Au Revoir, Belgium!

Although it was sad to leave, we were still able to enjoy our last few days in Belgium. It was a blessing to experience the several snowfalls that blanketed the city (which by the way, is not common in Belgium!)...

In between taking care of last minute details in preparation for our move, here are a few of the things we did during our last week in Brussels.

A snow stop to Parc du Cinquanteniere...

Hanging out at the Grand Place (pre-snow)

And post-snow...

Meals at old favorites like Chez Leon...

And new ones such as La Kahbaz, where we enjoyed an excellent Moroccan meal...

Browsing the Brussels Christmas Markets...

PS & DS riding the Le Manege Magique and La Manege d'Andrea Carousels...

The Shinozaki Girls enjoying another round of ice skating (even after it started snowing)...

Posing in front of the Bourse (directly across the street from the Marriott)...

Enjoying yummy Liege Waffles at Elisabeth and LaFunambule...

And one last visit to "Santa" Manneken Pis (until we visit again, that is!)

We even managed to squeeze in a visit to Musée de la Ville. Here the girls got a kick out of seeing all of Manneken Pis' outfits which have been donated by several different countries. Amazingly, he is said to have more than 800!

Au Revoir, Belgium! We are definitely going to miss you!!

Now onwards to London for the holidays!!

It's a Winter Wonderland!!

As mentioned on a previous post, this winter is proving to be Belgium's coldest in over 12 years! And although it has been c-o-l-d (!!!), I must say it has been beautiful and truly a "winter wonderland"!!! Wow, what an amazing experience for us Southern Californians to actually have 4 inches of snow covering our front and back yards. And along with this weather, comes some amazing sights and experiences...







Here is PS with some of her school friends, sliding down a slope across the street from school.





And here we are walking, sliding and playing on the frozen lakes of Tervuren Park!! This was a first-time experience for all of us!! (Too bad we didn't have our own ice skates...)





And although our family and friends back home in L.A. are experiencing record temperatures of over 80 degrees F, we wouldn't trade places for anything...



But then again, ask us in about a month after the novelty of snow wears off...!!!