Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Here we go again - Countdown to Christmas 2014

What a busy weekend this has been! Our "Countdown to Christmas" started on Saturday by volunteering for the "Banque Alimentaire", the local food bank. They do an annual collection where you hand out plastic bags to shoppers at the local supermarkets and ask them nicely to do a bit of extra shopping for the food bank. Much in demand this year: cooking oil, sugar, coffee and cans of vegetables and ready cooked meals. I am happy to say that the shopping carts filled up, maybe not quite as fast as a few years ago, but every little bit helps!

 Food bank collection - the vest was to identify the collectors...

Done that I did my own little bit of shopping making sure I had all ingredients for Sunday's big Christmas cookie bake. My friend Sabine's daughter Jade had asked me for a crash course in Christmas cookie baking, and I have a little suspicion she got more than she asked for: we baked almost non stop from 11 am to 6 pm - six different cookie recipes. Turns out Jade is a master decorator - my cookies never looked so pretty before!

 Jade with the first three cookie batches

 Jade's beautiful cookie decorations

Having given my "prettily" icing decorated kitchen a major clean I then made my husband get all our Christmas boxes out of the garage and while he was putting the outside Christmas lights up I decorated the tree. I have never counted but there must be hundreds of little ornaments going up that tree - it never takes me less than a full day to get it just right. Sorry about the less than fab photos but I dropped my camera on our stone floor and it went straight to camera heaven so I had to take these with a phone camera. At least Santa now knows what to bring me for Christmas....
 Collected from all over the world - our tree ornaments


Done! The tree is up!
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11 comments:

  1. jaz@octoberfarmDecember 3, 2014 at 7:10 PM

    oh god...the pressure! i really need to start baking! those cookies look wonderful!

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    1. Cuisine de ProvenceDecember 4, 2014 at 3:06 PM

      Wel,l talk about pressure Joyce, you pushed me to put up the tree...

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  2. PennyDecember 3, 2014 at 8:29 PM

    I am still waiting for my tree to go up. All of your cookies look amazing.

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    Replies
    1. Cuisine de ProvenceDecember 4, 2014 at 3:05 PM

      You know what is funny, Penny? The ugliest cookies from the first batch - those dark brown hearts, they taste the best.

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  3. AnikoDecember 3, 2014 at 10:36 PM

    OMG what a nice tree You have! And more than hundred ornaments.... amazing! I love those lovely Christmas cookies, so inviting :-)

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  4. Madonna/aka/Ms Lemon of Make Mine LemonDecember 4, 2014 at 9:57 AM

    Someone to bake with, how fun is that. I hope Santa brings you a wonderful new camera and a velcro strap.

    M.

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  5. MichelDecember 5, 2014 at 4:11 AM

    Wow, those cookies look fabulous. She is a talented decorator. I am sure your home is beautiful. Sorry to hear about your camera. I hope the Pere Noel comes through for you. I hope you are enjoying all of the wonders of the holidays in Provence.

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  6. Andrea_TheKitchenLionessDecember 6, 2014 at 6:23 PM

    Barbara, was für ein schön geschmückter Weihnachtsbaum und eure Plätzchen sehen einfach nur wundervoll aus - wie schade, dass dir deinen Kamera hingefallen ist, aber hoffentlich gibt er zu Weihnachten eine neue. Übrigens toll, dass du dir die Zeit nimmst, bei der wohltätigen Organisation auszuhelfen! So wichtig!
    Liebe Grüsse aus Bonn und euch einen schönen Nikolaustag heute!
    Andrea

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  7. JannDecember 16, 2014 at 1:59 PM

    I can see you are now completely in the Holiday spirit! I wish you and your family a wonderful Holiday!! Cookies were to die for!

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