A Traditional Christmas Tea

It seems like ages ago now but Jay and I received an early Christmas gift while we were in England a couple of weeks ago. It was a gift of a traditional English Christmas Tea. The tea was wonderful but it was the company of friends that made it memorable.

Here’s the tea room.  I think it looks just like you’d expect a tea room to look like.

This was the table that was waiting for  us.  Seeing this makes me want to be warm and cozy with a cup of hot tea.

Sebastian wouldn’t let us have tea without him.  And of course, we wouldn’t have!

We started with sausage rolls.  Yummy!

Then came the sandwiches and cakes – lovely to look at, better to eat.

Here’s the little Christmas elf himself – wearing his cracker crown!

Sebastian says while they need to work on making crowns in a smaller size, the size of the cakes was fine by him.

A photo of all of us – so much fun with friends!

This photos makes my mouth water – and they were every bit as delicious as they look.

I miss this little one’s face, his smile, his giggle, his little fingers and tiny toes.

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Four Days to Christmas!

We put our decorations up way early this year since we would be gone when we would normally decorate. We have the usual tree in the front window – with lots of colored lights.

We’ve enjoyed the lights and expect to enjoy them even more after Christmas. I don’t know why that would be unless it has to do with everything being more peaceful after than before.

    

Then, believe it or not, we brought a small tabletop tree home with us from England. Here are a couple of close-ups of some of the tiny ornaments on that one. We put colored lights on it too.

    

This year we added a white, snow covered tree with bright pastel lights on our back porch.

We hung our vintage-like ornaments on it and I have a feeling we are going to resist taking it down when the time comes.

I guess we better enjoy it we can while we can!

Fun with Paddington – Part 2

Hi ho. Sebastian here with one last look at how I met even more Paddingtons! I won’t be able to show you all the Paddingtons we met because your eyes might glaze over but I thought you might enjoy seeing what a good climber I am.

Sparkles!  And he really did.

Ain’t he cute?  See how his luggage is painted like a double decker bus?

A Rolls-Royce Paddington

I had no problem hanging about in Hamley’s toy store for this
Bearer of Gifts

A very Special Delivery

Rainbow

Looking at my friend . . .

This one says it all – Paddington is Great!

Take a few steps back and

see icons of London!

Sharing secrets.  Can you see me?

This adventure took us in all kinds of places.

Chief Scout Bear – Couldn’t miss this one!  We are very familiar with Scouts!
    

I have other photos of me in interesting places around London.  Perhaps I will save them for a rainy day.  These Paddingtons will be auctioned off and the proceeds will go to charity.  What a great cause and a fun way to see London.  They won’t be around for long.  For more information, click here. 

love & hugs,

Fun with Paddington - Part 1

Hi ho. It’s me again! Sebastian here to share my adventures searching for Paddington. When I found out Paddington bears were all over London on something called The Paddington Trail, I could hardly contain myself. Being a small bear that is big on adventure, this was right up my alley, my bailiwick, my thing. I mean this adventure had ‘Sebastian’ written all over it.

Jetlag, schmetlag. Let’s get going. I could probably move faster on my own but you know how it is sometimes. You have to let them come along every once in a while. The first bear we found was easy peasy – right outside Harrod’s. Oh my. The people there were wall-to-wall and we all had to take turns with Paddington. I was a little shy at first.

    

The next day we headed out to Paddington Station where the trains come in and where Paddington first set foot in London. It was awesome. We found Paddington there right between the platforms where the trains arrive and depart. I was beginning to get a little braver.

Then I made a deal with the staff. If we could find just a few more Paddington’s, I would treat them to lunch. I had one carrying the camera so we could document my finds and the other was the map reader. He was most useful in that vein. I’ll make a note to take him along again sometime.

    

When we found the next Paddington, it was almost as if someone had told everyone my plan because there were a lot of people waiting to take photos. And because of this, I decided to pass on having my photo made with one or two. I like it better when it’s just me and Paddington, although I did get a few people telling me I was quite nice.

It’s  hard to tell in this photo, but this one was flocked!  He was very soft.  Everyone wanted to feel his ‘fur’!

    

We ended up walking along the canal in a place called Little Venice,

in the Borough of Paddington.

It was interesting – the water, the boats, but mostly the Paddington’s. He was ALL over London! I began to get a little braver posing with him. Mostly this was due to the fact that he was a bear – just like me and we understood each other.

If you look carefully at the photo above, you can see that we met and made some friends on our journey.  The Paddington below is called Texting Paddington. 

In this close-up picture, you can see the detail that makes sense of the name.

Here I am sitting atop Paddington’s hat on one called

Love, Paddington x

We weren’t even searching for this one.  We were looking for a place for lunch!  A bear does get hungry as you know.  It was like he was looking for us.  “Top o’ the mornin’ to ya.”

Now I have to say goodnight and bring Part 1 of Fun with Paddington to a close with one last Paddington in the dark.  The Journey of Marmalade.  Yummy!  I think I might have to request some toast tomorrow for breakfast.  Toast and marmalade.

love & hugs,