All Things Christmas - Part 1

Those of you that know me well, know that I love, love, LOVE Christmas and everything to do with it. In particular, the shopping! For the longest time, I have wanted to visit a traditional German Christmas market and last weekend, P and I did just that.

We flew into Munich and met up with our friends New Mum and New Dad. They left their little one with her parents who live just an hour away.

The city has several Christmas markets dotted around, each one with its own theme. My favourite was of course the main market in the Town Square:

This is the biggest advent calendar I have ever seen, so pretty right?


There was also a medival market, which I at first thought was a market for middle-aged people (middle ages) ha ha. Sometimes, even when you have known someone for over 10 years, things DO get lost in translation!

I set myself a budget and stuck to it, but still managed to buy quite a few lovely items for the tree. My most extravagent buy was a hand-painted glass decoration with a winter scene. It has pride of place on my living room shelf:

Besides beer and handmade Christmas decorations, another thing the Germans do well is food. We ate lots and I now bear a slight resemblance to a pork knuckle (big and brown):


Some guys who didn't look like pork knuckles were the storm drain surfers. On the edge of the Englischer Gartens is a huge drain where water gushes out, permanently creating a surf. There is a group of surfers who 'ride the waves' in the middle of the city, even in temperatures close to zero. We spent almost an hour just watching them jump, turn and fall into the freezing waters. They were absolutely amazing.



It was a super weekend where we drank a little, ate too much, laughed even more and had a fantastic time with good friends.

P and I got home and I couldn't help but put the Christmas tree and decorations up in our own house even though I was so exhausted. I love my new handmade patchwork tree skirt, which I bought online (of course!):


I managed to find another great seller online who made the reindeer garland and door hanger:



The pine table wreath is from our local florists:

I didn't decorate the upstairs area much. A friend made this huge stocking for me years ago and I've hung it over the master bedroom door. P thinks it's wishful thinking that it will be filled ha ha but dreaming is for free right?

The garland in Cath Kidston's 'Lapland' fabric hangs across the guest room window:



In just a couple of weeks, our friends will arrive from the Land of the Free and the Small Island respectively. I just cannot wait to see them. I'm sure we'll eat and drink too much, but that is what the festive season is all about!