A White Christmas

Merry Christmas! 🎄 we woke up to a white on this year!

The kids exchanged presents early morning, and we then walked to Lemon Bakery for some breakfast. There weren’t many people here which made it easier to find a table and order. Christmas isnt a public holiday here, so everything is open as normal.
Breakfast was a 5 minute walk to Lemon Bakery for some coffee, a pistachio white chocolate drink and some baked goods.
Then we drove to Takino Suzuran Hillside Park Snow World for some snow play. It was nice not having to venture too far from Sapporo city to be here (under an hour).
On the way here we stopped by the Makomanai Takino Cemetary. It was certainly wasn’t part of the plan but it was hard not to miss the Moai statutes, with the largest being 9.5m high and weigh 120t. Others 6.5m high and weigh 60t. We saw a lot of people stopping by so we did the same.

Most of the afternoon was spent at Mitsui outlet park, which was kind of on the way back to our hotel. We found a few bargains there; some where on the shopping list and a few Christmas presents for ourselves 🎁

After spending several hours indoors we left the outlets around 4.30pm to found it dark and cold outside. We were dropped at the hotel with all the shopping bags first, while our friends returned the car. We just had a couple of hours to visit the Christmas markets and freshen up before our buffet dinner at 8pm.
Ange had organised our Christmas buffet dinner at the hotel restaurant about 3 months ago. It made sense to have it here where we are staying, and the menu looked very appealing. We deliberately booked the later session to give us more time out during the day and not rush back.
The food and service were amazing and well above our expectations. The head chef and restaurant GM came out to greet us, constantly making sure we were well fed and looked after. The range was extensive and showcased fresh ingredients from Hokkaido. Free flowing drinks were included in the package - we enjoyed the usual bubbly, some sake and eggnog!
Thank goodness our rooms were just upstairs as I wouldn’t have been able to walk that far after our feast. This was certainly a memorable Christmas for all of us 🥰Read more