Dana: I grew up in Lake Forest, Il., but then moved to Bernardsville, NJ in middle school. Both of those suburbs are similar in many ways to Greenwich, so even though I am not from here, this town feels like ‘home’.
We moved to Greenwich six years ago from New York City. My husband’s bank moved its offices out to Stamford – so for a while he reverse commuted but then we realized that was crazy and so we moved out here when our oldest was six months old. Of course two years later Jon took a different job that now has him commuting into NYC.
I have three daughters. Ellison (6) Alden (4) and Linley (2).
My favorite event in Greenwich is The Enchanted Forest which is a weekend long event hosted by the Junior League of Greenwich at the Hyatt. It’s always the weekend before Thanksgiving and for me it’s the start of the holiday season and really sets me in the right frame mind to start celebrating. My kids are mesmerized by the Gingerbread Village and all of the decorated trees. I try to go to the boutique shopping night on Friday and my husband and I go to the Saturday Night cocktail party, my kids attend the tea party and its where they get to meet Santa. It’s such a busy weekend – but so worth it!
In Greenwich my favorite restaurant is Le Fat Poodle, I could honestly eat there every weekend and be okay with that. But we have some other favorites just over the border. We love Bartaco in Port Chester, going early on a Friday night (with or without kids!) For brunch my favorite is Bedford Post Inn – the drive up there is part of the fun.
I cook a lot but by far my preference is baking – especially because my kids love to get involved. I have recently been making the most amazing chocolate chip cookies. The recipe is from Momofuku Milk Bar and it involved melting two sticks of butter and using milk powder. They are incredible and as an extra bonus I sprinkle Maldon sea salt on them mid bake.
Favorite hobbies? I have two! I love to take pictures, especially of my kids. I have a Nikon D90 that I bought before we had Ellison and I carry it with me everywhere, all the time. I love uploading them to my computer and editing the photos the whole process makes me so happy! I print my favorites and catalog them all in family albums and if you can believe it I probably print 800-1000 pictures per year. I also adore stationery, shopping for it, making it and of course writing letters. In my ideal world I would have a free hour every day to sit at a café with a cappuccino and write letters to friends that live far away. (I am terrible at talking on the phone, it makes me anxious)
