Hello 2025

Hello,

here we are again - with our first post in 2025. We hope the new year treated all of you very kind so far. As far as we are concerned we're starting the new year on our blog the traditional way... which means looking back to the end of 2024. Or in other words: With our annual "Christmas gifts on parade" post! Once more we've been showered with so many awesome gifts from wonderful blogfriends and we really need to share them here saying once more "thanks" to all of you. And although we're doing it as always in alphabetical order we're giving top priority to a very special gift... coming from a member of the BiWuBeary gang. Schepje, the BiWuBeary Snowman living at Ilona's home, surprised both Rosey and me with a Christmas gift from him - while Ilona was so helpful to offer him some space in her package to us. And this is what Schepje sent to us:

Perfect choice, buddy - hartelijk dank! (We expect you prefer Dutch after all these years *grin) And let's not forget that these snowy guys have some wonderful inner values... yummy! And they offer us a good opportunity to show you a funny photo of some other snowy guys which might be quite familiar to some of you now:

Yes, Birgit and her brushes have been busy in the old year. *LOL* And now, ladies and gentlemen, furry or not furry readers of our blog - here's the 2025 version of "Christmas gifts on parade". And this starts (surprise, surprise) with the gifts from our dear friend Alex. Alex spoiled us with a box (looking strangely familiar) filled with all sorts of cute and useful miniatures.

Link to Alex's blog: https://mirinconminiaturil.blogspot.com/

Among them was a cookie plate using the tutorial Alex shared in the Spanish Advent calendar last year. And we even received two more in an extra box. Birgit will definitely use these for Einar's North Pole bakery. Muchas gracias, Alex!

And there was a lovely surprise hiding in these cookies which we did not notice until we had taken the picture: The Christmas tree cookies had faces... these were in fact bearies in a Christmas tree costume! Wait... why does this remind us of someone... hmmm...

Haha, sure... we had to think at once of our dear cousin Chris Kringle! Chris was the 3rd bear Birgit made... and our cousin because back then Birgit used a bought kit. But he's of course a family member and btw for beary No. 4 aka Herzbube Birgit already used her own pattern. But enough of BiWuBeary history... next in our parade is Fabiola who also sent us some lovely miniatures.

Link to Fabiola's blog: https://fabiolamiominimondo.blogspot.com/

Mille grazie, Faby! And with this we're coming to the gifts from Huibrecht who spoiled us rotten. And we need to apologize because the next photo is not doing justice to his wonderful gifts - a beautiful bowl showing nutcracker motifs, green candles, a stunning angel figurine and some very yummy cookies.

Link to Huibrecht's blog: https://swinnendael.blogspot.com/

But this wasn't all yet... there were also three amazing Christmas cushions in Huibrecht's package... each of them with snow flakes having one red and one green side.

Needless to mention that these are just perfect for the North Pole project. And this will also be the future home for Huibrecht's last gift... and this blew us away. We had admired this masterpiece of needlecraft at his blog some time ago... and we still can not believe that our dear friend gave this to us.

In German we call this special sort of needlecraft "Hardanger"... and it is beyond our imagination that somebody is able to do this in miniature. But Tineke Beiler, the miniature artist who made this amazing piece, sureley can! It's incredible... thank you so much for all your wonderful gifts and for so kindly thinking of us, dear Huibrecht. And we're staying somehow in the Netherlands as we're coming to the gifts from our dear friend Ilona... who already sent us her package in November because it contained not only the Christmas gifts from Ilona and Schepje but also gifts for Sinterklaas and all Advent Sundays. This was quite a big pile back in November... being as lovely as it was promising and in my case very tempting. 

Link to Ilona's blog: https://minimumloon.blogspot.com/

And yes, I earned myself another sermon from Birgit with the topic "Opening gifts who are marked with clear instructions when to be opened before the dedicated date will put you on Santa's Naughty List forever without any chance of being granted parole". *shriek* Some risks are too serious so I decided to follow her *ehem* advice... even more as I did not want to risk another sermon about "Everything is having it's own time" and/or "Advent means literally arrival so we need to wait for the certain days to arrive"...so I waited... though it was hard... very hard... but totally worth because the reward for patiently waiting for opening time at Dec 1st aka Advent 1st was this VERY yummy Advent calendar. 

