Christmas in Belgium

Simone and I are thankful to be celebrating Christmas and New Year's in Denver with family and friends, but also really enjoyed our Thanksgiving and the first few weeks of December in Belgium.  We had a suitably gluttonous Thanksgiving in Brussels at our friends Chris and Jeanette's home, along with friends from all over the world. The evening was replete with turkey, stuffing, cranberries, and football on the T.V. . . . courtesy of Chris' handiwork streaming the recorded game from the internet to his TV.  Here we are at the table feeling stuffed from all the food.

Perhaps Brussels doesn't have the number of tourist sights that other European capitals enjoy, but the Grand Place is arguably the most magnificent square in all of Europe, and Brussels does a great job of highlighting it with festivals such as the bi-annual Flower Carpet, and the celebration of the holidays that illuminates the square with a light and sound show.  Here is a picture of the Grand Place and a video of the show.

Belgium also has great Christmas Markets where we were able to do most of our Christmas shopping this year.  Brussels has the largest Christmas Market in Belgium, complete with food, drink, ice rink, and a carousel that was far and away the coolest carousel of all time.  When I saw it I immediately said to Simone, "If Nick Duran designed carousels, that is the carousel he would design".  Here is a picture of it followed by a really bad visual quality visual video, but the sounds adds a lot to understanding just how cool it was.

Tartiflette is not exactly traditional Belgian fare, since it apparently dates back only to the 1980s, but the potato, cheese, herb, and bacon concoction has quickly become a tradition at Belgian Christmas Markets.  After missing out on it at the Brussels market due to a funding problem (we had spent all our cash on gifts by that point in the evening), we were happy to find it at the Christmas Market in Namur, a slumbering little Wallonian town on the banks of the Meuse.  Here is a picture of Simone standing in front of the Tartiflette stand and next to her you can just barely make out the 3 foot diameter iron skillets in which the Belgians cook the dish.  It was worth the wait.

Check out the rest of our Belgian Christmas pictures - Click Here.  Merry Christmas!