Time for the holidays

In the Netherlands they celebrate with Sinterklaas on the 5th of December so Jackson was pretty lucky and Sinterklaas came to visit him and brought along a small gift for him aswell. This was the first gift he has ever opened and he did really well.  Of course the wrapping paper is a better gift than what is actually inside :) Jackson was also lucky enough to get a nice gift from our neighbors here, we're kind of spoiled!!

Up until now there has not been alot of "to-do" about Christmas here, no black Friday or anything!! I did hear about a little Cyber-Monday on the radio but nothing like back in America!!! It is getting more and more popular to celebrate Christmas in The Netherlands, it seems to be as children get older they celebrate Christmas more and more. 

Germany is like America and Christmas is everywhere.  We kept hearing about the Christmas markets so last weekend we went to Dusseldorf, Germany to check one out.  It was so neat!!! There were vendors everywhere selling all kinds of sweets, Christmas ornaments, bratworsts, and my favorite warm mulled wine. They also had a cross country skiing track set up with "fake" snow, an ice skating rink and a little sledding slide for the kids.

When we got there it was a little overwhelming!  People everywhere, we couldn't even get through with the stroller without hitting someone.  (sorry to those people)  We weren't the only crazys with a stroller though!!! First off, we hit up the wine station and got some yummy brats then Jackson and Josh took a little ride on the merry-go-round! It was such a fun afternoon, I'm sure we could've spent all day there!!!