Festive Christmas Time

One nice thing about Christmas in Berlin is that there is not too much Christmas filling up the streets. Especially in our neighborhood. Christmas exist in spesific places and you can go there if you wish to indulge. At home I desided to decorate a bit more for Christmas than usually. Since my family was coming I also organised a Christmas tree (although not quite traditional).

It does somehow brighten up the place in these dark times and the livingroom seemed a little bit more sad when I took down the ornaments and put the tree back out on the balcony so that it would not dry out.

Chritmas Days

Christmas is the time of good food and company, and this year was no different.

My family came to Berlin to spend the holidays with us, and they brought lots of goodies from Denmark. Christmas eve Edgar also joined us and as always we got two types of roast, three kind of potatoes (one is really only potato chips) and risalamande not to forget. This year I was the fortunate one to get the almond.

On the 25th I baked æbleskiver. My first time ever. They started of small, but I eventually got the hang of it and the last couple ones looked quite good and completely round. Too bad there is a whole year until Christmas again. I guess I will never become an æbleskive-pro if I only get to practice once a year.

But Christmas passed peacefully and I enjoyed very much having everyone gathered in our home.

Julerier

Since I only posted pictures from my trip to France this month, it could almost seem like I forgot it was Christmas. However, December has been full of little Christmas doings and treats, I have just been too busy with stuff to post anything.

I did manage to sit down and write some Christmas greetings, visited a couple of Christmas markets, make some homemade Chrismas wreaths, bake lussebullar for Lucia, make cookies, enjoy the sun in our living room and cook Christmas lunch for three days and have a great time with my friends and lots of good food.

Now with Christmas two days away I am still not completely done with my Christmas shopping, but today my family is arriving in Berlin and I am sure we are going to have some lovely and serene Chrismas days ahead of us. 

Valbonne

Valbonne was a quite little merchant town that with its many narrow streets and cute little detail in many ways reminded me of Trentemoult. We arrived a bit past marked time when all the shops were closing for lunch, but then we found a spot in the sun with coffee and tea and I had a Croque aux pommes.

Monaco

One day we went to Monaco to visit the Jacques Cousteau aquarium, which was a great experience (that I might post some photos of later). Seeing Monaco was also  - if not great - then at least an experience.

I have rarely seen a city that dense, and it makes me wonder how if really feels to live there. I don't think it would be a place for me. After driving around for a long time looking for a place to park, we went for a quick walk at the promenade looking at all the private yachts and admired the beautiful opera building. Then we headed straight for the old town where the aquarium is.

Vence

Vence is a cute little town, that I am sure seemed much bigger to me than it really is.
Here are some snapshots of some of the charming corners.