Dream Vacay - London/Paris

We surprised the kids with a trip of a lifetime this Christmas!   We left Christmas night for a holiday vacay in London and Paris!!!  Literally an absolute dream!  I'm still pinching myself and smiling ear to ear everytime I think of our trip.  Both cities are beyond magical during the holiday season!  Exploring London and Paris for the first time as a family is something I will never forget!  I secretly planned this trip for 6+ months and it was completely worth the endless research and middle of the night alarms to book and buy tickets on London time!  We tried holding out to tell the kids unitl Christmas Eve but we ended up telling them on 12/22 to alleviate some of the stress of packing.  Plus I wanted to see and hear their excitment for a few days leading into the trip!

Merry Christmas from the Millers!!!  We don't pack lightly . . .

We earned a pre-flight cocktail  . . .  and a deep breath!  We made it through the holidays and everyone steered clear of sickness.

ready for takeoff . . . 10 hr overnight flight, kids first in flight meals, long nap, a few movies and multiple bathroom breaks!

landed and ready to take on London!

We stayed south of the Thames River in the Bankside area at Premier Inn Tate Modern.  We knew we would only be in the room to sleep, plus we needed 2 rooms with a family of 5 so we went with a budget hotel.  My biggest factor when narrowing down hotels was convivence.  I wanted to be able to walk to some of the big attractions (London Eye, Tower of London, etc.) and wanted to be within a few blocks of Tube station to easily access everything else.  

We landed in London around 11am, got to our hotel by 1:00pm and hit the ground running.  We knew we had to power through the jetlag and call it an early night!  We arrived on Boxing Day.

First stop London Eye

Next up, London by Night Christmas Lights bus tour with Golden Tours.  Perfect way to see the city, get orientated with landmarks and soak in the Christmas magic.  London is beautiful during the holidays!

The angels on Regent Street were beautiful!

Hamley's is the oldest toy store in the world and one of the few toy stores still open.  Of course we had to go and Mason left with a magic set.

The Oxford Street lights and the quintessential red tour bus was magical!

Fortnum and Mason at Christmas is a must see!

Our first Big Ben sighting and it didn't disappoint!  It's actually bigger than I had imagined and so surreal to see in person.    

Seeing the London Eye never got old!  I took a picture everytime we saw it and this is one of my favorites!  That's a wrap on our first afternoon/evening in London.  We were in bed by 8pm to prepare for our first full day of adventures.

No rest for the weary . . . although we went to bed early we were up even earlier on our first full day . . . not in London, but in PARIS!!!  We took the 7:00am Eurostar train to Paris for the day.  It wasn't ideal for our first day but the Friday train schedule allowed us more time in Paris than the weekend train schedule.  The kids were amazing and powered through like expert travelers!  The train ride was 2 hrs each way.  

When we arrived in Paris we went straight to Notre Dame Cathedral, which re-opened in early December after being closed since 2019 from the devasting fire.  We were so lucky to be able to not only see the Cathedral but to be able to go inside and soak in its beauty and history!

Nothing better than a stroll along the Seine River . . .

We stopped at every Christmas market we came across.  We typically grabbed mulled wine for me and Tyler and churros for the kids!  

Next stop, the Louvre.  Although we didn't go inside it was still surreal to walk around the outside.

Another Paris Christmas market stop . . . 

Can't come all the way to Paris and not do a little shopping on Champs-Élysées Avenue.  Harper's Lulu dreams came true!

We saved the best stop for last, the Eiffel Tower!  We snagged tickets to the top of the Eiffel Tower at sunset.  That was one of my middle of the night alarms and it was 100% worth the sleepless night and the stress leading up to the tickets going on sale!

My favorite picture from the trip!!!  A memory I will never forget!!!

The ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower was a little scary.  It was way higher than I ever would have imagined but the views at the top were stunning!

By the time we made it down it was time for the first twinkle!  The Eiffel Tower exceeded all our expectations and was a highlight of the trip!

After a FULL day we took the 8:10pm train back to London.  The kids were super excited to get table seats.

All 3 crashed within minutes!

Crazy to think we had already done and seen so much and still hadn't had a full day in London.  We kicked off our first full day in London (Day 3 of the trip) with the Tower of London.  We had tickets for the first timeslot and upon entry we headed straight to the Crown Jewels.  No pictures were allowed but we have the memories to last a lifetime.   We also did a tour with a Beefeater and learned all the history of the Tower of London.  Definitely the way to do it!  

So cool seeing the Tower Bridge . . .

We had tickets to Horizon 22 skyscraper experience however due to the London Fog we weren't able to see the city views.  I have no doubt on a clear day the views would have been amazing!  It did take us to a different part of town that had the coolest, more modern buildings.

We also stumbled across Leadenhall Market, known for its Harry Potter scenes.  I'm not a Harry Potter fan so I loved it more for the Christmas charm!

Next up, an afternoon in Richmond!  We became expert Tube users!  The kids even did a few pullup challenages on empty Tube rides.

Richmond was so charming!  I wish we would have introduced the kids to Ted Lasso prior to our trip so they would have appreicated it more.  The Richmond pubs were exactly how I had envisioned them!  We visited on a Saturday so they were packed with locals and tourists.  I never thought to make a reservation at a pub but that is definitely a thing, lesson learned!

We finally made it into a pub and Jackson had his first fish and chips of the trip!

The most iconic red telephone booths!

Take me back . . . I could have spent more time in Richmond.  Definitely my kind of place!

While in Richmond we went to Christmas at the Kew in the botanical gardens

We ended Day 3 with a stop at graffiti tunnel.  We brought paint pens from home so the kids could do a little artwork of their own!  Graffiti tunnel was a HUGE hit and its free!

