Letztes Jahr der Weihnachtsmarkt

Yes! It's that time of year again! The Christmas markets are starting to pop up again and my most favorite is the one in Aachen, Germany! I've invaded it every year since we first got stationed here...and it makes me very..very sad that this will be our last one. Of course, I'll invade this particular one a few more times within the next month, but still..2012 is the last year we'll be attending 'em. 

Le Sigh. 

All the stores were decked out with Christmas decor! Everything looked so pretty and magical, especially the bakeries. Then again, I think I'm rather partial to the pastries since I'm a little bit of a glutton...naahhhh....

I was actually pretty surprised that more people weren't there since today was the opening day for the market. But, the weather wasn't very favorable since it was rather chilly and raining throughout our entire visit. I'm sure most people preferred to stay all bundled up at home and snuggled up on the couch. I'm positive Eric would've preferred to do the same thing, but he was a trooper and opted to troll the market with me cause he's awesome like that. Actually, it's because he was bribed with Starbucks...

 Eric was completely smitten with the size of the long wieners that were being grilled throughout the market stalls. Nevermind the fact that we had just gorged ourselves on our favorite sushi joint, lol...he was still willing to inhale one of those bad boys!

The town hall was looking gorgeous as usual:

Eric got this crazy look in his eye and I couldn't figure out what was going on behind me...sure enough...

...one of the market vendors was selling cotton candy. All was lost. So...so very lost...

Once Eric's sugar gremlin was appeased, I went around to my favorite market vendor who sells the German glass ornaments - Inge's Christmas Heirlooms. I actually wrote out a list of the various ornaments I was looking for. Yes, seriously. Ya see, my Christmas tree is like my own little travel / life passport where I get ornaments to symbolize big things that have happened or things that are important to me. For example, I was looking for a passport ornament because of all the traveling I've done since we've been here...or a hot air balloon since we'll be moving to New Mexico. Here's some of the ornaments we were able to snag:

Since Aachen's market is our absolute favorite, it was definitely necessary to buy their official ornament:

Eric has an obsession with Chocopolis in Brussels. So much, in fact, that once we move to New Mexico and when it gets to a cooler time of the year there...he'll be ordering his favorite coffee chocolate from them and having it shipped to us. THAT, my friends, is dedication. 

Eric actually picked this one out for me. It's because I cook so much...and he loves my cooking. It's also because when he attempted to make something once and used a metal utensil in my very nice & very expensive Pampered Chef pans. I *informed* him in a rather panicked tone that you never use metal on metal...always use plastic or wood. So, I find it rather humorous that they actually have a wooden spoon glass ornament available..

The providence we live in is very known for its equestrian talents. There's always some sort of riding event going on somewhere around here , which is actually pretty cool to watch. Not only that, but the area around our house has five gorgeous horses (two of which have been born since we've been here)..and whenever we go for a walk, they run up to the fence line because they've gotten accustomed to the apples & carrots we toss their way. I'm honestly gonna miss those guys! Whenever I pull into the drive way and get out of my truck, two of 'em always rush up to the fence line and greet me with snorts & hoof stomps till I acknowledge them. 

Eric was VERY relieved that those were the only ornaments I picked up, although, none of those were on my original shopping list...so of course I'm still on the hunt for those particular items. As we walked around some more, we came across a vendor whose stall was full of gorgeous little cottages, cathedrals, little churches and all sorts of various things you'd use to make mini towns for a Christmas setting. One piece IMMEDIATELY caught my eye because it looks SO much like the church in the town we live in. After humming and haaing about it, we finally decided to snag it because knowing our luck, if we were to come back at another time to get it, it'd be gone. 

Oh, and lets not forget about Lush. During the winter time, they come out with "Snow Fairy", which I completely fell inlove with last year and have been itching to get a hold of again. Sure enough, we popped in there and they had a bunch of it on the shelf. I stocked up on a few bottles and looked a little too giddy about it...I think the staffed picked up on it cause they were giggling about how excited I was when showing Eric "LOOK! LOOK! THEY GOT IT! EEEEE!!!"

