The ship has sailed on posting pictures of xmas time treats and I’m well on my way back to healthy town. Thank the darn goodness for that. Trader Joe has stopped carrying nice boxes of bulgur and that makes me very sad. I’ll have to get over to Wild Oats and see what they have in the bulk foods department.

Jeremie and I went to Belgium for MLK weekend to visit his family and we had a very good time. We flew Air France from EWR->CDG and then took the train from the airport to downtown Brussels. Sadly, no miles for the train part but the service in the AF car is very nice. We got in to Brussels on Friday afternoon and we spent the afternoon relaxing at his Oma’s apartment and then had a nice dinner with the family. On Saturday we spent some time exploring town and we stopped in the Japanese garden, which was very beautiful and I hadn’t seen before. On Sunday we drove to Bruges with his Aunt, Uncle, and Oma. Bruges was incredible and I highly recommend visiting if you’re in the area. You can see my pictures of Bruges here. It was a beautiful day and there were lots of people around. After Bruges, we drove North to the seaside. I had never been to the North Sea and I’ve always wanted to see it (the Noord Zee! How could you not want to see that?) and it was really cool-looking. Very different than other seas or oceans but I’m not quite sure how to describe that. We took a nice walk on the pier at Blankenburg and had some tea De Haan before heading back to Brussels. I didn’t take any pictures on the pier because I am afraid of Things Falling Over The Edge but I think Jeremie did. If so, I’ll add a link in. On Monday morning we took the train from Brussels back to CDG and then hopped on the plane back to Newark. We only had an hour and 15 mins for the connection and we had to check our luggage in. By the time we were done with that, it was about 40 minutes before takeoff. We walked and walked to the gate and when we got there, instead of a plane we were met by a bus. We were able to get right on the bus but it was about 25 minutes before the absolutely packed bus left the “gate” and headed off to the plane. Now, I’m a gal that likes to get on the plane early and get situated and getting to the plane 10 minutes before scheduled takeoff was not my idea of a good time. I figured that given the timing, we were on the last bus but about 15 minutes after we got on, a whole new crowd of people got on the plane. Almost every seat was full but that’s ok because Air France has great service. Plus, every seat has it’s own entertainment system and there’s a camera mounted on the front of the plane so you can watch what’s going on on the runway and even watch the plane take off. It was pretty cool.

Since I’ve gotten back, I’ve planned trips to Paris and Israel. Three cheers for travel!

I am munching on raw almonds and to my surprise, they are much tastier than their roasted, salted, or smoked counterparts. Mmmn, almondy.

As usual, I am behind on putting things up. Pictures of homemade marshmallows and other holiday treats to come soon.

ps. Happy New Year!