The first sunday in January marks Amsterdam's annual Christmas Tree Burning Festival. People tie their brittle, dried up trees to their bikes and drag them to the center, where Museumplein holds this massive bonfire. Bringing a tree is optional actually, but the more trees, the bigger the fire, and it truly is a spectacle to behold, lasting several hours.
This year my lady friends and I decided to witness this tradition together. At dust the event begins so we were walking towards the fire as the sun went down. The Rijksmuseum was all aglow and as we got closer to the flames we could feel the heat radiating. The fireman threw one tree after another onto the big fire while many cheered the flames that stretched up to 50 feet into the sky and pine needles turned to glowing ash in an instant. It was better than fireworks. To be totally honest, this was such a therapeutic experience. It gave me hope for the new year, starting it fresh, with a clean slate.
Later that week, I woke up to see this snowy mess outside the front window. Then later I looked at the weather on my iPhone and it showed me that the temperature was 12 below... plus Jesse was out of town and I didn't want to risk riding my bike on the snow packed streets. So I hunkered down and prepared myself for some hibernating. Lucky for me, the fridge was already stocked with enough food for a few days. Even though I didn't get outside to play in the snowy conditions, I enjoyed seeing the pictures of the snow covered city that my friends shared. Here's a few of my favorites.
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| Photo courtesy of Jenny Ordnung |
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| Photo courtesy of Liz Denfeld |
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| Photo courtesy of Liz Denfeld |
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| Photo courtesy of Liz Denfeld |
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| Photo courtesy of Christine Donoghue |
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