Royal style & gossip: Sandringham shots are coming, who will Prince Philip deck in the halls?

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Made sure my autocorrect didn't spoil that title...

As always, let's keep it light and avoid any spite!

Previous thread

The Monagesque Royals have a lovely festive card. They’re on the front and inside (Which is written in French, English and Italian )
I love Jacques assertive choice of footwear.
Charlene looks festive but not very smiley.....

Those Monagesque children are adorable!! So cute! That's a lovely card. I'm not sure about the shot of Charlene, though, it makes her look a bit legs akimbo.

The twins are adorable but Charlene's jumpsuit legs are the widest I've ever seen! Somewhere in the Netherlands Maxima is consumed by white-hot jealousy because she didn't think of the outfit first!

I found this old . She sounds very American, as does her brother (no surprise really), and Charlotte really is the spitting image of her. Bonus points for Barbara Walters' massive 80s bouffant!

Yep, the Grimaldis are dead to the Netherlands now.

Oh I assumed it was a gown, and Jacques was making the gap.
Well we haven’t seen the Dutch Xmas card yet!

I loved that for the twins' recent birthday she wore a princess dress and denim jacket and he wore jeans, a Spider-Man hoodie and trainers. Clearly their choices and Charlene left them to it!

I think Charlene is wearing one of these (not this exact one but this style) a jump suit with a skirt overlay which is why it looks so wide. I still hope one day we will see Kate in a jumpsuit and no I don't mean the 70s through back denim one but I don't think it will happen. Meghan maybe but I'm not sure they would suit her body shape as well?

Wow! I love that jumpsuit!

I like the Grimaldi card, a lovely grouping and colour co-ordination. The photo of the twins with the baubles is sweet, and the Christmas theme is nice too.

Ada - how was the cost passed onto the community? It would have been met by the Crown surely? No way would the local council have been footing the bill! You can also understand why they didn't want to live on the base. It's not as though they could have lived with the other families as equals, and everything they did would have been in the papers. They wouldn't have had a private moment, with everyone watching and commenting on their every action. It wouldn't have worked at all, especially once George was born!

Charlene needs to lay off the botox and fillers. She's very much a "natural" beauty and the extras aren't doing her any favours.

I love that jumpsuit! Gorgeous.
I like that the Grimaldi card is actually quite festive and references Christmas! Better than the assorted Windsor offerings. (although the Cambridge children are sweet!)

Princess Charlene’s Instagram full of her kids & sports.

Yes I can understand Kate and Williams choice. How was that cost passed on to the community?

The base at Valley is grim! Can fully understand why they wouldn't want to live there. And I thought the 'cottage' they rented was in the grounds of a larger manor house and down a dead end road on a bit of a peninsula making security fairly straightforward.

Meghan used to design a collection for Reitmans Canadian department store.
Here she is

I didn't know that @CurlyWurlyTwirly, Meghan seems to have many strings to her bow! That interview dates from before she met Harry too.

The Caroline of Monaco interview was interesting. I’d love to know which 5 languages she speaks fluently. I’m assuming English, French, Italian and 2 others,
Her accent is very well bred. Would the Americans on the thread let me know if her accent is considered WASP in the US?
Also Rainier sounded very British with a slight hint of french

Found in 2015. So her interest in humanitarian (as much as I hate that word) issues existed before she met Harry.

@CurlyWurlyTwirly I'd never heard Rainier speak so I YouTubed an interview and you're right! Margarethe of Denmark has a very cut-glass accent too.

owls At the time there was huge amount of discussion locally about the cost of security for Will & Kate in Blaenau Ffestiniog.
When Will was there on his own, North Wales Police supplied a special 15 strong unit of armed police to protect him, and the cost soared significantly after Kate moved in.
The cost is borne by the local police force and ultimately by Council Tax payers.

William should have funded this from his own fortune, but he let the people of North Wales pay for it.

Going back to jumpsuits, I think Kate would look fabulous in one. Her figure is perfectly suited to long and lean lines.

I bought one once but immediately returned it as I looked like I was about to head off to work at the local garage!

When were they in Blaenau Ffestiniog AdaColeman ? I know they lived on Anglesey when he was based at Valley.

Would the Americans on the thread let me know if her accent is considered WASP in the US?

Well, WASP stands for white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, and the Kellys were and are Catholic, but Caroline's accent does have a bit of what is often referred to as a Northeastern drawl that is often associated with WASP culture. It is similar in some ways to the way Jackie Kennedy spoke (also Catholic, by the way). So it definitely has upper class connotations.

However, I would call it more a Mid-Atlantic accent; there are definitely influences of her father's British accented English in her speech.