No date day is complete without Starbucks....since I was still very stuffed from the sushi, Eric opted to get himself his usual. In the process of getting his drink, he inquired about them selling their large "in house" mugs because we KNOW they used to sell 'em, but always came at a bad time, or they just didn't have enough in stock. Well, this time, they had 'em. So of course, he bought 'em and went on his merry way to meet up with me since I was off taking pictures of stuffs. I got a chance to check 'em out once we got home and I was surprised that they changed the mugs! They used to have the green siren logo on the front...and now it's just a recessed image in the mug (which shape has also been changed). Either way, I was happy with 'em!

Sounds dorky, but I thought it was pretty cool that they have a "V" on the handle to represent "Venti"..it's the little things, right? :)

So, there ya have it. That was our day...pillaging the Christmas market, did some people watching, did some shopping and ended up coming home to defrost since it was rather chilly / soggy over in beautiful Germany. On that note, off to enjoy some nice hot tea that Eric made :) 

Read More

Merry Christmas :)

I hope everyone has a VERY Merry Christmas! 

Read More

Cookie Exchange Mayhem

Over the last three years, I've participated in a really fun Cookie Exchange that one of my friends has thrown. Every time, she's changed the theme so people can get pretty creative with their cookie names, designs and even how they dress. Sadly, this is her last year doing it since she'll be moving back to the states in the middle of this up coming year. *pout*

Being true to form, I stuck with my traditional cream cheese cookies since they seem to be a hit every year, despite never winning "Best Tasting". I don't get that..I really don't, lol. Every year, I get loads of compliments on them, always get asked to make more, but I never win that specific category. 

This year, I figured I'd box up all the cookies and would keep my fingers crossed for hopefully winning the "Presentation" category. So, I scoured the internet while I was back in California, found some "Winter Wonderland" themed cookie boxes and had 'em shipped here. Honestly, I was pretty shocked at how nice they actually were considering they weren't all that expensive. For the life of me, I can't remember where I ordered 'em from :(

Pictured below are all the ingredients I used to make this cookie factory come to life: 

25 cups of flour

10 cups of sugar

10 cups of butter

56 ounces of cream cheese
10 egg yolks

YES, that's a whole lot of cookies to be made with that amount of ingredients! When I originally RSVP'd to the exchange, I could've sworn that participants were required to bake A LOT of cookies...like thirteen dozen. Apparently, I really didn't read the directions properly because people only needed to make FOUR dozen..go me! So, everyone ended up with a dozen and a half cookies each box...and I made eighteen boxes, lol. 

My trusty Pampered Chef Cookie Press:

I ended up using six of my stoneware pieces to cycle through all the cookies that needed to be baked...aye aye aye..

By the time I was done, I made a total of 400 cookies in which 288 was used for the Cookie Exchange. The others were given to friends who asked for some when they found out I was making them, lol. I ended up doing coconut frosting since that seemed to be a massive hit last year, verses using my traditional lemon frosting. Eric was absolutely thrilled *please note my sarcasm* to help me "paint" all of 'em since it gets really tiring, yet wasteful, to dip all the cookies in the icing. 

Here's how everything looked by the time we were done :) 

Oh, and I won "Best Presentation"! YAY!

Read More

Christmas Spirit

Ahhhh!! I finally got my Christmas stuff up in the house! Yes, I really slacked this year since I normally do it the day after Thanksgiving..but seeing how we had TWO Thanksgivings, and I haven't been feeling like a million bucks..it got postponed a little bit. 

So, we hammered it out today since the weather was pretty cold & yucky (blah!)...and we weren't really willing to go anywhere. Once a took down all my beloved fall goodies, Eric dug out the "Christmas vaults" from the garage and we started throwing all the Christmas cheer around the house: 

Our foyer..obviously this is my area:

This is Erics area because of not only the sign, but because it has the Thugnifiscent Santa triplets. 

Speaking of Santa..look who I caught in my kitchen!! He knew where the cookies were stashed!
What a fatty! 

