Marble House

In addition to The Breakers, we also visited Marble House. Given the choice, the four of us would have preferred living in the much smaller Marble House. It was great seeing both mansions decorated for the holidays.

The cage made certain that those making deliveries to the kitchen couldn't wander upstairs.

Alva Vanderbilt was a suffragette. 

Another glorious kitchen (and pot rack!).

The Breakers

We all had time off between Christmas and New Year's, so we decided to head to the Newport Mansions. Despite living in New England our entire lives, none of us have ever been to Newport. The weather didn't really cooperate, but the mansions were beautiful nevertheless. We were so impressed with The Breakers. 

The kitchen was to die for (and probably where I would have been working as an Irish immigrant, as much as I would have liked to have been upstairs in the main living area!).

Weekend in New Hampshire

We spent the second weekend of the month in New Hampshire. Emily arrived home from school just in time to travel with us to Joe & Karen's to celebrate family Christmas. We then headed to stay with Grammy, sharing food and gifts on Sunday morning. We went to visit my parents and Grampy in Boscawen and then fit in some visits with other relatives as well, before heading to Brown's (in a snow storm, of course) so that Elizabeth could get in her yearly fix. All in all, an exhausting but lovely weekend.

Brown's during a snow storm is a completely different experience than Brown's in the summer.