Christmas in Brussels Top 10 List

Top 10 things about celebrating Christmas in Brussels:

1. Hanging with my new aunt-in-law and her awesome friends

2. Chocolate!

3. Frites

4. Drinking champagne at every meal

5. Hoegaarden and all the other awesome beers we tried

6. A day trip to the fairy tale-like Ghent

7. More Christmas markets

8. Seeking out the local dive and enjoying a bowl of potato leek soup after eating rich foods for a week & Paying 1,50 euros for the soup after spending all your money in Paris.

9. Seeing the manneken pis wear a Santa suit with my awesome new sister-in-law.

10. The fact that Belgium is very French in food and style but Belgians are a whole lot more friendly and relaxed. Cheers to that!

Paris at Christmas at night

Just a few more pics from when the sun went down and the Eiffel tower laser light show started....

Oyster Season in Paris!

Never in a million years did I think we would ever go back to Paris, or better yet go during oyster season. But the stars aligned as we headed to Brussels, Belgium for a destination Christmas with Alexander's family. We spent two magical nights in Paris on our way over and have to say that Paris is best in winter and that staying in a working class residential neighborhood beats the tourist trap that St. Germain has become any day. The first night we bought some oysters right on the street and a bottle of champagne and headed over to Eiffel tower for a picnic. We stumbled upon a great Christmas market, filled up on vin chaud and even went ice skating with the help of some liquid courage. We finished the night watching the Eiffel Tower light show, which was unexpected and truly spectacular. What a night! The next day was full of shopping (my cheek bones get higher just thinking about it) and we finished it off with a decadent meal at La Truffe Noire just in time to catch the end of the white truffle season. Bon Appetit!

Note: Pics coming soon!