Christmas Baking on a Snowy Day

Ahh...a world outside the window swathed in white. Snow is falling all around.

What a perfect day for some holiday baking!

I pulled on my down overcoat and sailed out the door.

Walked around up the street and around the corner from work past the Black Sheep Woolen Shop...and Alpine Art...

To Mrs. Backer's Bakery.

(She's been at this location since 1926. Gosh, she must be ready to retire by now, wouldn't you think?)

Is this not the most adorable pastry shop EVER????

The windows had treats for the eyes....

And the mouth!

And aprons too. I already own cute Christmas aprons, but of course, they are packed away.

And you certainly can't expect me to bake anything Christmas-y without my traditional apron, and cookie cutters and rolling pins. Sigh.

Oh well. I guess I'll just have to make do with letting Mrs. Backer do the baking this year.

(Doesn't it seem really sophisticated and cosmopolitan to go to the bakery for holiday treats? I think so. At least doing it that way just this once....)

I had to look over all the sweet napkins and serving pieces.

Loved the feathered wreath.

Love the cornice at the top of the pink walls....love the seventy year old glass display cases.

Shouldn't all pastry shops have crystal chandeliers?

And shop girls with pink aprons?

Time to get serious.

A Christmas cake, six inches, will be just the thing for Christmas dessert for just us three people.

Some cheese danish for Christmas Eve morning...and a couple of cookies to tide me over on my walk back to work.

There now.

That's one way to do Christmas baking in a jiffy!

(By the way...it is the third night of Hanukkah, and Bernie and I find it very soothing to light the evening candles and reflect on Jesus, the Light of the World. Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe...

If you wish, you can find our reading for tonight here, from last year's series of posts. It reminded me how important it was to not assimilate into unGodly ways. Let me close this post with a quote from Michael Medved concerning this season of Dedication:

In this holiday season, Americans hear lots of talk about “Hanukkah” but most Christians—and most Jews, for that matter—don’t know what that word actually means. No, Hanukkah doesn’t mean “Festival of Lights,” or “Festival of Tolerance” – the Hebrew word means, simply, “dedication.”

It refers to the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem in 165 B.C., after its desecration by Hellenists who worshipped Greek Gods in the shape of men. The holiday calls for our re-dedication to resisting secularism and assimilation, and recommitting to God’s commandments. The word “Hanukah” has the same root as “Hinukh” –education—emphasizing that there’s no meaningful education without dedication to divine truth.

At the darkest time of each year, the glowing candles of Hanukkah signal dedication to bring light to a world that too often worships men, instead of God.)