A good 'ol fashioned Menendez/Sciammarella/Baran/Sullivan Christmas...

For all you mathmaticians out there- see if you can figure this holiday equation out:

5 people + 1 bathroom + 48 hours of total uninterrupted togetherness - no pubs or restaurants or sights open on the 25 or 26 of December =

a. Everyone in Santa hats, singing along to Nat King Cole's Christmas album

b. JP with a robe and pipe sitting by the fire reciting "The Night Before Christmas"

c. Gracie cooking a big family Christmas dinner for everyone

d. Our flat a wreck of dirty clothes, dust bunnies, and no more food

(Correct answer is D- JP doesn't do pipes and Gracie doesn't cook. And who sings carols anymore?)

We made it out alive folks, and we had a really nice time. We spent Christmas day in our PJ's opening gifts, cooking (JP and I did the cooking), and watching Christmas movies. My personal favorite is Christmas Vacation. This year I actually got JP to watch It's a Wonderful Life- which is a huge feat. He managed through the movie with only limited bagging on George Bailey. Christmas Day we celebrated a British tradition of popping Christmas Crackers before our meal- here is a picture of us before we did it in a circle:

We decided on a small Christmas, which meant the four of us kids got each other a couple small gifts. Gracie rolled in town with her idea of a small Christmas- Tiffany and Coach for me, Hugo Boss and cologne for JP. For those of you who know John's mom Gracie, you know she can't do small when it comes to her JP.


Earlier the week we celebrated Dan's 23rd birthday with chocolate chip pancakes, and then saw the sights. We took him to a piano bar that we frequent only to realize that we were in the midst of some sort of drag queen holiday celebration. It was tons of fun to watch everyone around us while singing along to the piano. We have taken everyone to our favorite restaurants and enjoyed some good pub time as well. Even Gracie, who in the 3 1/2 years I've known her, has never had a drink, enjoyed some beers at the pub. This is the same woman who wouldn't drink a glass of champagne at our wedding!


Yesterday, the ladies went to the Lanesborough Hotel in Hyde Park to enjoy our first ever high tea. It was extremely nice and very fun. Nikki enjoyed her pot of tea and mine (I am not a tea drinker) and Gracie entertained us with funny stories of what else- Argentina. Then we met the boys out at our favorite neighbourhood pub that also has a Thai restaurant in it and enjoyed some curry and pad thai.


Today everyone went their separate ways - JP took Gracie to see Windsor Castle, Nikki and Dan are off to see other sights. Me, I'm basking in some peace and quiet. I'll take to cleaning up the flat and get it back in working order to get us through the weekend. Our friend from OC, Andrea, comes into town today as well, so hopefully I'll get to spend some time with her. Tonight we have a big turkish dinner planned.



Here are some pictures from the week:

All the stockings were hung by the chimney with care.....

JP and Grace after opening up presents

Our Christmas Tree... before Gracie got here and added a zillion gifts under it.

For those of you interested, I posted a lot of our random pics on Shutterfly - everything from our White Elephant Gift Exchange that we did with the GEP group, to the EY Holiday party is on here- take a look if you are interested: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaOWLNy4bN2OH

Until next week friends- have a fun weekend! I'll share pics from our James Bond New Year's Eve party next week.

Merry Christmas!

Dear Friends and Family,

In lieu of a holiday card, please accept this blog message with our wishes for a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year. Thanks to all of you who have read this and supported us through the last year especially- trips, weddings, parties, dinners, and most of all our move to London. We miss everyone a ton and hope to host you in 2008!

Love, Angie & JP

*this message officially approved by JP on Angie's page*

Baby, it's cold outside

It's been a busy couple weeks! For once I have more fun stuff to share other than what is happening at the local Starbucks.

I'll start with last week first:

Last week started with a girls night out to a special shopping event at Harvey Nichols (www.harveynichols.com). The night started with some dinner and then we headed over to the department store to drink and shop. The store was shut down to the public, and they opened their doors to holders of some magic ticket. Harvey Nichols is akin to Neiman Marcus in the US, so we were there more to peruse and giggle at the 400 pound dresses. The highlights of the night were that every floor had a drink theme (and there are multiple floors to this store)- champagne, wine, cocktails, mulled wine. We all left a little tipsy- I mean, it would have been rude to not try all the different drinks we were being offered! The store also had carolers and a harpist and it set a very festive mood. The night ended in the food hall where we discovered honest to goodness pancake mix and yummy chai tea. All the department stores here have extravagent food halls where you can shop and also eat there. Harrods is another example of the foodhall- sometimes I just go there to wander when I visit Harrods - it is amazing.

Wednesday night the GEP group headed out to visit the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland. http://www.hydeparkwinterwonderland.com/ The night was fun but it did coincide with the freezing front that rolled in. We enjoyed some yummy brauts, desserts, and then when we all could no longer feel our toes or noses, we hightailed it out to the nearest pub for warmth. It showed me there is more than one reason to put a pub on every corner.

Friday night brought JP's holiday party at EY. We were a little hesitant to go. Our past holiday parties have been wrought with alcohol and friends and fun EY drama- so we were looking at a calm night among people we didn't know all dressed in tuxes. It was held at the BAFTA (British Academy for Film and Television Arts) corporate suites http://www.bafta.org/195-piccadilly/. It was fun to get dressed up and go into Piccadilly for the night. I can only compare Piccadilly to Times Square in NYC- just a mad crush of people all hours of the day. Anyways, the party ended up being a lot more fun than we planned for- Jamie and I danced all night with JP's co-workers while JP made fun of people, Matt talked to the Partners, and I argued with the DJ over the appropriate time to take off "It's Raining Men" to play some Justin Timberlake. The end of the night had JP acting as security guard to open the door to revelers on Piccadilly, and then verbally assaulting a coat check clerk for what he thought was the guy calling his scarf "gay." Actually, the man was asking JP if he had a "gray" scarf. You gotta watch the accents.

