
I got a matching one for Khali and corresponding, but different, one for Clara.
I thought they could provide something of an “accent”. It is tough to find something wonderful when you only have one hour, and your daughters and husband are in tow – they were champs, but this particular shopping expedition wasn’t easy on anyone.
These are not your typical flouncy flower girl look, which I thought you might like.
Now that it is almost 1:00 am I really must finish this post and head for bed.
On Sunday we went to church. To the very building where I first saw Jan. As I was walking the halls with Clara I came upon the very spot where I saw him. It always makes me feel rather nostalgic to be there, in that place, where I fell in love with the person who is my husband. And why is it when you go back to a place from your past it always looks SO MUCH SMALLER? I haven’t grown taller or changed physically (that much) and yet it seemed so much smaller.
Hmmm, I wonder why that is?
After church we went to the Natural History Museum. It was a must see as Millie is very into dinosaurs these days.
It was fun.
Clara was in heaven!
This guy didn’t make it onto Santa’s sleigh this year, but don’t feel bad for him he still got his Christmas wish…
Good times for all at the museum!
Following the museum we ducked into a crepe joint and paid about 40 dollars for three crepes.
After Millie ordered a crepe with only chocolate chips (she specifically said she didn’t even want butter, JUST chocolate chips) we watched it being made, she ate half of it THEN turned to me and said, “Mom, guess what, there is chocolate in the middle of this pancake!!”
After our London adventures we packed up our grip and headed to Bath.
Where we are having good times currently.
In fact, speaking of bath – I can hear my little munchkins splashing away in one right now.
(This is them in London, but you get the idea…)
Must go back up their dad!
Posted in Christmas|Comments Off on Sunday Adventures
After a rather grueling flight with two petite girls, we arrived in London. Went to bed and woke up a mere four hours later to the sound of Jan’s cell phone, we threw our clothes on, ran down the steps and out the front door to meet the black cab that was waiting for us. Waiting to whisk us away to the train that would take us to
PARIS
But friends, it was not to be. The Eurostar should be called the Euro NOT Star because it had stopped running. Electrical failure. When we realized there was no hope of a pain au chocolat (or three!) Jan and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and said, “CRUMBS!”
For the last three days I’d been singing La Vie en Rose, in anticipation of our Parisian get-away, and as our cab turned around and drove us back the the flat I thought, “Now more than ever I need to put on those rose colored glasses and see this sad situation in pink.” Or as Millie might put it, “FIND THE PINK and then ENJOY THE PINK!”
We were in LONDON, after all. So we decided to make the best of the situation and go straight to
THE BODEN STORE!
And my friends, it did not disappoint!
Just walk right through these doors…
“If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it!”
Oh, how I wish that Mom, Brynn, Betta, Summer, Tess, Nikki, Amanda, Allison, Emily, Heather, and Margie could have been there with me. It was so cool. Like the catalogue, only right there – all of it – at your finger tips. And you could take it right into a dressing room and see if it worked or not.
Does this look like the face of a disappointed female?
Je ne suis pas déçu!
As we headed back to central London Jan caught me peering into my Boden bag with a little grin on my face.
Jan told me that as he is in London on a regular basis that I could choose our itinerary. SO, we went to a few of my favorite places:
The White Company, The Little White Company, Monsoon, Hobbs, and L.K. Bennett, Rachel Riley, Cologne and Cotton. I still haven’t been to Jigsaw, but fear not, I’ll get there eventually.
And came home to these little rascals…
…who’d spent the day exploring London with their Granny and Papa
Life is beautiful!
P.S. The sentiments expressed by the armchair are his and his alone.
While we were in UT Millie and Grandma made a “PINK Salad”. Huh? A pink salad – you might be thinking. Let me explain, this “salad” involved marshmallows, red jello and whipped cream. You get the drift now, right?
When the salad was brought out and served to the whole family Millie, who had long since left the table to play elsewhere, walked in, saw what was happening and declared to those whose plates held small mounds of gooie marshmallow goodness,
“Enjoy the pink!”
When I saw this picture I couldn’t help but want to echo Millie’s sentiments…
“ENJOY THE PINK!”
We certainly do around here.
On a daily basis!
Posted in Millie|Comments Off on “Enjoy the Pink!”
Now before you stop reading, my friend told me about this guy she knew who lost weight, we are talking multiple pounds, from eating only GELATO when he was living in Italy, so please don’t give up on my diet yet.
