One year down

looking through the album Rob's dad made us

Hard to believe, but we have been married for a year! Our anniversary was December 3rd and we decided to spend it in Brugge/Bruges/Bruge depending on which sign you see or which book you read. It is pretty safe to say that most people here like Brugge better than any other city in Belgium.  We decided to drive since we chose a hotel that wasn't in the city center. Normally we would stay in the middle of everything but we both loved this hotel based on photos and reviews and it was cheaper.  Booking.com is the best site for hotel prices and reviews.  We stayed at the Vander der Valk Hotel, it was amazing even if the money we saved staying outside of the city center was spent on the taxi ride home...

hotel room, amazing for Europe

Finally used our champagne flutes since we forgot at the wedding!

 We made a tentative plan to do the brewery tour and the bell tower.  Neither happened. After we started walking around and discovered they had Christmas market, beautiful shops and multiple restaurants we decided that was more appropriate for the time of year and we can save the "tourist" stuff for visitors.

 Where we got our Gluhwein, Christmas coffee and hot cocoa from. Multiple times.

One of many beautiful storefronts and turned out to be our favorite shop. Javana.

Watching the ice skaters in the middle of the market

favorite food of the trip at a bar called 't Brugs Beertje which was recommend by our friend Linda Elbow, delicious cheese and awesome atmosphere, can't want to go back

and the Christmas beers to go with the cheese, of course

bell tower we planned to go up. If you have seen  movie "In Brugge" you will know of this bell tower. Another day, another trip.

The one "touristy" thing we did decide to do was the Ice Magic exhibit they have each year.  Its basically a big freezing (or below) tent with incredible ice sculptures in it.  Rob was more excited to do this than I was but it was actually pretty neat.

Ice Magic Festival

This guy was HUGE

Rob coming down the ice slide

frozen but smiling by this point

In between the eating, drinking and walking we finished our Christmas shopping...the earliest I have have been finished and we all know Rob has never started before December 23.  The past year has been quite a ride. We found out we were moving to Belgium about a month after our wedding, went to Missouri about 25 times before we left and now we have started our European explorations!  I have never claimed this transition to Europe to be easy but I can't imagine doing it with anyone else.

To Rob: Prost! To many more years of not knowing what tomorrow will bring but as long as I have you, I know it will ok.

To my readers: Don't worry I am done with the mushy stuff.

Now, on to the next thing to celebrate...Rob's birthday! Stay tuned.

Also, Happy Birthday to my MIL Nancy! Hope its wonderful! We love and miss you!

100

This is my 100th blog post!  Only took me three years to get here.  Thanks to everyone who has been reading.

It's officially December. Like I mentioned in my last post, November was kind of a blur.  I'm not sure why but I think it has to do with getting settled and finally getting into some kind of routine.  November started in Germany and ended with us planning trips for next year.  It could also be blurry because Rob grew a mustache for "movember" and I have chosen to block it from my mind.

About mid November we had a conversation about when Thanksgiving was. We had no idea except that it was on a Thursday. Rob had to work on Thanksgiving and the day after so it did feel pretty strange.  But we did spend the evening with friends and had some delicious food and great company.

Life is starting to feel pretty normal around here.  We were told it takes 3 months and they were right.  We have started going to the Soignies market on Sunday mornings.  My french improves each time I go so I have been really enjoying it.  I was able to order all this in french...with a little bit of pointing and smiling.

Rob and Duke have been having some serious man-conversations about Duke making his way to dad's pillow throughout the night.  This documentation of the deal they made.  Duke promised he would sleep at the end of the bed as long as he didn't have to sleep on the floor.

Masterson Peace Talk

Last weekend we took the train to Brussels to do some Christmas shopping.  We came home with 2 loaves of bread and 3 Christmas beers.  All delicious and not any closer to buying Christmas gifts.  Believe me, if we could send beer Christmas shopping would have been done a long time ago.

St. Bernardus, Delirium, St. Feuillien

In this post I showed the table I bought at the Waterloo market. I finally found a fabric store and reupholstered the chairs.

before/after

It's Christmas market season in Europe.  Most cities have them through December.  SHAPE also has small markets each weekend.  We have gone to the Canadian, Norwegian and German markets.  All have native food and drink like Gluhwein, bratwurst, moose milk, etc.

Canadian Moose Milk, eh. So much better than eggnog.

We have started planning trips for next year. We booked Venice, Italy over Easter and hoping to take some kind of beach vacation next summer/fall.  I also started training for a half marathon in Paris in March so we will be going there, although I am not sure I can consider it a vacation. 

Hope everyone is having a great weekend, we are watching yesterday's football before we head to the Brussels Christmas Market!