December 17th

Well our first road trip is over and we are back in Scotland.  The drive down to London and back is a long trek and with the winter weather took us longer than we thought.  Robb's been busy with appointments which is great and he was able to see a number of people that want his company's product.  So it was definitely worth while and we will have many more such trips, even further afield when we return in January.
Robb had made a reservation for us to stay in a beautiful old manor house just outside of London proper.  It was a lovely place, a hotel I would have loved to own and operate.  The one down side of the house was that due to the thick walls or something we couldn't get phone or computer service.  Therefore I haven't done my blog for a few days.

We did enjoy our stay there.  On Tuesday night they had a primary group of young girls from a neighboring school come in and perform.  We were probably the only people attending that were not family members, but it didn't matter.  We felt like we were surrogate grandparents for the evening.   They served spiced wine and minced tarts and it was a lively affair.  Most of the parents had additional children with them so it was full of fun, even a visit from "Santa".  I say "Santa" in quotes because it wasn't "Father Christmas", but the American version of Santa.  With one exception, he had some type of pink light under his beard that flashed on and off, which was strange but the children loved it.  They sang a number of old Christmas hymns but also but very different Christmas Carols that I think would be fun for everyone to learn.
The highlight of my trip was going to be Harrods to do a little (very little) Christmas shopping and a whole lot of Christmas dreaming.  The broken ankle thing made it harder than I thought it would and a whole day standing on my foot, even with the boot made me kind of grumpy and tired.  I took the pain medicines, which made me sleeply which wasn't a good move.

In the years since I was last at Harrods, things have changed a great deal.  It is still bustling and busy, I couldn't believe how many people were carrying large bags of things they had purchased.  Allison had specifically asked me to take photo's of the Christmas Grotto which was based on Peter Pan this year.
Well all I can say is I tried!  We were in the store on the 14th and this sign was posted-
   

 

Harrods Christmas Grotto

Thank you for your interest in the Harrods Christmas Grotto.
Unfortunately, we are now completely fully booked for 2010.
If you wish to enquire about an existing booking please contact our Customer Service team on telephone number 020 7893 8877 or email grottocustomerservice@harrods.com
We wish you a Merry Christmas.
Harrods Christmas Grotto
So we never were able to go in and see what type of display they had, and I'm guessing anyone visiting around December would need to go on line and make a booking in January for 2011!
One of the songs we've heard here about Christmas is "Thirty-two feet - Eight little tails"  I had never heard the song before, but in looking it up I found that it was written by Gene Autry in 1951.  It is a cute song and the children really like it.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz7rMCo5TO4  Play it for the grand kids for me.

Have you ever seen anything cuter?

Love  to All,

Dawn