What a great companion during the Season! But this was just the start... we received Sinterklaas himself (well, somehow *grin*) who brought some yummy chocolates with him, a very soft towel with a snowman motif on, a mailbox for letters to Santa (and I suppose I will use them for many letters beginning "Dear Santa, it's me again... Fluby... and I really can explain..."... *sigh*), the most beautiful suncatcher showing a kingfisher and a small mysterious bag. Btw kingfisher gifts are a running gag between Ilona and Birgit because in Germany we believe it brings luck to spot a kingfisher. *smile*

But there was more to come... a wonderful kit for building a decorated book box with a snowman motif on the outside (somehow a secret book in real size) and of course we also unpacked the bag.

Believe us, what was inside this bag blew us away:

One of the famous three little pigs, Fifer in this case... and this is not just any miniature... it's a bronze miniature by Robert Olszewski. This left us speechless... and so did the gift we received from Ilona for Christmas coming along with a very personal message which caused some eyesweat because it was as touching as thoughtful.

But this message is private, sorry! *grin* Thank you sooooooo much, dearest Ilona! And now we're jumping from the Netherlands to Spain and to our dear friend Pilar... another wonderful lady who knew exactly how to make us happy:

Link to Pilar's blog: https://miniaturasenmimundo.blogspot.com/

With a very promising box of a delicious Spanish treat and another very promising box in which we supposed stunning miniature surprises made by Pilar. And that's exactly what we found inside... stunning miniatures!

In a lovely crate Pilar had stored all sorts of dishes, plates and bowls she recently made... and being the thoughtful friend she is she supposed that the dark green ones would fit perfectly into Einar's red and white kitchen. Well guessed, dear Pilar! And the two Christmas journals as well as the decorative ornament with a lovely Christmas mouse are so awesome that we need to show a few more details of them.

Pilar even managed to add some highlights with glitter! Incredible! And I can tell you that both Ylvi and Lasse already claimed one of those for their purposes. Muchas gracias, dear Pilar... also in the name of our elf family. And we're staying in Spain coming to yet more incredible gifts being sent to us by our dear friend Rosa Maria.

Link to Rosa Maria's blog: https://contrastes-rosamaria.blogspot.com/

Yummy Spanish treats and very promising boxes. In the green box we found all sorts of wonderful miniatures, all homemade by Rosa Maria.

Everything so useful and so beautiful... we hope you're able to spot the teenytiny birds which we have placed on top of the columns. And inside the red bag and the tin bauble we found two very special treasures, both completely created by Rosa Maria.

Especially the deer figurine blew us away! Pictures can't do justice to this amazing piece. Muchas gracias, Rosa Maria! And now we're hopping over to Italy again for the wonderful gift from our dear friend Rosanna... sadly another one we lost to Instagram. (Birgit is no friend of this site as like everything owned by Mr. Z. they don't allow visitors to just drop by without being signed in... but we got a link still and hope this works). 

Link to Rosanna's Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/rosannarolla/?hl=de

What an amazing miniature book by Sarah Walkley - filled with impressive projects, plenty of inspiration and even a lot of "How to". Thank you so much for this stunning gift, dearest Ro! And to our biggest surprise we received another package for Christmas from our friend Tinchen - you may remember she already surprised us at the end of November with this fabulous crime story Advent calendar so we weren't expecting anything more... but in fact we received more... next to homemade yummy cookies and plenty of chocolate our new edition of the lovely calendar by Peter Schnellhardt - a calendar we receive since years from Tinchen and which we cherish very much.

Link to Tinchen's blog: https://tapsis-baerenbande.blogspot.com/

Vielen Dank, Tinchen... und natürlich auch an die Reportermädels! And our dear Tine too did not forget to send us some joy for Christmas... and she knew very well what to put inside to make us happy:

Tine doesn't blog anymore, but here's the link to her website: https://www.frechbaeren.de/

A calendar, marzipan, beautiful paper clips in the shape of butterflies and a box with paper notes all with a lovely quote with the topic "What's really important". And the calendar's front says (in a very free translation) "Be prepared for everything - even for the good". Well, we've been prepared - and it turned out to be really good, that's for sure! Vielen lieben Dank, Tine! And Ulrike too did not forget us - but this was a package which we opened with a bit of tension as there were clattering sounds in it when we took it out of the shipment box. We've been a bit afraid that something might have been broken on the way and these worries got stronger when we had freed the gift from the wrapping paper... accompanied by lots of "ring" and "clang" sounds *gulp*

Ulrike too left blogland for Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zaubaerwald/?hl=de

A beautiful mug with a Christmas mouse motif in a gift box came to sight. But regarding the sounds we were really afraid there was something broken. So we opened the box and... well... be prepared for a Christmas Miracle:

The best reasons for "ring" and "clang" sounds ever... this was stuffed with chocolate balls!!! What a relief... and what a joy! We were so happy that Rosey and I tested right away the quality of the mug.

