Christmas in the Square

We winterized CC's stroller with a muff.

She stays prety toasty.
The Budapest Christmas Market is set up in front of Gerbaud Haz.
They decorate the 150 year old coffee house as an advent calendar.


Here is the beautiful tree at the Market.

They had all sorts of great eats...

... and desserts.

Mulled wine is also really popular here.

It's a warm, sweet red wine they serve in winter.

They serve it out of those big black vats.

Here's where Russell got his hamhock.

You can see these pepper clusters everywhere.

Did I mention that Hungarians are obsessed with peppers & paprika?

They had some beautiful puppets and puppet theaters.

All the vendors are required to be selling their own homemade wares.

There were lots of puppet peddlers.

Apparently the puppet business is big in Budapest.

Now these were just cute.

Beautiful little gingerbread creations.

They're just for looks.

I forgot the name of these little cookies, but the tradition goes as follows.

Men give these heartshaped cookies with little mirrors on them to their sweeties.

It's a little way of saying "I love you."

I badgered Russell for a while until he broke down and bought me one.

So thoughtful.

We also bought this one. Because its funny.

After all the fun in the snow on Saturday morning, Russell insisted we go to the Budapest Christmas Market, a showcase of handmade Hungarian crafts and Hungarian foods. Budapest puts the Christmas Market on every year in Vorosmarty Ter, with about a hundred little wooden booths set up in front of the Gerbaud Haz. We saw some beautiful pieces of pottery, handmade toys, wrought iron creations, jewelry and paintings. They also had bagpipe players serenading the shoppers. The highlight is always the food though. Russell ate what can best be described as a hamhock... with no utensils. I got what can best be described as an funnel cake... it was a giant thing of fried dough and it was delicious. Everyone (including CC)drank hot chocolate. Although it was an idyllic little trip, it was also freezing. We only stayed an hour or so & then we hightailed it home to get warm. Here's your weather forecast for Budapest: its snowing like crazy & shows no sign of stopping!