Our December so far....

Celebrating Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas Day).  We decided since we were in Belgium, we would participate in their custom of Sinterklaas.  It was on a school day, so we had to get the kids up a bit earlier.  They left their shoes out to be filled with mandarin oranges, peppermint, and some small gifts.  The holiday is typically just for the children, but they insisted that we put our shoes out as well.  It was a nice added tradition to our holiday season.

Christmas Tree Decorating

We didn't bring our tree from home because for one it is huge and wouldn't fit in our house now, and two, it would not plug in to the Euro outlets anyways.  So for the first time we got a real tree.  At first we weren't sure we would easily be able to find one, but as it got further into December they were at some stores and there were a few tree farms around.  We decided to go to one of the farms and pick one out, well, it came from a tree farm but was at roadside tree market.  We were concerned with keeping it watered and a live, but they told us we did not need to water it and it would stay good until February. They said it was just freshly cut from the Ardennes and would stay perfect for awhile...well, for the price it should!  We paid about 130 euros for the tree, a bit more than what we expected but it is still looking good.  Then we had to get lights for the tree....about 15 euros a box, and they are not very long.  We got 3 boxes and our tree is lit up pretty good, not as much as I'd like but good enough for this year.  But after we decorated it, it turned out perfect for us and smells good!

There have been a few broken ornaments...we figured out that heavy ornaments need to be placed way back on the tree.  With our marble floors, they break as soon as they fall!

FIRST SNOW

I was told we didn't get too much snow here and after living in Cleveland for six years, I was glad to hear that.  But we were still excited when we got our first little bit, better than rain at this point.  The kids thought I was crazy when I told them to just run out so I could take a quick picture....I had to bribe them with hot chocolate!

Snow and Ice Festival in Brugge

It was Disneyland Paris theme this year.  All the work and detail was amazing.  It was freezing in there, of course, we had toes and fingers going numb after a little while.

 

 

Of course there was a bar inside....

Drake started not to feel well that day, but he was a trooper.

They even had an ice slide....very fun.