‘Tis the Season

December's theme is ‘Tis the Season", a great opportunity to review the Holidays. 

The catch? We're only supposed to use five pictures. FIVE!! I'll try...
Let me start with a three in one combo. This pictures represent

1. Our Elf on the Shelf - her name is Cookie - she has been visiting us for the fifth time this season, and we always enjoy the surprising places she spends her days watching us.
2. The countdown till Christmas, aka Advent Calendar. This year we decorated little cardboard houses and set them up as a winter wonderland village. As the houses were tiny they could only fit in a toy car or a chocolate candy, I put in a note with a clue on where to find larger surprises like new PJs or a book.
3. Our village life-sized "walk through" Advent Calendar.

Samichlaus weekend is being celebrated on the first weekend of December around here. Samichlaus is like a cousin of Santa's. Read more about him and our tradition here. We usually meet Samichlaus, Schmutzli and their donkeys in the forest, and the next day we say hello to the Harley Santa's in the city.

Technically this is not my own picture of course. My Mom took it. 💖

It's easy to get lost in busyness in December. That's why it's important to stop and smell the coffee. I got to enjoy an hour of ultimate freedom blogging at this wonderfully decorated Starbucks while Colin was having a fun playdate at his hockey buddy's house.

No December without some extra shopping. This is the grocery department at Globus, comparable to Nordstrom or Macy's. I always admire their display of fresh produce, bread and cheese, even their seafood looks pretty! On the other side of the wine department there is a wine bar, and usually it's pretty empty. The other day we were there "after hours" and boy, was it crowded!

Another year we were hoping for a White Christmas in vain. That's where the cotton "snow" balls came in! On Christmas Eve we had a nice dinner with our parents, all the gifts got unwrapped. All but one. I produced this crate full of snowballs. We blew out the candles, secured delicate decoration items and the wine glasses and had a wild snowball fight in our living room!

As every year I am feeling a bit depleted. I put so much care and energy intp preparing for a wonderful Christmas, and after a couple of hours, boom, it's over! 

Well, I left everything up for today's New Year's Eve party. Which is starting in less than two hours here.

Thank you for being part of my blogging journey in 2016 - hope to see you again next year! 

If you'd like to do me a favour head over to my Facebook page and give me a like - much appreciated, thank you!

Happy New Year!

Please check out the other posts here!