It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas!  We have a few decorations in the apartment, to make it feel more festive and "homey".

First came the mini-tree in early Dec.  Just from the grocery store, but it's alive (so far!) in a pot with soil, so hopefully it will keep for a while.  In order for it not to look too puny, we set it here on an upside-down garbage can, covered in a beige tablecloth I found in a drawer.  Tree plus pot together are maybe a meter high, so now the top of the tree reaches about to Benjamin's chin.  We splurged on a 5-Euro string of lights, and from the "Euro Store" a 1-Euro box of 12 small gold ornaments -- tied here with colored wrapping ribbon.  More decorations came gradually in the last few weeks... (more below).
    Also for Advent, of course, we had to buy some good calendars, for which the choices here were almost limitless.  Julia is very much enjoying her fancy Lindt chocolate-variety calendar (a new sample of yuminess every day!) and Benjamin just wanted a simple Milka (milk chocolate) type.  Both give a delicious reason to get up on these dark school mornings!
   We are also becoming quite resourceful with our decorating:  the garnishes beside the candle are just strips of orange peel that we sliced and curled up as we let them dry.  (Say, Martha who?)

It's traditional here to have a Adventskranz (Advent wreath) and light one candle for each of the Sundays of Advent.  I quite like this one I bought at our local outdoor flower stall, with cinnamon sticks and a few ornaments tied into it.

The tree got a few new simple ornaments from the Kristkind'l Weihnachtsmarkt (downtown Christmas market):  a small train and nutcracker figure -- but then we found cranberries and popcorn (not so common here, either of them) and made a chain to wrap the tree in:

Julia claimed she needed the sunglasses so she wouldn't poke
her eye out with the needle as we strung popcorn...

Paper snowflakes on the windows were also a weekend project for both kids.  Julia lead the snowflake charge, but Benjamin had fun too.

Even though it's true that there's no place like home for the holidays, and we miss family and friends, we are certainly feeling the spirit of the season, and very much enjoying our time here.

Merry Christmas all!