Monday my new nephew was born! I am now the proud aunt to 3 little boys and a girl. Seeing as I am one of 5, I often wonder what the total count of grandchildren will be for my parents. My guess is around 15. I plan on having 5 little French children of my own someday. Or maybe I will raise them English... I do like how proper all the children are here. You don't often here "May I please..." as the start of 3 year old's sentence.
I was fighting for my nephew to be named Pierre. Or Jean-Pierre. But my sister favors Italian names over French, so Enzo is his name-o.
He is perfect. I can't wait to buy him little British outfits!
Tuesday It was Valentine's Day! Which also happens to be my dad's birthday - so it's cause for extra celebration! Valentine's Day has always been my favorite holiday after Christmas. Mostly due to the proximity to my annual celebration(s) of my life, and the fact that because it is two birthdays in my family, often the lot of us get together to celebrate.
Love was in the air here in London! I was very pleased to find heart-shaped everythings covering the city, bundles of roses being delivered every which way, and a general sense of sweetness in the air.
My morning kicked off with the donning of my Valentine's Dress. I always like to dress for the holidays , so I found a very modern Victorian, pale pink dress with black lacey bits.
I headed into work, where I jotted down my to-do list in the spirit of the day.
My boss saw it and said,
"are your bullet points hearts?"
You should have seen my lists in the days leading up to Christmas....
I had an afternoon meeting which conveniently deposited me across from the door to the Laudree inside Harrods. Thank you, fate - for always being on my side.
I treated myself to deux macaron, raspberry and rose. Both pink of course, to match my pink dress. I wandered into the handbag section slowly devoured them in front of the Chloe display. Eating perfection while starring at perfection.
Josh and I went out for a quiet, romantic dinner in Mayfair - and then headed to the main event: The Pudding Parlour.The English use the word "puddings" for desserts. Not just actual pudding are puddings, but all desserts. So instead of getting a dessert menu, you often get a menu that says "puddings." This is still very confusing to me - I still can't quite wrap my head around it, but that's the way it is.
So, when I found out that the Hotel Athenaeum has an evening Pudding Parlour, a fancy buffet of desserts where one can indulge in all the puddings their heart desires for £10 - my future diabetic self was there.
Our plates looked like this.
That's sticky toffee pudding, bread and butter pudding, caramel cake pops, a brownie, and a lemon meringue tart on the left. On the right, rhubarb crumble, a macaron, a white chocolate pistachio tart, and more sticky toffee pudding.
Mid-enjoyment, I had to loosen my belt, and we left oinking.
Wednesday was...... Mon Anniversaire!!
I am now 23. Holy roly poly, how did this happen? I never wanted to age past 18.
Even though aging is not fun, and I have no desire to be older and wiser, I LOVE birthdays.
Not just my birthday, but birthdays in general. Even strangers birthdays! And why shouldn't I?
I don't get people who don't make a big deal out of their birthday - it is the celebration of you! The day you arrived into the world! It IS a big deal, whether you chose to treat it that way or not. I have always chosen to.
I celebrate the whole month really, and always having at least 3 celebrations. Usually a heart-felt family celebration, a crazy friends celebration, and a romantic boyfriend celebration. This year, things were looking grim - since here in London I have no local family, friends, or boyfriend. But then Sir Joshua decided to swoop in and save the day, and treated me to my first English celebration - and what a celebration it was!
I'd been saving my dress from Paris to debut on my birthday, and Josh had conveniently just bought a 3-piece suit at Reiss, so I decided we should dress up and hit the town! A bit impractical given the cold winter's night, perhaps... so to compliment my craziness I slipped into my 5 inch heels I can barely walk in, and grabbed my Eiffel Tower Timmy Woods purse that literally can't fit anything but a small lip gloss. Go big, or go chez-vous, I always say!
Besides, Josh's 3 piece suit meant 3 pieces of pockets to hold my things that didn't fit in my impossibly small handbag.
We had a delicious dinner and Kir Royale toast at The Ivy; and when I say toast I mean me toasting myself because Josh does not drink. Josh gave me my card at a dinner, a tradition in our relationship - which was quite appropriate given the minor panic attack I had about an hour beforehand while getting ready that we were going to be late to dinner and loose our reservation, and be wandering the streets starving and miss the show.
From our first bite of bread to our last bite of mango tarte tatin with black pepper ice cream with "Happy Birthday" written in swirly chocolate- everything was simply brilliant. There were also 6 cupcakes awaiting us at home for post-theatre dessert, because no birthday is complete without a lot of cake. And frosting.
The evening continued at the Victoria Palace Theatre - where Josh took me to see Billy Elliot. All the more reason to wear a tutu dress, in my opinion. Billy is my favorite show, and since it has regrettably closed in New York, I was dying to see it here, where it all began.
Josh did think I was slightly insane for wanting to see a show I have already seen 9 times, but he just nodded, smiled, and agreed. He must be quite aware by now of the fact that most of the time I am totally bonkers, completely illogical, and would have it no other way.
Tottering around in my sky-high heels, trying to stop my dress from eating the woman sitting next me in the theatre, and swinging around my empty but amazing handbag with the one I love on my arm and a belly full of gourmet food and cupcakes was a perfect way to turn 23.
I have had a very special and blessed week so far, and am looking forward to continuing the celebration for the rest of the month. And maybe even a bit into the month of March.
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