CHRISTMAS TIME

   This year I started to decorate my house with Christmas ornaments during the first weekend of December. I hung lights on a curtain pole in our living room. I put a glass bauble with a lit house on a bookshelf. I even ordered two children's books about Christmas to read them to my kids. The books haven't arrived yet but their reviews sound very promising. The first book "12 miesiący ze Świętym Mikołajem, czyli trawnik pełen reniferów" (Eng. 12 months with Santa Claus with a lawn full of reindeer) by Friedbert Stohner. It is about Santa Claus who appears unexpectedly in the house of an ordinary Finnish family to spend the whole year with them. From that moment on, nothing is the same, and the life of the family turns upside down: the reindeer graze in their garden, big sleds are hidden in the garage and Santa's helpers are organizing rowdy meetings in the living room at night.

   The second book "Niezwykły Święty Mikołaj" (Eng. Extraordinary Santa Claus) by Sven Nordqvist is about Pettson, a calm old man, and his extraordinary cat Findus who are experiencing many adventures. Pettson promises Findus that Santa Claus will visit them on Christmas Eve. But where to find the real Santa Claus? Or maybe you can ... build him? Pettson being busy with constructing Santa Claus does not notice that Findus feels abandoned. Will Findus finally get his Santa Claus? And what will really happen on Christmas Eve? The author answers all these questions with a great sense of humor.

   This year I'm going to bake gingerbread for the first time. I've already prepared the dough which I have left it in the fridge for three weeks. I used the following recipe: 

500g plain flour

100g butter

100g brown sugar

250g honey

65ml milk

1 gingerbread spice

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 egg

Heat butter, brown sugar and honey in a pot until the mixture melts down. Leave it for 15 minutes to cool down. 

Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and gingerbread spice and pour it into the bowl of a food processor. Add an egg and milk and blend until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the cooled mixture of butter, sugar and honey.

Pour the dough into a glass bowl and leave in the fridge for 3 weeks.
Preheat the oven to 180C. Line two baking trays with grease-proof paper.
Roll the dough out to a 0,5cm thickness on a lightly floured surface. Using cutters, cut out different shapes and place them on the baking trays, leaving a gap between them.
Bake for 10–12 minutes, or until lightly golden-brown. Leave on the trays for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling. When cooled pipe icing and put cake decorations.

   I'm going to bake gingerbread just before Christmas Eve and hang some of them on the Christmas tree.  I'm also going to make Christmas ornaments from the pine cones that we collected during our last walk in the forest. I enjoy Christmas time because of the decorations that I spread around my house, Christmas songs and carols, the smell of pine and Christmas dishes but mostly because I can spend some nice moments with my family.

Gingerbread house

Gingerbread tree