update.

just some recent pics and a an update from things around here...

Last year I was so looking forward to celebrating our first christmas 

together with our new little one. I thought this one will never be topped. 

As some time goes by I had to realize that when you make things special 

for you and your family and enjoy and take some time to focus a bit on it, 

things get better and better. Parenthood is such a blessing.

We enjoy christmas time even more this year. I love to see how Emmi discovers

 her world! And I want to appreciate every second of our time together...

 This year for example we made marzipan cookies on a stick as sweet gifts. 

Though Emmis attention on longer lasting activities in her age is not very long 

(around 10-15 minutes most time) it was a lovely experience. We kept things

 real simple and didn`t overextend her patience:)

  ok. I guess we still have to work a bit on the decorative aspects:)...

with the left over marzipan we made marzipan cherry jam, 

which proofed to be quite delicious:):

(we ate marzipan jam the first time in our vacation in south france this year!)

 For a christmas version you`ll need:

 3/4 parts cherries (at this time mostly frozen ones), we took sour cherries, 

1/4 marzipan, bitter almond extract, some christmas spices you like (we used some orange peel,

 ginger, cinnamon,cloves, cardamom), bourbon vanilla, and of course Gelling 3/1 

(depending on the weight of your cherries), cook it all together and puree it until it gets smooth

  

Outmaneuver some extra marzipan stars and put on the walls of your jam glasses

 fill the jam in the glasses, put some extra stars on the top, close the jam glasses
 well...ready!