Collecting Christmas stamps! (and more stamps too)

My dear (pen-)friend sent me these amazing stamps! 

They are mostly Christmas and Easter stamps or they have a religious theme. 

I photographed the book "as is" because I couldn't wait to show you this wonderful gift!

(I am going to look for more information later for the individual stamps.)

Stamps and postcards!

I got a postcard from Andorra!

I am so happy I can cross off another country from my list

"Coat of arms of Andorra"

no face value

2010

A card from Japan! I won a lottery

on the postcrossing forum, 

and found these bunnies in my mailbox

"International Letter-Writing Week"

set of 4 (2015)

And these are special stamps, they are railway stamps

from Belgium! My fiancé spoiled me with these.

This specific stamp was issued from 1879 till 1882.

It shows the coat of arms.

This kind of stamp is called a cinderella stamp in philately.

Long overdue update

 Yes, birthday mail from last month! 

My birthday was on the 12th of March

and I received lovely mail to celebrate.

These cards come from fellow postcrossers in 

Belgium and The Netherlands

From my sweet pen-friend in The Netherlands

with more Japanse candy! 

From another dear (pen-)friend in the Netherlands

She spoiled me! 

Harry Potter letter paper!!! from my pen-friend in Portugal

She included a sweet homemade birthday card 

which I of course forgot to include in the photo

And look how she decorated the back of the envelope!

I have to get my hands on such stamps as well!

This letter has nothing to do with my birthday,

but my Japanese pen-friend always spoils me.

More mail from Asia, Taiwan

My pen-friend thought of me when she saw

the cat cards, haha. They are really cute indeed!

Mail from Turkey! I hope I'll hear from this girl again.

She just started sending mail via sendsomething and 

I was one of the lucky people who got a surprise package from her:

coffee (way too strong for my taste, but so happy I could try it),

tea, a little panda chocolate (which looked really cute, I still ate it though),

a postcard and a letter! 

These Christmas stamps come from the Netherlands!

Postcrossers are kind people, we help each other out,

stamps for me, tea for the lady who collected them 

from her mail. Works perfect!

Postcards!

Let me start with this one from Mexico!

A teacher asked for swaps for his students

and of course I couldn't resist. 

This is a view on the church of Arandas

This stamp from 2015

celebrates 125 years of Treaty of the Metre

in Mexico

The next two beauties came from 

a fellow postcrosser and (pen-)friend of mine 

Isn't this kitty cute? 

This one comes from the USA

from a pen-friend I "met" on Sendsomething

Another Sendsomething card, from Canada, Toronto

Year of the Monkey 2016

Designed by Albert Ng and Linna Xu, the stamp is inspired by Sun Wukong, or Monkey King, a central character from the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West. It features a stylized portrait of Sun Wukong, whose colourful crown and headband extend beyond the stamp’s upper border. In the lower right corner is the Chinese character hóu, meaning monkey. The character is written in gold, one of the Monkey’s lucky colours.

The Year of the Monkey begins on February 8, 2016, and ends on January 27, 2017. The ninth of 12 animals to appear in the Lunar Calendar, the Monkey is traditionally thought of as all-powerful and God-like, representing honour, luck, riches and longevity.

And last but not least,

this card comes from Turkey, Istanbul

via Postcrossing

Letters from old and new friends!

This letter from the Netherlands was a total surprise! 

I don't even remember when I received the previous

letter from this pen-friend. 

But look at how nice it is! With sweets, a card and 

a Cardcaptor Sakura hanger she brought all the way 

from Japan! 

This letter fell in my mailbox today, from the US,

it comes from a new pen-friend! She found my

profile on Sendsomething and decided to write. 

Of course I am going to reply! 

Lots of mail to blog about!

Two Christmas surprises from the Netherlands

On the left a little gift from my sweet pen-friend

and on the right stamps to play with from a fellow postcrosser! 

Make that three! 

A cute Sarah Kay postcard from Finland

via Postcrossing

And this card from Puerto Rico! The ID on the card 

reads 8249, so it is a rare country! 

The sender wrote:

"The legend of La Rogativa"

On April 30, 1797, Sir Abercrombie took control

of our city through a naval blockage. The bishop and the women 

held a religious procession, carrying candles and torches

as they prayed for salvation. The British thought the sight 

meant that more reinforcements had arrived, which would outnumber

them, leading the fleet to abandon the city promptly. 

The wonderful Pamela sent me some mail art 

and stamps for me to use! You can find her blog

here: CappuccinoAndArtJournal

Another Postcrossing card to end with,

this time from Russia

 The issue of postage stamps is dedicated to the 55th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Russia and Laos.

(set of 2, 2015)

"Church of the Intersession on the Nerl is built in 1165 by Holy Duke Andrey Bogolyubskiy. It is located close to the village of Bogolyubovo in the Vladimir Region at the place of confluence of rivers Nerl and Klyazma on a flood meadow. It is a modest one-dome and four-pillar church decorated with carving. Thanks to the delicacy of proportions and the general harmony of the church and the natural landscape, it is considered one of the most beautiful Russian churches. In 1992, it was included into the World Heritage List of UNESCO as a part of “the white-stone monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal”. This year, the church celebrated its 850th anniversary."  

I am sorry for the quality of the pictures in this post, but the scanner has some issues with me, so I had to be "creative".

Lovely surprises and Christmas cards!

A very kind Italian lady sent me all this letter paper as a surprise 

as she is clearing out her collection! I am so happy with it all and

even used some of it already. 

One of my sweet pen-friends from Japan included

these little bags of Furikake, I had never heard of 

it before, but I am open to try new things. 

We already sprinkled some of the spices on our rice!

These are Christmas card 6 & 7 already, both from the U.S.A. 

The one on the left is from a pen-friend, 

the right one is from Mooshi the cat! 

It's been a while, I still get mail though!

I have been neglecting this blog, shame on me! 

Now lets update

The first card you see comes from Besançon, France

left:

portrait of Victor Hugo

middle:

La porte noire : a Gallo-Roman triumphal arch 

it is a "monument historique"

The place of birth from Victor Hugo and the brothers Lumière

right:

Astronomical clock

The French Indian joint issue celebrates 50 years of spatial cooperation between both countries. Each country released two identical stamps devoted to space exploration. (2015)

Another chunk o' cardboard

from South Africa! The scanner doesn't 

do the glitter justice, it looks really good! 

left:

Seventh Definitive set

of 27, 2000

right:

Tsonga neckpiece

2010

Lucky me! A new language swap from Spain! 

Two languages this time, as the sender also included 

some Catalan 

Europa 2015

"Old fashioned Toys"

a Scot Pine scented self adhesive stamp featuring a wooden toy train.

Stamps sent from Indonesia

The tea was an extra, I gave it to my mom to try.