Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve was different than any other year (obviously) but it was wonderful. We slept in, and then Brandon and I bundled up and decided to take the Metro to the city. We had such a great time at Grand Place/Grote Market. There are all of these narrow, cobblestone streets filled with shops and restaurants. There are also lots of covered carts/booths selling different goodies (waffles, candy, trinkets.) It is similar to Christmas-on-the-Prado at Balboa Park...but better :-) I could easily have gotten lost after wandering down so many streets if it wasn't for Brandon.

I was so impressed with these two VanGogh statue impersonators! He was asking me where we were from, and when I said 'California' he said "Oh! Barak Obama!" which made me laugh right before Brandon took the picture.



So a very famous Brussels Landmark is the Manneken Pis which is Dutch for Little Man Urinating. It's a statue/fountain of a little naked boy peeing. I mean there are figurines of this little boy in EVERY gift shop. The coolest part about it, is that no one is really sure of the story behind it. There are many legends told to tourists including, "a young boy who was awoken by a fire and was able to put out the fire with his urine, in the end this helped stop the king's castle from burning down." I was exceptionally impressed by the chocolate-looking replica of the boy in this chocolate shop:

Needless to say, Brandon and I were very curious to see the actual statue. We wandered through a few streets and came upon it. He's so small! And it's very amusing because they dress him up in different outfits for the different seasons. Currently, he is Santa :-)

After a few hours of walking in the cold, we stopped to have some "frites" or fries which are absolutely delicious in Belgium. They sell them all over the place. We did a bit of shopping and then it was time to head home, it was Christmas Eve after all! We got home around 6:00 pm and made a taco dinner (we all miss Mexican food!) Then, the three of us watched the movie The Holiday before bed!