Advent and Gingerbread

"Celebrating Advent means being able to wait. Waiting is an art that our impatient age has forgotten. It wants to break open the ripe fruit when it has hardly finished planting the shoot...Whoever does not know the austere blessedness of waiting - that is, hopefully doing without - will never experience the full blessing of fulfillment." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

an outdoor fireplace in my city, decorated for Christmas

I have not done very many Christmas projects of late, but did find time to have a Gingerbread baking party with friends. The recipe, from the Cozy Kitchen blog, came out beautifully and was lots of fun to make with friends. I recommend making an icing that is not buttercream based, so that it will set and the cookies can be stored afterwards.

To accompany the baking, I love this beautiful, unusual version of one of my favorite Christmas carols:



Merry Christmas!