Almond Cookies with Dates and Chocolate {and a very merry Christmas y'all!}

I wish you all a very merry, bright and happy Christmas! I hope you enjoy this special time of the year with friends and family all united cherishing the birthday of Jesus, the community of your family or the act of gifting each other!



As you read this post I'm quite possibly already digging my toes in the golden sand, turning my face towards a glorious sun after devouring some delicious food from the buffet. I now, it might be unfair to tell you, but I'm in the lucky position to spend this holidays with my family a little further away from home (and the rainy, grey and dreary weather ofthe past weeks...) in the beauty of some warmer climate and one of the loveliest hotels around.
My days will be filled with sleeping, resting, reading (4 books packed!) enjoying time with my family and of course: EATING - aaaaalll day long! :-P



This calls for

Baumkuchen and the stories of the trees' rings

Countless rings, enclosing or seeming to move into each other or seperated by a dark line. That's what you see when you cut through a tree trunk. Each and everyone telling it's own story, good and bad, happy and sad - all different and unique, standing for all the years the tree lived to see.

Since being old enough to understand the meaning of these tree rings I was always attracted to what the trees could tell us (if they could only speak...) - all the things that happen in those centuries a tree might go through, standing still and massive - strong roots deeply reaching into the ground with nearly nothing that can disturb them and leaves that hear every whisper.



We most definitely won't live as long as our loved green friends, but instead we have the opportunity to tell stories to following generations. Reporting what great minds went past us (to stick with the tree metaphora), what they've told or shown us or what we've experienced on our own.



One of those great minds was Nelson Mandela,