hannahonhorizon

Bad: my dad passing away, me getting bad lupus flares and seizures, our dog Chewy passing away, and both of my grandmas passing away). Although I’m not traveling as much internationally as I’d like, I’d cover local areas about Sacramento and NorCal in general. But more often than not sometimes we are too tired (he works from 6 am-3 pm, I work from 9 am-6 pm) and we resort to getting fast food, takeout, pizza…not good for our inner health especially if we want to lose weight. if we do go back to Europe then Cecilio is definitely going to want to go back to Paris and experience not getting sick so we can have the best of French cuisine.

It’s grander than appears in person, but it turns out that Fairmont San Francisco has a lot more to offer than the Gingerbread House. Fairmont San Francisco is a 5-star hotel located on the Nob Hill neighborhood, where there are also rivaling luxury hotels, art galleries, Michelin-star restaurants and boutiques reside. The Gingerbread House entrance leads you to the upscale Laurel Court Restaurant and Bar, where waiters serve you in elf outfits. It’s an open room with a hot chocolate bar (complete with whipped cream, chocolate shavings, and gingerbread!) and a candy bar!

Yes, Ghirardelli Square is named after Ghirardelli chocolates and there is a ice cream + chocolate shop paying homage to the chocolate company. Winter Walk is a walkway near Union Square where parts of some streets (Grant Avenue between Geary and Post Street and Maiden Lane) are blocked off with fake grass, music performances, movable life-sized ornaments, lights, seats, craft beers and food trucks. Scope out Union Square and skate your heart out You CANNOT go to San Francisco during the holidays and miss out on Union Square. I’m actually going to write up a separate post dedicated to Fairmont Hotel San Francisco because while the Gingerbread House is amazing to look at and visit, there are a numerous amount of activities in the hotel.

Thankfully, my hometown offers a traditional German Christmas Market (also known as Christkindlmarkt or “Christ Child Market” in German). They also offered cheesecake and chocolate cake, but why would you want to go to a traditional German Christmas market and eat desserts you can buy at the grocery store?! No Christmas Market would be complete without Gluehwein (which means “glow wine”), a warm alcoholic beverage spiced with cinnamon, cloves, star anise, citrus zest and vanilla. Even though our Christkindlmarkt pales in comparison to any market in Europe, it was cute and interesting learning about the German Christmas customs and traditions.