All you need are:
1. good friends who bring you cookies
2. an appetite
(TOP TIP: don’t share them with your spouse or children if you can manage to get away with it. If you must share, take NO SHAME in eating your child’s left overs. Remember – this is all you have to eat and you can’t cook so be a scrooge about it.)
Any cookie will do, but it helps if they are REALLY DELICIOUS, have your name piped in frosting across them, and if they come wrapped beautifully that is also a bonus.
Once you have the cookies –
simply,
And
E N J O Y !!!!
P.S. To the bakers of these cookies – we LOVED ‘EM & if you must know we LOVE you even more!!
I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. Maybe it is just a mommy thing. But Clara picked up this red suitcase and carried it around with her after dinner.
And I tell you what, she got me!
(Those “bear”-bum PJ’s aren’t hurting the cause either!)
For some reason Clara carrying this around this sent me to that “cute-ness overload” place.
And quite honestly as a mom, you NEED your kids to send you there every once and a while. It is a good motivator to keep doing your job and not just drop kick them to some distant galaxy.
Yes, my sweet baby – you can carry on belonging to me. I will love you, feed you, change you, bathe you, pick you up when you are hanging on me, wipe your nose a million times a day, make sure you get good naps, play with you, keep your sister from totally man-handling you – and keep on giving to you even when I feel like giving up.
How do you feel about your Christmas decorations? We never invested in decorations that we really loved so we felt rather ambivalent towards ours. Every year I planned to buy Christmas decorations AFTER Christmas, during the sales, but every year without fail, I would be so tired that I never did. Hence, my efforts to beat the system and get a screaming deal never came to fruition.
Well this year I made a decision – I was going to make an investment while I still had energy and desire. I was going to get a few beautiful things and start building towards having a collection of decorations that are really beautiful and that make us excited to get them out. Part of the problem with our old ragamuffin decorations is that there is no rhyme or reason to them – they don’t work together. So I decided I needed a plan because there was no way I could afford to buy everything this year. I decided to go with silver as a theme. I know, I know – original, very original!
Enter Alice Lane! I love this store, with true devotion. When I went out to UT in November Alice Lane was selling their Christmas decorations and they were PERFECT! Just what I was looking for and though not on sale, much less than I would have paid for them had I bought them in NJ. My mom and dad helped me pick a few things and have been asking for a virtual tour, to see how all of our efforts have come together.
So Parentdukes,
Here is what you’ve been waiting for – a brief tour of our efforts to decorate the house for Christmas – as revealed by the lovely Millie Dawson — who started to “channel” me part-way through the tour. A little odd, a little wonderful and A LOT MILLIE. There is a part where she mentions that the doll house in her room she gave to her daughter for “giving up her binkis” and that pillows on her bed have been purchased at J. Crew!! (They weren’t, but just ask Tess, my daughters are trained shoppers – they know how to take over a small dressing room and OWN IT!) I find it so hilarious that she knows the names of the stores that I like to shop at.
Anyway, enjoy! Jan helped me to edit it together so you can thank him for it – he is the real reason that it is coming to you LIVE & IN COLOR…and even in HD, suckaz!
oxox,
Lize
PS Mom and Dad aka the”Mr. & Mrs. Claus” of my life. This blog has given me an opportunity to consider why Christmas is such a happy time for me. As I have done so it has struck me how you have always worked so hard to make it a special time for our family. I feel like my efforts to carry the happy feelings of my youth forward for my little family are because of you two.
This picture says it all! Here you both are knocked out after making dinner, wrapping presents, and making the season wonderful for a bazillion of your offspring.
And here is Dad, “Mr. Figgy Pudding” – the KING of Christmas fun and frolics! This is so dad I just couldn’t help but feature it here.
Because this is “my kind of math” there are no numbers so I’ll just tell you the answer:
the birth of a Christmas tradition!
Last year the girls and I watched “It’s a wonderful life” (best movie ever made) had cookies & milk and fell asleep under the glow of the Christmas tree’s twinkling lights. When I was little I always wanted to sleep by our tree. So last year, when Jan had to be away one night I blew up the air mattress and decided to follow my heart’s desire.
just when everyone is getting sick of it and giving up their blogs, guess who is getting on the blogging bandwagon...me! That is about the time I catch on to whatever is trendy and cool, long after it is trendy and cool. At the very least I hope to amuse my sisters and my mom. I know how to pick an audience, don't I? I am not entirely sure if there will even be a theme but if you stay tuned perhaps we'll figure it out together. oxox Lize