We left our "mark"

We started Day 4 with a trip to Borough Market!  So much fun and so much food!  Our favorites were the chocolate covered strawberries, the sausage roll from Ginger Pig and the ramen (Tyler found pheasant ramen).

We then took the Uber Thames boat to Greenwich.  It was cold but that wasn't going to stop us from getting on the river.

Greenwich had some interesting statues . . . like this naked headless body that looks like it came out of the ground.  There was no plaque with a name or explanation so we made up our own.

In Greenwich we took the cable car over the river.  Great views up and down the river, even with a little London fog.

The main Day 4 attraction was the West Ham United vs Liverpool soccer match!!!  This trip was planned around going to a soccer match for Jackson.  Seeing a Premier League match was on his dream vacation list so we wanted to make it happen, especially because Jackson never asks for anything!  This was the most stressful ticket to obtain.  We picked the West Ham vs Liverpool game for a few reasons 1) the date worked best for our schedule 2) Liverpool is the #1 team 3) West Ham isn't the best so we hoped we had a chance to snag tickets.  We became West Ham United season members back in August and anxiously waited for tickets to this match to be released.  Since we were first time members, we had to provide proof of being West Ham supporters by sending in pictures of us in West Ham gear at a watch party, match, etc.  With a little photoshopping we got our tickets released and still kept it a secret from the kids!

We were all decked out in West Ham gear but secretly rooting for Liverpool!  If you were caught rooting for Liverpool you were kicked out!  

We learned that alcohlic drinks can not be taken to your seats, therefore no one goes in early :)

Still can't believe we pulled this off!  This kid had the biggest smile all night! 

I can't imagine a home game for Liverpool!  They had one full visitor's section and they out-chanted, out-cheered and out-sang the home crowd the entire game!  Granted they won 5-0 so they had more to cheer about.

Thank you Liverpool for a great game and lots of scoring!

What a night!!!  What a day!!!

Day 5 we started with changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.  President Jimmy Carter passed away the night before so the full ceremony didn't take place but we still got a glimpse of some of the traditions.

I've dreamed of seeing Buckingham Palace since my childhood obsession with Princess Diana

Can't pass up a red phone booth photo opportunity

My dreams were made the afternoon of Day 5!!!  The Greatest Showman opened on London Broadway a few months before we arrived.   I've been hoping it would be on Broadway since the first time I saw the movie.  We originally passed on tickets to see the show in London beacuse tickets were pricey.  While we were there they released 6 VIP seats that included food and drinks.  While the tickets were even more expensive we justified it with the food and drinks being inlcuded and snagged the tickets.  When will we be in London again and have this opportunity!?!  I'm so glad we did it because the show was AMAZING!!!!  Worth every single penny and more!

The singing, dancing and acrobats were unbelievable!!!  So much talent and so entertaining!

Tyler started talking to a family in front of us before the show started and Harper and I quickly realized it was John Stamos!!!  We talked to him, his wife and son throughout the show and intermission.  So so cool and such a sweet family.  I've continued to message his wife since returning from our trip.

Harper and John!  Her Fuller House idol!

After the show we grabbed a late dinner at BrewDog by the London Eye.  Such a fun restaurant/brewery that had bowling, ping pong, pool and a slide in the middle of the restaurant!  

We wrapped up our AMAZING day with a walk along the Thames River looking for Oklahoma rocks to add to our collection.

We found a few keepers!  Wish we would have looked along the Siene River in Paris.

While on the river we got a little sneak peak of London NYEs show!

We kicked off NYE (Day 6) with a visit to Chinatown.  The kids were on a ramen kick this trip (maybe because it was so cold)!

We did some shopping that afternoon and had a fun NYE dinner at a London Pub . . . fish and chips, shepherd's pie . . . doesn't get more Londony than that!

The cutest little pub and we had the entire upstairs to ourselves, granted we ate early at 4:00

We ran into the Ojedas on the street walking to the London NYEs celebration.  We had plans to see them New Years Day but seeing them NYE night was a great surprise!

NYE night we attended the London NYEs fireworks show at the London Eye, along the Thames River. It was a ticketed event and was another middle of the night alarm to snag tickets.  Still can't believe we pulled it off but glad we did because the fireworks were spectacular.  Most amazing fireworks we've  seen and probably the best we will ever see!!!  All of Central London is shut down NYE and they install a temporary ~10 ft wall along the perimeter of the ticketed area.  Over 100,000 attended the event but surprisingly it was so orderly and felt safe.  We told the kids if we felt uncomfortable at all we would leave.  They did not sell alcohol within the ticketed area so that helped with crowd control.  Crazy but you could only see the fireworks if you were within the ticketed area.  The gates opened at 8:00pm, we arrived at 7:30pm and they started letting people in early.  We were in by 8pm and snagged a great spot close to our exit later that evening.  The night was perfect and went so smoothly.  So thankful we were able to experience this tradition!   It will be a night I will never forget!  

2024 was an incredible year but I have no doubt 2025 will be even better!  2025 is off to a great start!!!

New Years day (Day 7) we planned to watch the London New Years Parade with the Ojedas.  We planned for rain our entire trip but thankfully it didn't rain until New Years Day.  On New Years Day it rained ALL day, definitely a huge damper on the parade but we made the most of our last day in the rain.

We had to make one last stop at graffiti tunnel and this time we were on a mission to get actual spray paint.  A local spray painter was so kind and gave Mase a few cans that were close to being empty.  His day was made!!

We even found a sports bar, Passyunk, near graffiti tunnel on Leake Street with batting cages!

 

I feel so lucky to have experienced this amazing trip with Tyler and the kids!!!!  Makes me want to start planning our next adventure.  Exploring new places with the family is my absolute favorite thing to do!!!  London and Paris you were a complete dream come true!!!