Yesterday me and my brother went Christmas shopping. This is something we do together every year. When we were younger it was to pull our recourses so that we could get the people we bought presents for a better gift than we could afford by ourselves. Now we do it mostly because it is a tradition and because we can decide together  what to get people and also we can still buy better gifts when we join forces. This year my brother picked me up at work and we drove to the mall. As suspected we were not the only ones. We got the gifts we had decided to buy in advance and that were available in the mall but we moved the traditional dinner or coffee we get after shopping to my apartment. Afterwards I went to get the gifts I’m buying alone, that I still had not bought. So now I’m all done shopping for Christmas 🙂

My giftwrapping paper of choice this year.

Today the whole family gathered at my parents place to eat and make marzipan. We used to do this at my grandmother’s place when I was little and we’d combine it with helping her clean her house for Christmas. Now we do this at my parents place because they have the most room. We always remember the loved ones that are no longer with us a little extra this time of year and what better way of remembering them than to honor the traditions they valued the most. The batch of marzipan this year was very good. The almonds were nicely peeled and dried and the family recipe worked like a charm this year as well.

And for those of you who where wondering if my granddad liked his surprise, I can say that he absoulutely adored it!