Next up was the living room. Since I overran it with Fall stuff, Eric and I made a deal for me to tone down all the Christmas-y stuff on the entertainment stuff. I guess it's "distracting" or whatever. Hey, it's not everyday that it's CHRISTMAS! It's only one time of year, psssh. So. I only put some poinsettia vines as well as our animal Santa there: 

Our standard stockings with the stocking holders I customized a few years ago:

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE!!! I'm actually really surprised how many little blown glass ornaments I've collected since we've been here. Where ever I travel to, I get a glass ornament for it as a reminder ( a clock for Germany, beer stein for Belgium, polish pottery bell for Poland, etc). Sadly, our tree doesn't have lights on it this year since they seemed to have burned out while in storage. As much as I'd love to go buy more, I really don't wanna since we have one Christmas in Europe left, so I don't really see the point in doing that. I mean, HOPEFULLY we'll end up staying overseas (I'd LOVE that!) but I'm not gonna count my eggs before they hatch:

Yes, that's a hedgehog. Why do I have one? Because, we have had several visits by Rosalee ever since she introduced herself back in September of last year. I've been on the hunt for a cute hedgehog ornament for a while, but all the ones I've found made 'em look like they had rabies or something. It just so happened when I was in California putzing around Macys, they had their Christmas stuff out (gotta love retail stores!!) and they had these really cute hedgies! The whole thing is blown glass, but the back has a fuzzy felt on it.  I ended up buying two JUST IN CASE one happened to get smashed in the process of shipping them here. Luck was apparently on my side since neither of 'em were destroyed (YAY!) so now I have two hedgies in my european tree :)

Even my office has some Christmas spirit in it. I busted out my new Scentsy warmer that's called "Blizzard"...it's so pretty!! It's got a glossy finish to it with areas punched out in the shape of snowflakes. Then when you turn it on, you have snowflakes glowing:

I love it! Plus I have my favorite smell, "Silver Bells", in the warmer so my office smells all cozy :)

Last, but not least, my Santa chicken. Yes, a Santa chicken. There's an awesome florist store in a near by town that I love to stalk because they get these really quirky little chickens in through the various months. I've ended up getting a few different ones (a chef, angel, one with a apron, etc), so I thought it was fitting that I get "The Big Guy" to go along with the others..even though he'll only make an appearance once a year. It's the thought that counts, right?

In the midst of going through the Christmas vaults, I found some old outfits I picked up for the weenies when they were little. Sigh, I miss it when they're puppies..nice and small... Anyway, Piper has stayed pretty small, then again, she's only eight months old, but still..she's petite. To Eric's disapproval, I found the infamous Elf hat! Guess who got to sport it??

As you can see...A very happy Peep!

Yes, I'm THAT kind of dog owner. Don't judge me. 

Read More

My sickness....has returned....

Ahhhhh...this that time of year when the Christmas markets around Europe return! When the Christmas markets pop up, that means I'm able to get some pretty bitchin' blown glass ornaments for my tree.  Today was the opening day for Aachens WeihnachtsMarkt (here's posts from the FIRST and SECOND time I've attended) and it was everything I was expecting! Although, it seems like they spread out the vendors more than last year, but the majority of the same people I bought from were still there. In fact, a lady I bought my Jim Shore animal Christmas statue from two years ago (and last year) remembered me! How cool is that? I guess I leave a lasting impression? :)

Anyway, I made a straight shot for my favorite vendor, Inge's Christmas Heirlooms, who sells blown glass ornaments:

I have a thing about collecting glass ornaments for our tree of various places we've visited, or things that remind me of important events...so at this point, the Christmas tree looks like a massive passport stamp cause it's got stuff from all over on it. Last year, I bought what I considered "Big Ben", but when I showed it to Eric, he said it looked like the bell tower in our town. Now every time I look at it, I don't think of our trip to London...I think of my town center, lol. If only I could find a blown glass pear, then I'd be a happy camper! My town is "Peer" but it's pronounced like "Pear"..and our town mascot is a dude hugging a pear, lol. It seems impossible to find one as a glass ornament!!!

Since Eric and I went to the market together today, I was able to get his opinion on which ornaments to pick up since I didn't wanna pick out something (again) and get my happy bubble popped. Here's what we ended up getting:

There is NO freaking way this can get mistaken for something in my town! It's Santa dressed up as a Royal Guard standing next to Big Ben! I was torn between this or an iconic red phone booth, but this pleased Eric since it has two alarmingly obvious things that symbolize London!

