Christmas Bucket List

This is the plan: 1. Make snow angles for 2 hours 2. Go ice skating 3. Eat an entire roll of Tollhouse cookie dough 4. Snuggle.

Sorry I just finished watching Elf & couldn't help myself. 

In addition to watching Elf, this past weekend me, Julia, Kim, Nina, Adrianne, & Brittany went all around London finding anything to do that would get us into the Christmas spirit. To start off the day we headed to Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland. 

A view of the Winter Wonderland last in the day. So pretty at night!

Nutella Pretzels. Best idea ever.

Nina & Kim on the swinging chairs. Looks a little cold up there!

Next stop: The Natural History Museum's Ice Rink

This is definitely the most beautiful place to go for ice skating around the holidays. Especially late in the afternoon when the Museum & surrounding trees are lit up.

We had a long day, so we all were very excited to get in bed & warm up before heading to Damarios for a delish Italian dinner. 

Turkey Day with Tea

Since we did not have the traditional turkey option for Thanksgiving, we decided to splurge and treat ourselves to The Mad Hatter High Tea at the Sanderson Hotel. 

Little potion bottles with our choices of tea

The Mad Hatter Tea was certainly a little "mad." We were served chocolates in the shape of tea cups, cheesecakes that looked like tear drops, and even magic marshmallow mushrooms.

Plus, we all may have been talking a little too loud for tea and made a bit of a raucous. But hey, people don't call us "loud Americans" for nothing. 

After a fun day at the Sanderson hotel, we were please to see that it was dark outside and Oxford Street was all up in lights! 

I love the holidays 

Amsterdam

This past Friday, Julia, Nina, and I took a quick plane ride over to Amsterdam and enjoyed a short, but successful stay along the beautiful canals. And although we only had one full day in Amsterdam, we saw everything we wanted to see- the infamous "i amsterdam" sign, the canals, and even a peek of the red light district.

So beautiful! 

 Dam Square

Saturday we started off with a quick hour tour through the canals. We got to see a lot more this way as opposed to walking.

 People live there! 

A stealth looking house boat on the Amstel(yes- like the beer) 

The most famous part of the Canal Rings called The Golden Bend

The house where Anna Frank hid & wrote her diary during Nazi control 

The "Skinny Bridge" on the Amstel

So many bikes! 

 After a relaxing boat tour, we found a nearby restaurant called Dante's to warm up in and have lunch.

Bailey's & Hot Chocolate

My fave

Parma Ham & Mozzarella Sandwich. So good. 

Love the romantic candle light!

While walking around town earlier in the day, we passed an upscale restaurant called Bridges. It looked too amazing to not go into, so before dinner we stopped by for drinks. 

A rainbow of cocktails

Cheers to our last trip for the semester!

A night on the town! 

Later in the night we stopped by the Red Light District just to take a look around, but did not manage to take any pictures. There is a very strict no pictures policy.

Bye, Amsterdam! You were good to us.