Here a nutcracker, there a nutcracker, everywhere a nutcracker

I meant to post this before Christmas but better late than never.
Over the years, I have collected a number of Christmas knick knacks but my favourite items are nutcrackers.
According to German folklore, they were given as keepsakes to bring good luck to your family and protect your home. The legend says that they represent power and strength and serve like a trusty watch dog guarding your family from evil spirits and danger.  As you can see, our home is well guarded.

A pair of 5 foot nutcrackers guarding the front door

Guarding the back door

Guarding the Christmas tree

Cavalry nutcrackers

Guarding the stairs

A cossack nutcracker

And here are the rest of the troops before they were dispersed to different parts of the house.

Paris in December

It seems that I am having trouble writing this blog in a timely manner.  We left Paris over a week ago.  Although we were travelling in the UK most of the time, we did manage to find a little time to check out the Christmas decoraions in Paris.  Here is the giant tree inside Lafayette Department store.

Here's the view from above the tree... all these giant boxes hanging from the ceiling.

Not to be outdone by the interior decorations, here's what the outside of the store looks like:

Not as fancy as the Lafayette store (aka grand magasin), the lights on the BHV on rue Rivoli (near the flat) constantly change colours.

Even the Eiffel tower puts on a light show.  I wasn't able to capture any of the coloured lights with my camera, but I did get a shot of the twinkling lights.

During the holiday season, there are several Christmas markets that take place around the city.  The Champs Elysees is the location for one of the largest of these markets.  Lots of food and craft vendors.  Do you recognize the man in the hat?

Can you imagine the smell of salmon cooking over an open fire?

How about chestnuts?

Or have you ever seen a frying pan this large?

If pasta is not your thing, how about candy?

We seem to be focussed on food.  Must have been hungry at the time.  I should have taken pictures of some of the different crafts.

But I will leave you with this picture of the largest creche I have ever scene.

Schlepping

Now, I don’t know if this is a real word or not but it’s a word that Stephen and I use to describe some of our travel adventures that involve hauling our luggage from Point A to Point B. During this past week, we schlepped far more than usual. We left Paris on Thursday December 3rd (a day after arriving from the US), we were in Cheltenham on Friday, Bloxom on Saturday, to St. Andrews on Sunday, Edinburgh on Monday and back to Cheltenham on Tuesday, then to Paris on Wednesday . Hence the schlepping,,,
Here are some photos of our recent "schlepping" experience.
 
Stephen actually rented a car to drive from Birmingham, to Cheltenham, then to Bloxham to visit Suzie and Mike, back to Cheltenham and then to the airport again in Birmingham.  I don't have any pictures of the driving.... I was too busy navigating the motorways and roundabouts.
This photo was taken at the Falkland Arms pub where we had lunch with Suzie and Mike and Nicholas and Catherine.  We had a lovely visit with everyone...
 

 
 
Then it was time to fly to Edinburgh for our trip to St. Andrews.  This picture doesn't really do justice to the room we had at the Old Course Hotel.  You can only see half of the room - very spacious, very posh
 

 This was the view from our room....the 17th fairway

As I took a walk into town, this is how close the path came to the 17th green.  In the background, you can see a large, reddish building.  This is Kohler Co.'s latest acquisition.

Here's a close-up of Hamilton Hall.  The building is empty and is in disrepair.  It might be turned into fractional ownership apartments.  The 18th green is directly in front of the building.

Here I am standing in front of the 18th green.  You can see the Old Course Hotel in the background.

Stephen and I having a pub dinner at the Jigger Inn

Then it was time to continue our schlep, back to Cheltenham.  It was very relaxing having drivers at both ends instead of having to worry about the driving.  Not that Stephen didn't do a great job driving...  but it was dark and raining and the signs would have been hard to read...

Here's where we stayed in Cheltenham.  There's a lovely shopping district in the town and I was happy to browse the many shops while Stephen was at work..

Inside the hotel

And this last picture is for Zosia, who is always interested in flower arrangements