Saturday we greeted Anneliese and spent the day relaxing and getting her ready for the pub crawl. We also got our TV fixed. We are now official at our flat- a working phone line, TV, and internet- life doesn't really get any better than this!!

On Sunday, Anneliese and I wandered around Oxford and Regent streets- which are the main shopping streets in the city. The streets are all decorated for Christmas and there were more people than there is sidewalk space. It was still fun to walk around. We ended our window shopping with a cider in a nearby pub, where we were accosted by an extremely drunk man who proceeded to talk to us for an hour while we sat there silently hoping we could find an out.

On Monday we went to see JP at his office for an official office tour. It was fun for us recruiters to be on the other side! We also got to eat in the famed EY cafeteria before we headed out to the Tate Modern musuem and then on to Harrods.

Yesterday was a day of markets- we went to Portobello Road in Notting Hill and hung out at the market looking at all the goodies. After that we headed to Covent Garden to see the Christmas market. Last night we took in a play- starring Christian Slater. It was called Swimming with Sharks. http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/shows/display?contentId=95180

We really enjoyed the play. Christian Slater still looks good after all these years!

The rest of the week we'll overlap on guests and have a full house until after the New Year. We are so excited and are planning out fun activities for our next round of guests. Next week we'll see another play, JP will go to his first football match, and we'll be seeing a lot of the traditional sights with Dan who has never visited London.

This will be our first Christmas in colder climates (but no snow, yet) and let me tell you, it does make a difference! Not that I wouldn't kill to be at home in my flip flops and such right now- but getting all bundled up really does make it feel a lot like Christmas!

Until next time- happy shopping!

In loving memory- Starbucks: October 19, 2007- December 11, 2007

It is bittersweet writing this. I'm in my PJ's, on the comfy chair in our house sipping coffee. In front of me is our Christmas tree just decorated and a nice view of our street. What makes this scene surreal is that I'm on the internet as I do this. I'm on the internet in my PJ's. I didn't have to pack up my backpack, put on my scarf, gloves, jacket, remember to bring my mobile phone and chapstick, and walk 10 minutes to the Starbucks to boot up. Isn't life grand?



There are a few things I will miss though, that is for sure. I've talked often of the red cups and I do love the festive feeling it brings when those first appear on the streets. More than that, I will miss my skinny lattes. I will miss the hard wooden chairs I would spend often up to 4 hours in. I will miss those stores without a restroom, so that once I finished my coffee I would have to chose between high tailing it home to pee or risk bladder infection by staying in my seat and finishing my internet surfing. Most of all I will miss the Starbucks soundtracks. I love the music there, but I was spending so much time there that I was starting to pick up on what the next song would be before it started.



So, good-bye and thank you Starbucks- I won't miss you but I'll be back. Next time, for a quick skinny latte on the go.

I see London, I see France

OK, so JP stole my thunder and gave a pretty accurate blow by blow of France. It was fun, and boy was the food yummy! The French really know how to live- they are friendlier than the Brits we've encountered here and they walk the streets with baguettes and drink great wine. So what if they have terrible unemployment and race/class issues- France is a vacationers dream with beaches, good food, great sights, and history all the like. I won't bore you with more details, but I will share some more pictures:


This is an ariel view of Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower- pretty neat?

The Notre Dame- inside is even more gorgeous.

An alleyway in Nice- everyone had flowers outside their windows. The buildings were very colorful- reminded us of Miami how there were buildings painted pinks, corals, blues, greens.

On our last day in Paris, JP finally got the big baguette for .85 Euro that he had been talking about for four days straight. Even though we pledged to share our lives together, there was no sharing the bread...

Anybody recognize this? It is kind of famous. It is also a huge tourist trap as expected- they que you (line you up), charge you $$, and then shuttle you to the top!

Us in front of the Arc de Triompe.

Ariel view of Cannes from the top of the hill we climbed to see a museum. Cannes reminded us a lot of Newport Beach, without the blondes and BMW's. Cannes (home of the world famous film festival) is about a 30 minute train ride from Nice.

This picture was taken on entry to a museum set very high on a hilltop in Cannes, I thought JP did a really nice job with the picture.

Additionally I'd like to share that I accepted a job today. At the end of last week I had received offers from both Ernst & Young and Towers Perrin. After careful consideration that consisted of pestering JP endlessly with the pros/cons/what ifs of both I decided to go with Towers Perrin. On January 7 I will start a 12 month contract role in their graduate recruiting department to cover for someone going on maternity leave. It is such a cool company, I enjoyed the interview process and the people I met with. Additionally, the HR manager told me that Actuaries make Accountants look cool- just to give me an idea of what I was getting myself into. It made me think back to almost four years ago when I tentatively decided to interview with EY even though I was a little worried about having to hire Accountants. I think it is safe to say my expectations were exceeded there- and hopefully I'll meet some fun people at Towers Perrin as well.

Let's face it though- the real reason I want to work- to Travel! Now that I have a job, we can start our planning - Europe (and Africa, JP willing), here we come!