 We've been doing quite a bit of traveling this year, so I thought it was father fitting to get some luggage ornaments. The white one is mine while the red is Erics:

Of course, since we have out newest fur baby addition to the family, I wanted to add another puppy to the mix for the tree:

I meant to get one of these last year, but by the time I made it back up to the market to snag one, they were sold out :( It's a Lebkuchen cookie (kinda like gingerbread) that says "For You" ..makes me think of my Grandma cause she got them for me when I was little :) There was one we kept in our house for YEARS that said " Ich liebe dich", which means "I love you".

 And this...is my FAVORITE this year!! When I saw it, I said "OH MY GOD. This is coming home with me!" ...totally PERFECT since I love taking pictures and I really wanna hone my skills! I showed it to Eric and he said the same thing. How cool is this??? And it was VERY reasonably priced compared to some of the simpler ornaments they had. 

I'm still on a mission to find an Eiffel Tower as well as an Edelweiss to add to my collection, although for some reason, they're really hard to find! Given, there's eBay and what not..but some of the people on there are asking ridiculous prices for some of those things! Oh well, I have several more weeks of various Christmas markets to explore, so, fingers crossed!!

Read More

Christmas Markets - Part Duex

Last year, I made my rounds to several different Christmas markets between Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands. My absolute favorite from then was Aachen, Germany cause I managed to score some pretty cute stuff (here's the post from last year: Hood-Tastic ).  Here's another post talking about the ornaments I picked up: She who dies with the most ornaments...WINS! .

So, I had high expectations this year considering last year was so awesome. Then again, maybe since last year was my first time experiencing European Christmas markets, everything was just THAT amazing to me. I dunno! 

I headed to Aachen today since I had made plans with a friend if mine to go. Sadly, she had to opt out because her son seems to have caught a nasty bug that's been floating around (causes kids to look like the exorcist and puke). I ended up going solo since I was really excited to go and I was alright with heading up there by myself (I'm a big girl, I can handle it). Parking was a nightmare. Forty five minutes of frustration, people tail gating me, getting cut off and almost hit a few times... my blood pressure went through the roof and managed to give myself a nice headache by the time I finally found a place to park. I guess today was trash day, so a lot of the businesses where you can park (parking area's around the streets) were filled up with large trash cans or tons of trash bags, or people were parking very stupid / inconsiderately to where it was impossible to park another car.

After much aggravation, I found a spot. Luckily, I brought my jacket with a hood because it started raining shortly after began walking around! 

After walking around for about 10 minutes, I realized there weren't as many vendors there as there were last year. Doesn't seem like it at first, but once you notice there's "more room" than before, you tend to see where the "holes" are. Kinda disappointing :-/ If anything, it's just pretty to walk around and see all the different decorations that the vendors had up. Luckily, the lady who I bought my ornaments from last year was there:

I managed to pick up one that thought looked like Big Ben....but when I showed it to Eric, he said "Oh nice! It's the bell tower in Peer!". That quickly deflated my personal victory cause when I looked at it, he was right. It looks like the freaking tower! Now I gotta go back, or enlist someone for their services, and get a double-decker red bus so it's "FOR SURE" a symbol of London! It's all Eric's fault.

After I got the ornament, I picked up some potato fritters (they're absolutely UH-mazing)....definitely something I look forward to during Christmas markets! They offered me apple sauce with it, but I didn't want any considering I still wanted to walk around without dribbling sauce every where:

From there, I walked around a little more and killed some time since I was waiting for the local sushi place to open up. No, I wasn't eating for myself since I just had the potato fritter. Well, technically I was. I was picking up sushi for dinner since Eric and I wanted some.

On the way there, I figured I'd take a few random pics cause things looked pretty:

All in all, it was "OK", but not mind blowing like last year. The only thing that's really gonna make me go back is the ornaments and the potato fritters. I think Eric and I are going to venture over to Koln's market, or even Bernkastels since I know theirs is officially going on. Might as well kill two birds with one stone (Christmas market and get our pottery!)

Read More