Happy New Year!

 I'm back! 

I was lucky enough to travel to Basel in December for the second year in a row as my friend's brother lives there. Basel fascinates me as it sits right on the German/French/Swiss border, so coming from Germany originally a lot of what I see, hear and eat (yum!) there is familiar to me which is great fun.

We had the opportunity to visit a number of beautiful old towns and their Christmas markets which I love and can never get enough of. Who doesn't love a mug of Gluhwein!? 

I love how every nook and cranny is decorated for Christmas and I particularly love a lot of the windows.

Another thing I get really excited about is that in Alsace there are still REAL storks. Storks have been something magical to me since I was a little girl living in Germany and I do remember seeing the odd stork's nest on a roof. Of course there aren't any storks in Alsace during the winter but some of the nests are, and I love spotting them. (Is that really sad...?)

My favourite building has to be this one, the Gingerbread House, another thing that takes me straight back to childhood and stories like Hansel and Gretel. The Grimm Brothers Fairly Tales are one of my  most favourite things in the whole world, I am really just a little girl at heart.

There are often people in traditional dress at the Christmas Markets, and these two lovely girls in traditional Alsatian dress got a lot of attention from the boys!

I wonder which Christmas Market I will visit in 2013?

I'm not a great believer in New Years Resolutions and I don't generally make any, but I would very much like to blog more this year, and I want to craft much much more. But I think I may need to become a little more organised and focused, and somehow bring a little structure into my life.

I'd love to know how some of you manage to structure your lives?