O Tannenbaum

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Wie treu sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit,
Nein, auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Wie treu sind deine Blätter!


Or in English...


O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your branches green delight us!
They are green when summer days are bright,
They are green when winter snow is white.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your branches green delight us!


I would love to hear someone singing Christmas carols right about now, but instead I think I will have to settle for eating some Christmas cookies. It's a dark night, almost the longest night of a year, and no one is venturing out to sing at my house. 


However, you never know what's going to happen tomorrow, I mean the days have just started getting longer so maybe someone will be singing soon!


To celebrate the fact that the days are finally getting longer and my favourite German carol, I've made my favourite Christmas cookie - German Moons. 


Plus, below my recipe I've got another treat for you. I went around Victoria on a Christmas lights tour and some of the houses were really dressed up!

German Moons - makes 2.5 dozen


1 cup butter
1 cup icing sugar + more for dusting
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups ground almonds ( I couldn't find ground almonds, so I bought slivered almonds and ground them in my food processor. It worked well.)


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 


2. Cream butter and sugar. Blend in flour, salt, and almonds. 


3. Roll small balls of dough into logs and shape into a moons.


4. Bake for 15-18 minutes, but watch them carefully so they don't brown. 


5. As soon as the cookies are out of the oven, dust generously with icing sugar. The icing sugar will melt into the cookies a bit and form a creamy topping. 


And now for the show.... 

Nice and pretty. Lots of lights. 

A little more jazz...

Can you even see me or do the 20 foot blow ups and thousands of lights take over? Pretty big isn't it!?