Good tidings

Happy Holidays everyone!

Despite being amidst an IVF cycle, we still managed to enjoy ourselves this Holiday season. My first Christmas living in Belgium...

One of the best things about Europe for me is the delicious wines and champagne - so it really stunk to not be able to partake. We did, however, enjoy seeing family in Kortrijk - that's in Northern Belgium or 'Flanders', where my husband was born. And as always, we did a lot of marvelous eating. That's one American stereotype about Belgium that definitely pans out with my in-laws. They take their food very seriously. I think we eat gourmet here more than not (which by the way, Food and Wine just came out with their list of top recipes of all time - I just love that magazine. And their website is the best - I weekly turn to it for quick meal ideas. All of which are scrumptiously divine...They have a great search engine on their site where you can even plug in an ingredient (not sure what to do with that bag of carrots in the crisper?), and voilà! appears countless ideas....)...

In addition to the fine wines and food,  I also really love the Christmas markets (referred to here as marchés de Noël).

Many towns put on a huge Christmas market in the town center, showcasing everything beautiful about Europe in one nifty locale. Ours (which was under a tent because of all the snow we've been getting) offered Christmas trees, chocolate, patisseries, warm wine and more; and allowed artisans to set up booths with their goods.

I absolutely love and cherish the emphasis here on homemade. It is such a breath of fresh air; reminding me of getting back to what it is really all about. I savour the delicious creativity and uniqueness.

People flock to various markets all across Europe, and not just here in Belgium. People do their Christmas shopping there and enjoy walking around with friends and family.

Travel agencies are still pretty predominant here and locally offered various day trips by bus to Christmas markets in Germany, France, Luxembourg, and Belgium. We had signed up for several we were really excited about - but all were cancelled due to the blizzard. My mother (back home in the good ol' U-S-of-A) says it even made the news there. It's the most snow we've seen in more than a 100 years. It just wouldn't stop snowing.

All we had on us was an iPhone so the pics aren't that great - but here you can get a taste of what I'm talking about...