Christmas Baking List 2012

I thought I'd make a semi-permanent post about the biscuits and cookies baked for this year's Christmas. I'll also link the names of the goodies to my time-honoured recipes for anyone who wishes to give them a try. Feel free to share the results with me - at least verbally. Or visually, should you take pictures. ;)

Items produced so far:

1) chestnut biscuits
2) chocolate-peanut cookies
3) marzipan bretzels
4) orange-almond biscuits
5) cinnamon cookies
6) English biscuits
7) coconut kipferln
8) cinnamon stars

Happy Christmas everyone!

Ours turned out a very modest one this year, since we're both ill, so even the Christmas tree had to be small enough to fit into the corner of the living room. Usually, we have it on the balkony, which is closed yet not heated, so it's the ideal place. But Mum insisted that with my godawful cold I shouldn't decorate the tree on the icy balcony, so - after 15 years - this time the tree is allowed to stay within the room.

It's not a very pretty tree, poor thing, as I only bought it yesterday and the selection wasn't that great anymore, but it's all ours. It looks nice enough, and at least it didn't end on the rubbish heap right away. Trees are people, too, after all.

As usual, we didn't make a big thing of the presents. I took Mum to the trip to Schloßhof, and she took me to the trip to Vienna, and that was the main item. Other than that, I got her a jumper and some caramel-filled chocolate, and she got me a Hobbit calendar, with the illustrations of Alan Lee abd John Howe. I happened to glimpse that calendar in the bookshop and made a sad face (cos it was outrageously expensive), and Mum decided that it would be the ideal Christmas gift, as I wouldn't buy it for myself. Mum is wonderful that way.

Other than that, we're both nursing our various illnesses and idulge in our "Tour of Duty" marathon. It's not the ideal thing, because of said illnesses, but we're happy enough, which I wish you all, guys. *hugs*