Travelin’ Man.

Well, Christmas is almost here and I have to say some fun has been had leading up to the big day! Between sharing stocking stuffer and gift ideas with you all here, our Riegelein #TravelingSanta, all the way from Germany, has been having some fun of his own on Twitter. He’s been seen all around our lovely Mitten State and he’s taken residence in my home, car and lodging wherever my family goes! He refers to my family as his host family, which really is kind of cute. While he’s fun to travel with, he can be a little difficult at times as he doesn’t care much to be in the sun too long, nor does he like to be near heat.

So as we all prepare to get our final holiday to-do lists complete and shopping done, I thought it would be fun to recap a little bit of what #TravelingSanta has been up to and then maybe share what’s up next for #TravelingSanta.

#TravelingSanta had some reflecting moments in Cadillac, Michigan.

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#TravelingSanta got to learn the game of hockey during his stay with us. Although we are NOT a travel team, we still do travel quite a bit. This time he was in Holland, Michigan with us at Griff’s Ice House West.

#TravelingSanta in Holland, Michigan at Griff’s Ice House West.

#TravelingSanta is having a good time in the car with us, his host family, on the way to St. Ignace, Michigan where yes, again, hockey! This was the Battle at the Bridge hockey tournament.

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During Thanksgiving break, #TravelingSanta went for a hike, did some chores around the house and gave some advice to those who needed turkey help.

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#TravelingSanta celebrated National Gingerbread Cookie Day.

#TravelingSanta helped us pick out our Christmas tree this year.

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#TravelingSanta enjoyed our first big snow storm of the season!

And #TravelingSanta asked me to share some photos of him and our Elf on the Shelf, Buddy. They’ve been talking with each other quite a bit lately. They are good friends and they are keeping very close tabs on my boys, making sure they are behaving!

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And last but not least, only seen here, #TravelingSanta wanted me to share these photos of him with some of our many ornaments from our White House Christmas Ornament collection from the White House Historical Association.

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So what’s next for #TravelingSanta? I’m not sure yet, I guess we shall just have to wait and see what Christmas holds for all of us! Stay tuned to Twitter and see what happens! So far he’s been a really great guest and he’s kept my kids occupied, however, one child in particular keeps giving him some kind of crazed look… so not sure what that is all about!

#TravelingSanta enjoying some chocolate and cookie samples.

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Spreading Holiday Cheer!

We are so ready for December, and yes, we still have to make it through Thanksgiving, but we are anxious to start spreading the holiday cheer! We’d love to start spreading that holiday cheer by sharing the love of Riegelein chocolate! Our blog travels have sent us to Germany to where Riegelein chocolates are produced. Now we are doing a little fun traveling with one of thier chocolate Santas who came over for a visit before Christmas. Our cute little friend, #TravelingSanta, is all the way from Caldozburg, Germany!

He’s going to be hanging around Michigan and making some travels with my family. He has decided that we will be his host family along the way! I have to tell you, he can be a little difficult to travel around with! He doesn’t like heat, and he’s not a big fan of the sunshine, but we will do what we can to make sure he’s well cared for and gets a wonderful experinece of what Michigan has to offer!

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He was seen this past weekend in Cadillac, Michigan. My family was up north for a hockey tournament and he decided to come along. He didn’t see much hockey this weekend, he wasn’t so sure about all the young children walking around with the hockey sticks in their hands. I think he was also afraid he may have gotten hit by a puck. He was out and about exploring what Cadillac had to offer while we were being rink rats. #TravelingSanta was VERY excited to see snow this weekend while we were up north. I told him if he really does like the cold, next time he’s going to have to join me at the ice rink, we definitely froze our little tushies off in there!

#TravelingSanta has somehow taken over some posting on Twitter, who knows where else he may show up. I guess you just have to wait and see what happens before he leaves in late December. He even gave us an exclusive photo below of himself at Lake Cadillac that he hasn’t posted anywhere yet! I have a feeling he will be spotted throughout our other social media channels – he’s a sneaky Santa!

 

Something to Nibble On.

It’s been an adventure so far, hasn’t it? Over the past month we’ve been to Germany and back, taste tested new products and tried out new recipes while sharing and tweaking old ones. We’ve had an employee chili cookoff and made some local community connections. And we’ve made some friends along the way! We have some fellow bloggers following us along, as well as, friends who have stumbled upon us from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and/or Instagram (click on any of those and you’ll find us on those social networking channels!)! And we also hope that our very own retailers are following us, too! Which brings up a good reminder for our retailers, the spring pre-order deadline is fast approaching! The deadline for spring pre-orders is November 10! Don’t forget! Get those spring pre-orders in!

So with all that, we also want to say THANK YOU for being here and THANK YOU for taking the time to enjoy Gourmet Nibbles! We are only just getting started here and we will continue to bring you news, updates, tidbits and what-nots from our world to yours!

 

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So what do we have planned up our sleeve? We will be doing some more of what we’ve already been doing and hope to add a few little twists and surprises along the way! We love to have fun and we love to share what we do and we love to share our passion of gourmet food, beverages and sweets with you! Sometimes we may be a little “squirrelly” but don’t let that stop you from visiting us here or at our other social media channels!

We’d also love to hear from you! Please feel free to drop us some comments, thoughts, suggestions, questions… we’d love to interact with our friends! Just for fun, I thought today I’d share a photo that I had taken for an earlier post about Wicklein. This was one of the photos I didn’t use, but I thought it was cute… and it also gets us all slowly gearing towards the holiday season – October is quickly coming to a close! So stay close, don’t go too far away because we are going to continue to bring you something to nibble on in the months, days and weeks ahead! So bring along your coffee mugs, tea cups, pilsner glasses, plates, forks, knives and maybe some napkins to catch some of the crumbs, we are gearing up on more gourmet adventures ahead!