December 14, 2011

Oh, the Christmas place I've been

Pre-holiday fun is what I've been having, I hope that you have been enjoying fun Christmas activities with your family and friends. 

Here's what I've been up to.

Christkindlmarket in downtown Chicago is the annual German open-air market that has become a Chicago tradition.  It's set up as a little European village with timber houses, trees and festive tents with vendors selling unique holiday items, gifts, German food and drinks, and on weekends entertainment.

Here, are some of the sights.

Many vendors come over from Europe particularly Germany
to sell their goods for the four weeks leading up to Christmas.

 Vendors booths in front of the Picasso in Daily Plaza.
This year's tree was a huge disappointment
for me, think Charlie Brown tree.

Shopper lined up to view
the goodies at each booth

We watched as the baker made the pretzels.


 We took home two different kind of strudel.




 So many gorgeous ornaments to choose from.
 I did purchase an ornament for someone special.
 Pretty
Beautiful scenes on these mugs. 
 Where to look, so many pretty and fascinating things.
 This was the Polish booth, my favorite.
 The speciality drink of the market, 
Gluhwein, which is hot spiced wine.

 Imported in boxes from Germany!?!
 Served pipping hot in a toss away cup or
 in a souniver mug
For lunch, we eat Bratwurst, potato pancakes, Gluhwein.

Had a fabulous time with my sweet sister and made a wonderful memory. Have you done something special and made a Christmas memory? Leave me your blog name and I would love to pop over and read all about it.

6 comments:

  1. How fun; I would love to go with you some time.

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  2. Oh, boy! I could just eat my way through that market! Yum!!

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  3. Looks really good. We visited a christkindle markt in Leeds, UK and thoroughly enjoyed it. The food and drinks sound very tasty X

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  4. Oooh, you are getting me excited to go visit the Christkindlmarket myself this year! It is crowded and overpriced but I still love it :-)

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  5. How fun! We visited Germany this summer; I kept reading about the Christmas markets over there and would love to visit one someday. Chicago is a lot closer than Germany, though! Looks like a fun way to spend a day.

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