East London: It's scruffy, but so cool

After lunch at Brick Lane, we explore East London. This area was once known as London's poorest and dreariest, but now tech start-ups and media companies and artists and chefs are taking advantage of the low rents and moving into warehouse and factory spaces that have been abandoned for decades. Art galleries, restaurants and boutiques are popping up, and there's a thriving night life scene.

A few places to check out:

Spitalfields Market: This covered market is a very cool place to shop and filled with independent retailers.

Columbia Road Flower Market: On Sunday the street is transformed into oasis of foliage and flowers. Everything from bedding plants to 10 foot banana trees are up for grabs.

Rochelle Canteen: Housed in a former bike shed, this place is lunch only. Fresh, delicious British fare: boiled ham with parsley sauce, spinach soup with poached egg, and lamps toungue, turnips, and bacon.

London's Brick Lane: Where the streets smell of smells of cumin, cardamom and turmeric

Brick Lane is indeed paved in bricks, and the street gets its name from the area's former brick and tile manufacturers that supplied building materials to the city center.

But this long, narrow alley is better known as an immigrant street. French Huguenots, Eastern European Jews, South Asians, and most notably Bangladeshis have all settled here.

In fact, Brick Lane is lined with dozens of little curry houses, their windows all covered in big signs with messages reading: "Best Indian restaurants." And then their are men standing at the doors inviting passersby to come in for lunch. "Best Indian food!" they all say.

It's hard to know who to believe, so we turn to National Geographic Traveler for a recommendation. Bengal Village is where we end up for a late lunch. The inside of clean, modern, white-table-cloth restaurants smells of cumin and turmeric. The chicken curry is sweet and spicy and our kids quickly slurp up their mango lassies.

"Pip, pip, cheerio! It's me calling from London!"

While London's beloved red phone booths have been disappearing since the 1990s due to the rise of the mobile phone, you can still spot some around the city. We found one in front of the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington.These iconic telephone boxes as they call them in Britain were first designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and introduced to the streets in 1926. By the end of the 1930s, there were some 20,000 booths throughout the UK. Today, only 2,000 remain and they're all protected heritage sites. British Telecom has a program that allows people to adopt a phone booth and pay for its upkeep. People rarely use the phones these days but they certainly make great photo opps!

London: Our favorite photos

Here are some photos from our week in London over the holidays.

Do you put holiday gifts in your suitcase or open them before leaving?

Growing up, I went to Hawaii to visit my grandfather every Christmas. He was an artist and used the money from selling his work to pay for the entire family to spend the holidays in the tropics.

My parents always lugged all the gifts in a big suitcase. All the wrapped presents from the cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends were put on the plane.

Yes, I guess it was nice to have a big pile of gifts to unwrap on Christmas morning, but really? What were they thinking? What a hassle?

We didn't bring presents on our trip to Europe this holiday. We opened everything before we left. We actually staggered it out over a week, opening something every day.

We did pack Santa gifts—a small cheap digital camera—for each child because we knew it would be expensive to do the shopping in London. But besides those two little boxes, our bags were gift free.

Getting out the door for the holidays

I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to throw a holiday caroling party two days before we were scheduled to leave for London. It started with my daughter telling me that she wanted to sing holiday carols. I invited a few of her school friends, and then a couple neighbors. The party grew to some 40 people. No problem. We'd just get a honey-baked ham and some rolls.

The party was great—but our house was a mess the next day. The floor was covered in crumbs and mulled wine stains. Dishes were piled high next to the sink. I spent all of Saturday washing wine glasses when I should have been packing.

And then there were two other holiday parties to attend the next night...Let's just say I was scrambling on Sunday morning to pack for our two-and-a-half-week trip.

At noon my phone rang. The cab was outside. What else should I stuff in the bag? Oh, tooth brushes.

My husband called out, "Did you get the camera?"

I grabbed the camera and zipped up the suitcases. We were ready. We were walking out the door.

And then my 8-year-old daughter asked, "Mommy, do you have the passports?"

I didn't have them!