Busy December.

Yesterday I lit the second candle on my advent wreath…Two Sunday to go before Christmas and three before the New Year. I love December in Belgium. This is such a festive month for children’s… and for me! It begins by the end of November, when I receive some order for Advent wreath. This is one of the very first preparative and it always put me in a very joyful mood. A very creative time of the year too: I have to choose candles, Christmas baubles, colors, Christmas ornament and lots of greenery and foliage to include into my many different decoration projects.

A bit later, on the 6^th of December, we have a very special guest in Belgium: Saint Nicolas comes each year with presents for the children’s.  Useless to say that the adults are as impatient as the “petits” to see what surprises were left by the great Saint! Clementines, speculoos and other candies are traditional and really can’t be missing on that day, together with some toys. That day is often a very good moment in big families for having a great dinner party and is a very good introduction to the most festive part of the year.

 After Saint Nicolas day, I’m used to say that Christmas is in view! Time to make the house prettier than ever so that the Christmas three can be a real star inside. Rain and often snow are falling on the empty garden (not so empty as that: have a look at these gorgeous Hellebores that are flowering in Papignies now!).  Today, I’ve got to rummage in the attic to gather all the Christmas tree decoration together. December is definitely a busy month and it doesn’t allows much time to think to something else than party,party,party...

 For my part, I’m more than happy to see 2013 arriving. 2012 has been a very hard and odd year for us at Papignies. This was in some way the end of a world for lots of us. Many peoples and things disappeared or more simply changed. We still have got to get used to it and this is what made 2012 a very strange year.