We shopped till we dropped

A few months ago I hatched an idea about shopping in London sans kids and husband after Thanksgiving. I had always wanted to see Oxford Street and the area around it all done up for Christmas. I didn't even really want to buy all that much, I just wanted to be there in the holiday atmosphere. I asked my friend Nicki (one of my sorority sisters from Emory who lives over here too) to join me and she agreed! So we left our kids with our husbands and set off for a day of shopping. We took the train in from Cambridge which was speedy and so easy. Just 50 minutes to central London. This could be addicting...

This is us outside Hamley's, a huge toy story (6 stories) on Regents street. There is a parade going on behind us. It was nice to browse the toy store without kids begging for everything. 

We then hit some men's stores for Dave and several department stores. Nicki helped me pick out some things for Dave as well as watched me try on a lot of jeans to see which fit the best! What a great friend. We found a hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant for lunch which was great, and then kept on shopping. There really was no end in sight to all the stores. 

I am pretty sure there wasn't anybody else in any part of London that day... all the people were in this area. It was PACKED! And probably not the place the military would want us going right now (we have been advised to steer clear of large crowds these days) but oh well! 

Looking down one side street that was all done up.

One of the department store windows with a Star Wars holiday display.

Not the best pic but we ended the day at some kind of carnival in Hyde Park before heading back to Cambridge. Hopefully this will become an annual tradition!

Cheers.