A New Holiday Tradition?

We are starting to feel like our travels abroad this Christmas might just turn into something on a regular basis. We decided months ago that Bruce, Lauren and I would spend Christmas with Nick and family in Spain so in order to get there, we fly direct to one of several cities in Europe from Seattle to connect to Seville. In June, we connected via Paris. This time, we connected via London and what a great decision that was. London is magical at Christmas and we are enjoying every minute of it.

The British really know how to do it up for Christmas and we have gotten into the holiday spirit quickly. One reason we decided to fly to Spain via London is because my niece lives here and she has been a wonderful tour guide and full of English knowledge. She and Lauren are close in age so it’s nice for cousins to get-together. She picked us up at Heathrow airport and drove us to our Airbnb flat near Victoria station.

It was so good to see her and we immediately started touring. One day she took us out to a British estate run by the National Trust who raise money to renovate such estates when the families can no longer afford to. We felt like we were right out of a Downton Abby episode. It was so cool.

My niece lives in an area called Richmond (where they filmed the series Ted Lasso). She has two horses and while we were out at the estate, we ran into one of her horse-y friends. She was riding one of her beautiful Friesian horses. We were so impressed; a true British lifestyle.

She also joined us one evening when we rode the London Eye or London’s giant Ferris wheel. It takes 30 minutes to go around, similar to Vegas’s High Roller. We had such a fun evening that ended once again in a typical English pub.

I will admit, we spent most evenings in a British pub, mainly because you can't walk very far before running into another one...and another,..and another...

But we didn't mind, they were fun.

We went to two shows while we were there, the Broadway musical Wicked which we LOVED and then to see Mousetrap, the longest running show in the world. It is Agatha's Christie's murder mystery that's been playing in London since 1952. We loved that one, too, and being in that old theater was so, well,,,Britsh! We had a very fun evening that night.

And of course, we had to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace

and have high tea while in England.

We did a lot of tourist-type things on this trip since none of us had been to London before, everyday was action packed.

I want to go back and wouldn't mind if it was Christmas-time again, which is why we think we could make this a tradition. And the shopping is incredible in London. I could do all my Christmas shopping here!

Also, there are a lot of Christmas markets happening around town and those are really fun, too. It was just nonstop festivities everywhere we went.

And we lucked-out with no rain while we were there. I guess that is hard to believe about London. We are from Seattle so we were prepared and it wasn't nearly as cold as I expected. Keep your finger's crossed that we will have as good a luck next time. And, believe me, there will be a next time! Cheer-io, everyone, and Happy Holidays.

Meatloaf by Mark Bittman

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of meatloaf . This must be meatloaf season. It was surprisingly similar to the Pioneer Woman's version who was also recently on. I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book, Food Matters . His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese! I must be doing something wrong. The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life. If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health. He tells his story in Food Matters and provides a plan for responsible eating that covers a no-nonsense rundown on

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free. But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one. My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations and we all loved them. My friends lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends. We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop. She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots. We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.) The views are always quite lovely, too. Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception. I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, there was a big party g

Spinach Stuffed Cod

Last night, I was in the mood for a healthy dinner so decided to experiment with a recipe I found from a blog called Creative in My Kitchen . Lauren and Ari brought us French cookies back from their trip to Paris and I basically inhaled them. They were so good! We were cat-sitting their two cats while they were gone. They liked lounging in the strangest places... I found one of their toys while I was cleaning so Lauren stopped by last night to pick it up on her way home from work. I was experimenting with this recipe which originally called for chicken breast but I thought it sounded good to substitute fish instead since I'm always looking for good fish recipes. We all thought it was totally delicious. When I went to the grocery store, they had Icelandic cod on sale so I bought about 2 pounds of that. You could use any white fish for this recipe such as: true cod or other cod rockfish halibut had

Sylvia's Scenario

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