Hey, we still got it and we know what to do! Yeah!!! Once a professional mug climber, always a professional mug climber. *LOL* Vielen Dank, liebe Ulrike! And the last participant in our gift parade is Véronique, another one who left us for Instagram, sadly we did not find her account. Véronique who lives vegan spoiled us with a pile of yummy vegan treats.

Thank you, dear Véronique. And that was the end of "Christmas gifts on parade" - but we still need to show a photo of all the wonderful Christmas cards we've received. Of course they found a place of honor on Birgit's card holder (which only stands directly in front of the living room's door when a photo background is needed *grin*)

But of course we can't end this first post of the year without the traditional calendar photo of the month. Needless to mention that in 2025 too there are many calendars hanging in Birgit's house... and that I being the smart gentlebeary that I am will never miss the chance to gain me some good points in the Golden Book of Santa. Always keep in mind: After Christmas is before Christmas! And of course Rosey knows this rule too so here we are presenting Birgit's flower calendar for 2025. 

But the January photo is all you will see of it this year as Birgit decided we should present another one from now on. Caution - be aware this is some kind of an educational mission! *teehee*

Let us try to translate the title: "Schleswig-Holstein - country between the seas". Yes, Birgit bought a calendar showing pictures of our home state Schleswig-Holstein which has Denmark in the North, the North Sea to its left, the Baltic Sea to its right and in our South the rest of Northern Germany with the federal states of Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The amazing thing about our state is that you're able to drive from the shore of the Baltic Sea to the North Sea shore in a few hours. We hope we can give you some impressions of our home state over the year and we start - who would ever have guessed - with the January photo... and a riddle for you. Can you guess this city's name?

As kindness is in our blogbearie's DNA we're giving you a few hints:

- It's the second biggest town of our home state Schleswig-Holstein after our capital Kiel

- It's known as the "Town of the 7 towers"... and as "The Queen of Hanse"

- This town still carries the title "Hansestadt" (= city of Hanseatic League) in its official name and in short on every car's ID sign. For example Hamburg, Bremen or Rostock also carry the title "Hansestadt" until today. And what is "Hanse" you may ask? Well, from the 13th to the 17th century the Hanseatic League was a mighty commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. These merchants were extremely powerful, not depending on the crown and becoming extremely rich through trade and trade tolls. The leaders of the town we're looking for were so rich that they bragged with their wealth for everybody to see - in times when salt was more valuable and expensive than gold they used salt mixed with ox blood to create bricks which are colored black. These black salt bricks can still be seen, for example at the exterior walls of the city's historic town hall.

- While mentioning the historic town hall... the whole historic city centre was declared to be "World Heritage Site" by the UNESCO.

- Some world famous people are related to this city. Thomas Mann, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, was born in this town and lived there until he and his family had to escape from the Nazis. Btw you can acutally visit until today the house of the Buddenbrooks from his famous novel in our mysterious town. And Günter Grass, also Nobel Prize for literature laureate, is related to this city as he lived there for many years until his death. And there's another outstanding man being born in this town: Herbert Frahm who later became one of the most important chancellors of the Federal Republic of Germany and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize... but he's of course better known under his pseudonym Willy Brandt. And if you prefer it a little more up-to-date: Robert Habeck, Germany's current Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, was also born in this town.

And... did you guess it by now? If not... here's a final hint... and that should do... at least for everybody who ever received a Christmas package from us: It's also world's capital of marzipan... and for sure the hometown of Niederegger marzipan. Ah, we know now everybody got it... sure, this picture shows some of the old town core of LÜBECK! *smile* 

And now you almost made it... but there's still one thing left to do. Well, you would not suppose us to skip our most beloved *coughcough* blog section in 2025, would you? But no need to panic, volume 93942 of "And once more many pictures of BiWuBearies in the garden" is very short... for a simple reason: Our garden was covered with frost when these pictures were taken. *LOL*

And NOW you really made it... finally. (Eh, did we just hear sighs full of relief??? *giggle*) Enjoy January and have a great start into this new year!

Hugs

Flutterby & Rosey