... mulled wine! Let's get in the Christmas spirit on this first Friday in December!
We have friends who lived in Belgium for a while and the first December they were there we went to visit. It was such a lovely atmosphere there, and visiting the Christmas markets in Brussels was such a lovely day out. When you bought your mulled wine to keep your hands (and insides) warm while you were walking around, you were able to keep your cup or glass. These particular mulled wine mugs are actually from Cologne; we enjoyed the European markets so much we tried somewhere else the following year. Happy memories! Can you believe that we are in December? You'll notice that we don't have our decorations up yet - family tradition dictates that we do that just before Paul's birthday so we have another week or so to wait yet. To be honest, much as I love the decorations, I am always ready to take them down between Christmas and New Year. My one concession to early decorating is this festive ribbon wreath that I made!
Do you have particular family traditions at this time of year? It's always interesting to hear how other people organise their time. When we went to Belgium that year we had to leave our shoes outside of our bedrooms on December 5th and in the morning Sinterklaas had left chocolate gifts for us. That's the start of the celebrations over there.
Have you heard of the statue in Brussels called Manneken Pis? A little boy relieving himself into a fountain. He's pretty famous over there and is dressed up for national occasions.
As you can imagine, excitement is mounting amongst the youngsters of the family. school Christmas fairs have been visited, Elves on the shelves have arrived, letters to Santa written and soon we will be visiting the illuminations at the Enchanted Gardens at Audley End to get in the festive mood. My Zumba Christmas party is on Sunday which should be good fun and we have a few meals out with friends in the next couple of weeks.
This year we are all going to our daughter's for Christmas Day. It will be the first time for years that Jon and his family will be there too. They usually join us for Boxing Day and spend Christmas Day at his in laws but they are having a break from that routine this year. I'm always mindful of those for whom Christmas is not a time of celebration for whatever reason - we had an awful year in 1997 when my mum died the week before Christmas Day - and I really do never take it for granted.
So that is it for this month, thank you for visiting! Next time we have a cup of tea together, it will be the New Year - can you believe it?
How lovely to sit with a nice big mug of tea; these mugs are delightfully fun & yes I can get my hands wrapped around them for the warmth. I see you've made some mince tarts, I like your lids on them, I usually just made an open star but just like my hands on the mug, I do like mincemeat tarts wrapped. Oh please do share your recipe when you get a moment. School Christmas fetes are fun, the children all get so excited to participate. I have often wished to be in London England for Christmas to see all the decorations, but wouldn't a trip to Belgium be easy from there for the markets. A nice change for your Christmas Day plans. Well must dash, thanks for tea & treats :)
ReplyDeleteI am at the school disco later, so I will stick to a mug of tea for now! I love the European Christmas traditions ... always my favourite time of year when I lived in Germany.
ReplyDeleteGood that it is your turn this year to host the Big Day for your son and his family ... how lovely to be all together!
Oh, I can just feel the excitement as your read your post! What fun:) Thanks for boosting my spirit - my Christmas spirit. I wrangled with outdoor lights this afternoon and they have seriously put a kink in my spirit! We have not decorated inside either (we always waited until just after my husband's birthday) but now that the kids are grown, I think I'm okay to change that "tradition." I need to get to it! We also have great memories from Belgium....one of our favorite visits (and we would love to visit again.....maybe we should at Christmas!!)
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of putting your shoes out for St. Nicholas until moving to Nashville in 1985--that is until the girls came home from school on the 6th lamenting the fact that he hadn't stopped by our house! He came a day late that year, but he never missed us again!
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