A particularly festive rendering of St. Nicholaus, who somehow, some way slipped into the house last night undetected and left our shoes full of treats.
Just as I was on the cusp of sleep last night -- really at about 2am this morning since I had trouble falling asleep -- I thought I heard some very soft noises downstairs. Figuring it was our cat Rannveig on one of her nightly prowls through the house, I rolled over and drifted off into lala land. Imagine my surprise this morning, when I came downstairs to make coffee and fix Young Master Paul's breakfast and discovered that three pairs of our respective shoes in the downstairs closet had been filled with various and sundry chocolate and caramel goodies wrapped in a variety of bright paper and foil. It's really starting to feel a bit like Christmas here at Stollen Central. So, let the tooth decay begin!
And here is an inviting photograph of the Nuernburger Weihnachtsmarkt that I mentioned in yesterday's post.
On another related note, the Grand Duchess maintains the Christmas Market in Nuernburg is the most charming in all of Germany given the delightful town environs in which it is set. She and two girlfriends usually rented a car every year to drive from Berlin to Nuernburg for a long weekend in early December to shop at the market and enjoy some of the food and, of course, partake in the warm gluehwein, a type of mulled wine that I urge you to try if ever you seek something to warm your heart (in every sense) on a cold winter's afternoon. Oh, yes! I almost forgot. It's about time for the Grand Duchess to whip up a few of her Dresdner Stollen. I love this time of year!
And here is a photograph of said stollen. It's really a kind of fruitcake variation I suppose, but a stollen is better than fruitcake thanks to the copious amounts of butter and powdered sugar in the recipe. Why, I could eat my weight in the stuff!
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