Recently, I've been posing this question to friends: what are your favorite Christmas traditions?

Most of mine are fairly simple, and mostly food-related. I love going home at Christmas and making food with my family. My sister gave my dad an ebelskivers pan for Christmas and we made those for the first time--Nutella filled? Yes please.

South Jersey is also home to many people of Italian or Italian-American descent, and my mom usually brings home a box of homemade pizzelles from one of her colleagues at work. YUM. (They are widely available in south Jersey/Philly, but even better when homemade; these make me nostalgic for the area where I grew up.)

Some of my other favorite foods to make at Christmastime are: Gingerbread waffles - this recipe

and Gingerbread spice Dutch baby - Smitten Kitchen Cookbook (recipe online here).

above: Christmas decorations in Madrid's Plaza del Sol (Those chandeliers were amazing!) and below: Christmas decorations in London--love; below that: NuSkin's Christmas lights are always stunning.

M and I went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert and enjoyed the lights on Temple Square and some hot chocolate at Hatch--the best. (I just learned my sister Lauren has NEVER BEEN to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square! What?! How?!)

And of course, I love when friends come to town for the holidays and we can meet up. I hope your Christmas was a happy one.

I was travelling in London sometimes alone, sometimes in tandem with one of my Italy roommates and her brother; we were staying at the same lodgings, but I did much of my London sight-seeing and venturing out solo. I took the tube for longer distances, and walked on foot to see different parts of the city for shorter distances. One thing I love when traveling is getting a feel for the lay of the land; in movies when they show a travel montage, they show all the highlights, but not necessarily consecutively or as they progress geographically. I was struck in London with a similar feeling that I had while exploring Rome--there are so many iconic sights and you come upon them sometimes unexpectedly and I love seeing the surroundings in context. London is also similar to Paris in that it is bisected by a river, so crossing the many bridges over the Thames also provides unique vantage points.

In many of my architectural and design history classes, we studied Christopher Wren, the architect of Saint Paul's Cathedral (of "Feed the Birds" fame), and Santiago Calatrava, the architect who designed Millennium Bridge (also known as the Harry Potter bridge). The Tate Modern gallery is just across the river from St. Paul's, and I love the way the views from the bridge frame both buildings.

In London, I spent a lot of time in museums, and was delighted to discover many have free admission, akin to our national counterparts in Washington, D.C. I posted photos from several museums in London here, but wanted to mention a couple others I loved.

Not pictured because they didn't allow pictures at the time of my visits: The National Portrait Gallery and The National Gallery. I loved the National Portrait Gallery (and they have an Audrey Hepburn exhibit this summer through October! I am devastated I won't be going in time to see it) and how the portraits were arranged chronologically. It was amazing to get a historical/biographical tour of the city via the amazing collection of portraits. The National Gallery has many amazing and famous works in their collection and is a beautiful museum (and this scene from Skyfall was filmed there).

Here are some more photos from other favorite items on view in the Victoria & Albert Museum:

Stella McCartney's costume for Chris Martin in the Viva la Vida music video

One of the rooms in the architecture wing (I was on cloud nine).

The V&A is probably best-known for their extensive collection of decorative arts, spanning centuries and countries in their collection as a whole. I really loved these gondola prows; aren't they stunning? I love how the form of modern gondolas has retained the essence of these antique prows.

As someone who loves textiles, pattern, and design, I obviously also made a stop at Liberty of London. What a gorgeous building housing a beautiful store, filled top to bottom with their lovely, iconic florals. Needless to say, their stationery section was to die for.

Arguably my favorite culinary experience in London was going to Borough Market. I love farmer's markets and food markets, having grown up among oodles of south Jersey farm stands and Philly's Reading Terminal Market and Borough Market was the quirky and quaint British equivalent.

L'olio d'oliva forever; Food Glorious Food (good one, nice one).

I am excited to have some time in London in a few months, albeit just a few hours for a layover. I saw bits and pieces of London on my initial trip years ago and left much undone, so each experience will add a few more layers and facets to my schema of London.

Readers—what are your favorite London spots or experiences? I would love to add more to my list for this return visit!

[somehow I forgot that I never posted this. but as I still wanted to, here it is.]

The museums in London were all free—what good news!

The V&A was absolutely my favorite. It was the first place I went after depositing my luggage at my accommodations. The Dale Chihuly chandelier hanging in the lobby is even more incredible than in photos.

[the V&A logo was designed by Alan Fletcher, who drew this favorite sketch of mine, and I was delighted to learn that a few months ago]

On the outside of the V&A: I loved this quiet and understated WWII memorial.

Dale Chihuly is one of my absolute favorite artists. I love the integrity of his work; even though his installations and pieces are so diverse, I can always tell his work from the rest because of his use of color and form and how he applies these things in his pieces. He is so consistent, yet his pieces are always delightfully new and surprising.

Nice to see you again so soon, [replicas of] world-famous Italian masterpieces.

I loved this monumental Matisse (another of my favorite artists) collage in the Tate Modern. I also loved this woman discussing it with her daughter.

When I went to the British Museum, I first saw the Rosetta Stone, then I bee-lined for the Elgin marbles. Oh, these sculptures from the Parthenon are so very incredible! I'd studied the Parthenon in various art and design history classes and in person these statues from the frieze and pediments gave me a sense of the scale and majesty of their original home. There is a bit of controversy regarding how these sculptures were attained, and I'm not sure where I stand on that issue, but it was definitely interesting to see how adamant the British Museum was to keep them in their collection.

I went to many museums, and one of my other favorites was the National Portrait Gallery. It was neat to see some of British history through portraits of its famous and historically significant people.

St. Paul's cathedral

Kensington Garden with Katherine (one of my roommates from Siena—we met up for part of the time in London)

Kate Middleton's wedding dress was on display in an exhibit at Buckingham Palace, accompanied by a video of the designer (from the studio of Alexander McQueen) showing the features of the dress! I loved this, as not only was the dress absolutely stunning, but it was the result of thoughtful design and innovation, one example being the various thicknesses of canvas lining the train so that it would lay flat. The lace pattern was symbolic of the nations in the UK and the botanical motifs were taken from six different lace patterns to create a completely unique design.

Buckingham Palace was beautiful and the art gallery in one of the halls there contained works by some well-known artists including Rembrandt! I also loved the portraits of Queen Victoria and her family (I watched "The Young Victoria" the night before going, as I love that movie and it seemed only appropriate, and this made it feel more real).

This construction site was surrounded by a brightly painted fence of whimsical suggestions. Some others were "wave to the car behind" and "eat ice cream."

One thing that really impressed me about London was the active improvement to the tube system going on while I was there; I suppose this is, in part, due to the fact that the city is hosting next summer's Olympic games, but it attests to good city planning that they address problems that arise to make the city a better place.