Sunset Saturday XXXXIII

A winter sunset near my parents' house in Bavaria. The sun is gone as early as 4pm at this time of the year, making the days quite short, and it is way too warm for snow at the moment, which makes it even darker during the long nights. At least we got to see some blue sky and sunrays today!

Christmas time

Christmas traditionally is a family holiday, and so we left Gaborone to spend some time with my family in Bavaria, and to celebrate my grandmother's birthday. It was great to catch up with everyone, who has travelled from various parts of the world to our hometown, and to eat lots of homemade, delicious food...
Hope everyone had a peaceful Christmas!

Ein Winterspaziergang

like last year I spent a short visit in the North of Germany.

and like last year there is a lot of snow so we went for a beautiful little walk in the countryside adoring the frozen world around us.

happy holidays!

our beloved locally-grown Christmas tree, decorated in beautiful Bavarian colors

hope you all have a wonderful time

merry X-mas!

let it snow

it is snowing and snowing and snowing. and it's cold. like real winter.

everything is covered in white and all the trees and shrubs have big snowy caps.
when the sun comes out and the snow is sparkling it truly feels like a winterwonderland!
looks like we'll have a white X-mas!

in the kitchen

Ever since I made it to my parents' place I've been busy baking (and eating) X-mas biscuits. Outside it is freezing and it has been snowing for the past days, but in our kitchen it is warm and cosy, and this is where I am spending a lot of time these days, watching the snow fall and enjoying a hot cup of tea. It's good to be home for Christmas!

An early Christmas Party

The charity project that I've been involved in for a while was organising a Christmas party on Saturday. Already the week before we were busy preparing everything, including gift bags for more than 2oo children.

On Saturday morning everyone gathered for a Christmas party and it was such a great experience to join the kids singing and celebrating.

With big eyes and huge smiles on their faces they received their gifts after a long wait and then were treated to a warm meal and some cake.

Some of the kids were totally speechless and seemed to have forgotten the world around them for a while.

It was a very moving event and the kids were incredibly to watch.
I am so thankful and proud to have the opportunity to work with the children and the awesome team at Happy Home!

Thanks to my sister for coming with me & taking all the beautiful pictures!

homecoming

I’m back in Europe and very happy to be home!

After stops in Copenhagen and Brussels I finally made it to Munich and enjoyed some pre-X-mas atmosphere, met with friends and family, and got busy with other winter pleasures.

I also got lucky and went for a short skiing trip with good friends in a nice little holiday chalet in Austria!

And then it was time for Christmas!

Tropical X-Mas Party

The other night, we had a little party at our place.
It was the perfect chance for an early X-mas celebration and to say good bye to everyone before I leave.
We put up some Christmas decorations, lights and even a fake X-mas tree!

For a touch of 'real' German Christmas, we also made some "Feuerzangenbowle":



Hot wine with cinnamon, cloves, cardamon, oranges and lemons, and for the little extra, add some sugar and rum and light it up!



I never thought I would like this kind of drink in the tropics, but it went down surprisingly well....



Thanks to everyone who was there and made this evening a special memory!

Advent Sunday in Hong Kong

we passed this flower shop somewhere in SoHo on our way to dinner,
smelling wonderfully of fresh fir

and we just had to walk in to buy a small fir branch to put in our hotel room

being so far away from home on the first advent sunday we all of a sudden felt a tiny little bit sad and just wanted to have some Christmas atmosphere...