Five European Christmas Markets to Visit

Visiting Christmas markets is one of the best things about this time of year and a perfect way to get into the festive spirit. Here are my five recommendations for the best European Christmas markets to visit this year.

Berlin, Germany

I visited my first real European Christmas market in Berlin, Germany back in the early 2000s and remember eating the most delicious chips and crepes. German Christmas markets are famous and dotted all over the country including Dresden, Cologne, Nuremberg, Munich, Dusseldorf amongst many others. In Berlin, there are 60 different markets in the city alone! With beautiful hand-made Christmas decorations to scrumptious food and drink and sparkly lights everywhere it’s a magical fairy-tale setting.

Review: Three amazing LEGO sets for kids

One of the main toys that Pip has developed a strong interest in this year is LEGO! He’s always liked building massive structures out of LEGO and this year has developed a love for following instructions and assembling the smaller LEGO kits. I was sent some wonderful LEGO sets from the shopping website Very and knowing Pip, I couldn’t wait to give him these and review the products. I gave a couple of sets to Pip on his fifth birthday and another more recently. He has absolutely loved them and I’ll discuss each set in detail.

LEGO Jurassic World 75929 Carnotaurus Gyrosphere Escape

Other than LEGO, Pip absolutely adores dinosaurs! Since starting primary school last year and becoming best friends with another little boy who also loves dinosaurs, there hasn’t been a day since without some kind of mention of a dinosaur! He has also become a dinosaur expert and has taught me a lot about dinosaurs! I’m amazed he knows the complex names of so many! So naturally, with his love for LEGO and dinosaurs this Jurassic World set was a perfect choice for Pip’s 5th birthday. Aged 8+, I thought we could built this set together. There are various parts to build in this Jurassic World. The set includes a truck and trailer with a mobile control centre, a Gyrosphere station with a launch function, a giant Carnoatarus dinosaur with a baby dinosaur, three mini figures named Owen, Claire & Franklin and other small accessories including a shovel, three dinosaur eggs and a tranquilliser gun.

5 things I’d include in my dream home

I’ve lived in quite a few different houses and flats since my university days and over time I have developed a sense of my dream home. Here are some of the things I’d include in my ideal house.

A big room
I’ve lived in houses with small poky rooms as well as ones with massive high ceilings and plenty of space and think I am leaning towards the latter. Having at least one big room, preferably the living room, gives a sense of space and when kids and toys are involved I think the bigger the better. At the moment, the house I live in has fairly small rooms and I do crave more space.