Every year, at the beginning of December, on a day like today, our house officially enters the Christmas Season. The day is devoted to decorating for Christmas. It is always a very special day for me filled with shiny, bright, colorful decorations, snowflakes and stars, lights in every shape and color, aromatic candles, the scent of fresh-baked Christmas cookies with vanilla and cinnamon alongside other delicious Christmas treats. Today −after popular demand− our cookies are joined with our most beloved Quince Galette. It is a day filled with joy!! Infinite joy and gratefulness because for one more time on this day I become a child. From as far back as I can remember, up until today, nothing can change the magic of this day. Whether I want it or not, the thought of Christmas and decorating always take me back to childhood days, whether they are mine or my daughters.

I adore this atmosphere and I have adored it since forever. I think that is why I adore winter, too,  and everything associated with it. The chilly, cold days, the snow, the droopy snow-laden branches, the crunchy sound of someone walking on fresh snow, the children's red noses and cheeks, the smell of burning logs in the fireplace, the snowman, the sleds, and the only fight I have ever adored, the snowball fight!!! These are my favorite images and if I were asked to draw an idyllic picture I would include all of these in it.

Perhaps the love that I have for the winter has to do with my memories and my childhood. And the truth is that snowy winters are very familiar to me, as I grew up in them. I still remember, looking out the window, before going to bed, and seeing dreary weather, everything brown!! And then, the next day,  like in a fairy-tale I would open my eyes and miraculously see the perfection. White glistening snow, so bright that it blinded me. It was a very common scene to see snow taller than me!! In order for me to go to school, someone had to walk in front of me to clear the way and I would jump from footprint to footprint behind him. Now that I think about it, I sound like Heidi but actually, it was pretty close - maybe that's why I adored the fairy tale of Heidi too.

And this magical image could never be so dreamy without the perfect tree, the fir tree!! It was and it will always be my favorite tree with almost magical powers. It had all the gifts at its feet and it wore the most glamorous and shiny festive dress. But fir was luxurious and rare in those days.  We would welcome any branch we could find to decorate instead. But none had the beauty, the scent and the color of the fir. And the decorations were few, almost non - existent. We would make most of them ourselves. And the candies ....a lot of candies, beautifully wrapped in shiny, colourful papers!! They were the perfect ornaments. These would give the necessary glow to our Christmas decorations!! There was another great thing about candies; we could always eat them at the end, which was always so much fun!! I don't think that the gifts were such a big deal; to be honest, I can hardly remember them. It was this magical atmosphere that warmed our hearts and that was enough. I am sure that most of you have experienced something like this and that we all have these simple but so warm and valuable memories in our hearts.

These memories reawaken every year and we become children again, raising our own children and I don't know anything more blessed or generous that life could give us. And back to today. For yet another time our house is filled with big children but still children, who are decorating with the same reverence, kneading the dough, creating blissful chaos!!

 The day of Christmas decorating goes hand in hand with baking Christmas cookies in our house, since forever. And one day is never enough for baking cookies; we need another and another and another because somehow they mysteriously seem to disappear. Old recipes, new recipes, different tastes, in shapes of tree and stars - actions that are repeated respectfully as if Christmas wouldn't come without them. It is impossible to imagine a day like today without the intoxicating scent of the combination of cinnamoclovevanilla!! The procedure itself is fantastic! I believe that the whole atmosphere becomes magical when children are sitting at the kitchen table. I have that image. Clean hands, rolled up sleeves, aprons - which are usually too big - bright red cheeks and whish - to work!

In this fashion it snows in our kitchen - flour all over, small snow-people sitting around the table. Each cookie shape is unique; no two are similar. Sweet voices talking non-stop. It's almost as if they are arguing. "No, you are the one who messed up my cookie shape!" "That one was mine. Why did you take it?" I admit that sometimes my head is about to burst but just for a short while. Nothing could ruin this perfect setting. In the end, the decorating, the glaze, the cookies filled with smarties and already in the baskets. As a mother, I have opened tons of dough and I continue to do so. Sheer happiness!! 

Every year on a day like today, we decorate for Christmas and prepare our Christmas goodies. Our hearts are filled with so much joy, warmth, and love.

Today's Christmas preparation day is even more magical. Inspired by the day's beautiful energy, luster, and magic, I'm yearning to give wings to something I desire to fly very high and through it, to share my food -and not only- stories with you!!

                                                          Welcome to my " not guilty food " !!