Strasbourg - Capitale de Noël

We decided that we will connect Cléments job interview in Strasbourg with a little trip to visit his friends there and to shop for some christmas presents. Calling themselves the "Capital of Christmas" seemed pretty outrageous at first. But offering 11 christmas markets made it look quite legit.

Every little space that the city offers is covered with little cabins where people sell amazing things to eat, to wear, to play with or to decorate your house. There are stages with choires singing that it gives you chills that are not caused by the minus 2 degrees. Every street has some different kind of lightning and the the thin layer of snow that covered the city made the impression of a winter wonderland complete.

Mail box of Santa Clause :)

We met Sabrina on one of the christmas markets and took a little walk around. Then we found a little cheese restaurant to fill our stomachs with wonderful french cheese. Afterwards we rolled home.

Raclette and crusty cheese 

The next day we did another trip around the markets with Sabrina and Mathieu, ate wonderful Gauffre and Schuupfnudels and did some shopping before taking the crowded train with a lot of drunk football hooligans home which was quite sad because it ruined the peaceful pre-christmas atmosphere we built up in Strasbourg.

Sabrina & Mathieu

So everybody who loves christmas and christmas markets, I can only recommend you Strasbourg with its wonderful diversity between kitsch and art.

Advent, Advent, ein Päckchen bringt

And there is was.... the 1st of December. And every kid in the world knows what starts on this very day, starting the christmas marathon of christmas decoration, gift shopping and card wrtiting: the advent calendar! To start every day with a smile, I made one of my famous and proven to be fun calendars for my friends in Enschede, Laura and Frank.

I took some pictures that Frank shot when they where visiting me and Clément here in Ulm and turned them into a 100 piece puzzle. I wrapped some pieces in some paper and made 24 little parcels. I can say that this kind of advent calendar is fun, because I tried it last year with Clément, who was actually not able to keep himself from opening the parcels before the date that was written on it was reached!

One could say, it might even be too much fun.... Or that Cléments self-regulation is not very well developed. Either way, I sent a box with the 24 little parcels along with two jokers to them and yesterday and with a six day delay it finally arrived . Lucky for them, because they were allowed to open six parcels at once.

And I got this picture showing how far they have come.

Have fun guys, with your advent calendar!

And Clément got another one this year, again with a puzzle so he can work on his ability to delay gratification. And this year, I can keep an eye on him and make sure he stays on shedule.