The best Chrismtas / Hanukka gift

It is so nice to be a mixed couple. I am Jewish  therefore I celebrate Hanuka this time of the year, and my man, well he is an atheist, but still celebrates Christmas with the Christmas tree  , lights etc. 

As you probably read before, this last year was so hectic and full of changes. We started out with practically nothing, and made a huge makeover to literally renovate our whole house. 

I have been blessed this year, I am in a better place then I have been last year and I can give to people. I can sit in my own living room on my couch, and not on a garden chair in the middle of our empty living room. 

In December, Last year, we had no money, but my beautiful soul mate of a husband made us a Christmas tree and a menorah (Hanukkya for Hanuuka) , from Paper and drew on it:

I thought (and still do) that it was the sweetest thing in the world, you don't really need to have money to feel loved and have a holiday spirit. 

This year, we worked ourselves hard to make our home a proper home and to be able to enjoy the holiday. 

Sinterklaas 

We made our little house so nice for the holidays, and of course, here are the pictures:

It all started with Sinterklaas. That is a Dutch holiday in which the Dutch version of Santa Clause (The same guy), and he comes with his assitant Zwarte pitt (which is black since he goes down the chimney) and he gives children presents if they leave their shoe under the fireplace with some treat for his horse. so we did;

It started with the gifts in the shoes: 

 Then we met him in the metro

 He refused to take pictures with us since he was with another one and they were taking pictures with other children

 But then, we got home, and he was faster then us; he gave Bas so many gifts:

 And this was mine...

 This popcake maker is all mine! yay! I love you Zwarte Pitt ...

 He gave us some nice choclates with our Letter on them B for Bas

 And the coffee maker works ;)

 Then some more boxes came ringing at the door, boy this zwarte pitt works hard

Here you see my little christmas tree, I bought it at a store for 2 Euros, and decorated it myself with small glass balls (1 Euros) and some silk string, I took some old christmas lights and recycled them, I am kinda proud of this little project :) 

You can also see the little white house I got in the Germany Christmas market. 

As I said, we were in the Christmas market in Dussedorf ,Germany last week, (Scroll down in this blog to read all about it and watch all the beautiful photos we made) 

Well, I got all this loot from the market 

* 1 Peak for the christmas tree. 

* 1 white house for a candle, with a gnome on it. 

* 4 very nice christmas decorations for our little tree. 

And here is my Hanuka lamp (Hanukkiya) that I got from my parents, with 3 candels.  That was very nice that we could light this in our little house in Rotterdam.

We decorated the closets with small houses lamps, and the staircase with tiny lights (my man did that). 

You can see all the snow moppets I have put on the shelves. 

Here is my little village of dutch houses (scroll down to see some German houses in the German market I visited):

And here it is our tree for this year ... a voila! 

(With lights and everything)

Kerstmarkt / Christmas Market Dusseldorf

Last week, we took our little car on a trip, headed to Dusseldorf, for the yearly christmas market. Oh what an adventure that was. 

We got very early, to find so much snow :

Here are some picture from the 2.5 hours road from Rotterdam to Dusseldorf. May I add that it was a very magical winter day with snow and all? 

Windmill in the sun:

 Beautiful day outside snowy and all 

 This is our hotel room, wasn't so nice to sleep apart :( 

But we headed for the market... 

 Outside the hotel

 Beautiful Dusseldorf canal and I got a kissy on the head 

 Here is the actual market, everywhere there were stalls of goods , 

everything for Christmas:

 Local artwork:

 A lot of lights:

 And Gluhwijn, which is a very nice warm wine with herbs: 

 I ate this potato also, which is originally from Peru, filled with Corn, meat and deep fried... nom nom nom... 

 I loved these cookies which said Ich liebe dich on them (I love you in German)

As a miracle, I found my jewish Leviva / Latke (sort of rosti) food for Hanukka, and ofcourse, I ate it, it's me after all 

 Some more artwork

 As you can see, the market was fully packed with people, and this is a quiet corner...  selling the most delicious mushrooms with onions nom nom nom...

 Duckies, with everything, I found: Ninja duck, glasses duck, doctor duck, panda duck , stig helmet duck . Who do you spot in here? (comment below)

 Small handmade German houses (I have my own collection of Dutch ones, as you saw in the beginning of this blog)

 The stalls were beautiful, and they sold all kinds of terrifeic dishes, like:

Apple pancakes ...

 Sweetened Almonds

 Dears ;) 

 People, oh wait that's just us ;) 

 Here is a collection of old style made toys (made out of Tin), so beautiful

 My friend was so happy :) 

Of course he was , since:

He drank some Gluhwijn

He ate some levivot too

He had hot choclate

And a braadworst (that's german sausage in a bun)

And he finally managed to take a picture with his favorite wrestler CM punk:

We shared some filled chocolate puffs (or Krembulim as we love to call them)

 and ate some more levivot 

We noticed that we weren't dressed very good for  - 2 degrees Celsius, 

so we got some new outfits; 

 And then we could walk around some more: 

 Hello Nurse:

 This bear was warm enough though:

 All the little shops around the square were so beautiful:

 And there was a Carnival 

 I wish my dad could see these, he collects cars

 This hot chocolate was sooo good.... and we got to keep the mug, it was shaped as a snow man ;) we are starting a collection. 

 In the middle of the square there was a beautiful Christmas tree

 If you wait till the end of the blog, you will see a picture of us under the tree...


Then we continued our journey through the stalls and saw:

Some more moppets:

 Candy

 An angel 

 Beautiful streests 

Quotes,  This is one of my favorites 

 And more beautiful shops, this is where I bought my little white house

 We went through at least 3 christmas markets till very late

 Then found a magical bookstore (5 stories high)

 And went back to the market 

 Some magnificant christmas decorations (Glass balls) 

Wooden Artwork 

 Food! 

 Schnitzels 

 Soup 

 More artwork 

 And some braadworst (nom nom nom!) 

 We even saw honey from Finland:

 And toilet brushes, unique ones for the talented ones among us who like to sing while they poop ;) 

 It was magical in Dusseldorf 

 Everywhere in the shops, they put small muppets (stuffed animals) and they all skied, cut wood and made lots of food for Christmas ;) 

For now the best gift I had this Hanukka / Christmas, is to spend it with my man and to have fun . I wish those of you who have been blessed and those who haven't :
Cheers ! Merry Christmas and a happy Hanukka! 

The mad scientis Tula.