What Christmas is all about!

As some of you know, I am a U.S. Air Force spouse and we recently got stationed in Belgium. It’s a long way from home but a beautiful place! We are really starting to enjoy ourselves here and are so happy to have this experience for our children and ourselves.

We haven’t really got out much because we have only been here a few months. Well that change this passed weekend. My husband told me at the beginning of last week that he wanted to check this place out as a family on Saturday so I automatically was excited. We were getting to start experiencing what Europe has to offer! Shockingly it was only about a 40 minute drive from our house so that made it even more appealing.

Wondering where we went yet?!?! :)

That’s what we saw when we first walked into a cave in Valkenburg, a town in the Netherlands. Can you believe that is all out of sand! It seriously BLEW my mind seeing the details on each scene and the fact that it was all sand.  Here are some more pics.

This place is seriously amazing! IT'S SERIOUSLY ALL SAND!!!! Then when you get to the end of the cave there is a HUGE open space with these scenes and a shack that you can get hot chocolate, coffee or beer. Hayleigh got her FIRST EVER hot chocolate, I had a very strong café latte and Michael got a beer. It was the perfect start to the holiday season!

What I really loved about this experience is it showed our children what the TRUE meaning of Christmas is...it's not about presents and Santa. Although those things are nice, I want our kids to KNOW the true meaning!

The town of Valkenburg actually has a lot of Christmas related things going on now too. They have a Christmas market that is in a cave as well. You walk around a cave and get to purchase presents. That was quite the experience for us. I didn’t get pictures inside the market because by this point Michael and I had been carrying Bella almost all day sand even carrying Hayleigh here and there.

Hayleigh got to take a picture with Santa and Mrs. Clause inside the Christmas market and she was SOO excited about it. Bella REFUSED to be anywhere near Santa! She started screaming crying if we even get to close to a picture of Santa LOL. Maybe next year?

Needless to say, it was a long but fun day. We must have walked 4-5 miles throughout the day and Hayleigh walked most of it. She was exhausted and was asleep within minutes after getting in the car. 

My husband did a GREAT job finding this little gem of a town. I am looking forward to visiting each year we are here and each year as the kids get older to better understand what they are experiencing! I hope you enjoyed the pics, I know they aren't as fun as the real thing but if you have the chance then you should definitely visit!

If you are interested then here is the link to the  Christmas Activities in Valkenburg.