Wishing you all a merry and peaceful Christmas.

Warm hugs to you all.

The smell of Christmas

There is nothing like baking gingerbread cookies to get into the Christmas spirit. Presents are bought, decorations are out and now the house smells like Christmas.

Less stress than last year (meaning I began preparations earlier), still there are always some last minute chores. Mine is to get to the post office in time to send the three last presents.

Besides that, the last days before Christmas will be spent with our kids, listening to our favourite Christmas music and making one or another Christmas decoration. Not because we have to, just for the fun of it.

I am hoping these moments, different from our every day life stress, will become part of their childhood memories.

How is Christmas coming along in your house?

cold days muffins

calls for muffin making. I love good old plane muffins. No sticky creamy icing. Just soft, tender, and airy muffins. To eat while still warm or to dip in a cup of coffee or hot chocolate.

HERE IS the how's:

Preheat the oven to 180 C degrees. Beat eggs & sugar together until you have a light mix. Melt butter on low heat and mix in the zest of lemons (the heat will extract more of the lemony flavour from the zest). Let it cool a bit. Pour in the slightly cooled butter to the egg & sugar mix.

Measure up flour in a separate bowl and add baking powder. Stir the flower into the egg, sugar and butter mix. It will be thick. If you think it's too thick add 1-2 tbl spoons of milk. Your muffin mix is ready!

 Place the pan with the muffins on the middle shelf in the oven (preheated) for aproximately 20-25 minutes (depends on your oven so keep an eye on them), or until the muffins have turned golden. Allow to cool on a rack for a few minutes. Enjoy!


We are in the process of building a new entrance to our town house. Besides picking lamps, and storage systems to our new entrance, muffin making is just what i need to make December go faster.