Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve went over to a friend from Frisbee's house for dinner. We got to enjoy a traditional Romanian dish of stuffed cabbage leaves and learn how to make our own warm Christmas wine.

Matt intently playing "Even Flow" on a home-rigged Guitar Hero.Laura not quite getting it.

After dinner we played Kolonisten - my new favorite game (stroop wafels to the first person that can find the English version for me). It was an interesting combination of Monopoly, Risk, and a lot of strategy. I really enjoy playing board games, but have a hard time controlling my competitiveness - and of course, I won.

Christmas Time

There is no standing in line at 4am the day after Thanksgiving for the best bargain of the season. There is no jolly ole St. Nick to listen to your list of wishes. There is no frantic fury of gift buying on the eve of Christmas. There are no parking attendants in Santa suits directing scores of SUVs, driven by harried shoppers, into over crowded mall parking garages.

But it's Christmas time here just the same. The subtle hints of the season popping up everywhere from market squares to the grocery stores. My favorite signs of the season are:

• With the coming of holiday meals, the grocery store has an entire line of "Feest Dagen" foods. Extra dark chocolate spread for crepes and toast, special kaas stengels, rich soups, candied breads, flavored brie, and Christmas tree shaped chicken nuggets are just a few of the treasures that have shown up in the gorcery store over the past few weeks. The Christmas meal must be a fancy affair over here, because there are also wonderful prepared horderves, amuses, stuffed/spiced/marinated meats, and even fancy cauliflower! The best time to buy all this food is the morning of Christmas Eve, when almost all of it is going 35% off (because the grocery stores actually closes from Christmas Day 1 & 2).
• Almost every town square is transformed into an outdoor ice skating rink! Hopefully, weather permitting, this is where we will be on Christmas day - skating in the park with warm Christmas wine. Don't worry mom, the rink aren't schedule to close until after you visit!
  
• The streets of town are lit up with Christmas lights. In Delft there is a party in the town square called Lichtjesavond, where they light the Christmas tree for the first time. It was a lovely evening with music from the Delft symphony, dancers, torch bearers, and a small Christmas market.

I am sure next year I will be in line again at 4am the day after Thanksgiving, but it has been nice to have a low key holiday this year.

Mikulas Day

After the movie, we grabbed a cup of warm medovina (or mead) and wandered through the Christmas Markets in Wencelas Square. The atmosphere was cheery and festive and the square was decorated with trees, lights, and nativities, but for a moment you might think it was Halloween- except all the costumes were the same.It was Mikulas Day in Prague - a holiday similar to Sinterklaas with a few notable differences. Mikulas, the Czech word for St. Nicholas, is celebrated on the eve of December 6th in many eastern European countries.

Teenagers, dressed as St. Nicholas, angels, and devils, travel in packs to young children and ask them if they have been bad or good this year. The good ones sing a song and are rewarded with small treats and candy from St. Nicholas and the angels. The bad ones, well they have a fate worse than Spain for year. According the Czech Republic tourism website, bad children are sacked by the devils and taken straight to hell for the year. I don't know about you, but I think as a child I would have rather stayed home and forgone the candy than wonder the streets and worry if I had not cleaned my room up enough and therefore was going to get sacked. Especially with teenagers making the decision - we all know what great judges of characters they are (insert story from your own adolescence here).

While observing the holiday activities, we enjoyed roasted chestnuts and trdlo - a sweet, roasted bread.

A Visit from Sinterklaas!

Since Sinterklaas knew we would be in Prague on the 5th & 6th, he came a few days early. When we got home from Frisbee on Thursday night we found our shoes filled with traditional Sinterklaas treats! Since we don't have a chimney, he must have crawled through our radiator with his bag of treats. Don't worry, he and his horse were well fed for their trouble since carrots were abundantly stuffed in the shoes (due to them being on sale this week at the Albert Heijn - marketing, anyone?).

MMM! Chocolate Letters, Chocolate Covered Pepernoten, & Almond Pastry Letters

(This is not a holiday where you can wait until the last minute to purchase food & supplies. I mean, how would you explain to your son John that Sinterklaas got him the letter "O" instead of "J"? I bought my letters back in October to make sure I got the correct Dark Chocolate letters.)

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

or at least Sinterklaas.

The view from our apartment - don't think I will be venturing any father.

Maybe, if not a white Christmas, we will get a white Sinterklaas!

Brussels Christmas Market

Lights on buildings, Christmas trees, warm Kriek beer, ice skating in the square, Ferris wheels, Merry-Go-Rounds, carolers singing, mulled Christmas wine, crafts, snow...

It's time for Christmas Markets!

We planned our trip to Brussels to coincide with the Christmas Markets and it was definitely the highlight of my trip!












Warm Kriek Beer & the view from the top of the Ferris Wheel.













Ice Skating in the square.