Kalispera & Au Revoir 2012

These Greek cakes are from our favorite little sweet shop in Nafplion, Greece: 

Dolce. 

Do these make you think of New Year's Resolutions? 

As we ring out the old year,

I thought we could bring in the new

with sweets of every shape, texture and color. 

Some, like these, are drowning in honey. 

Somehow even the Santa looks Greek to me. 

Clearly the Greeks don't mess around. 

And as we go into a new chapter of new beginnings.

I'd like to wish you every sweetness 

in the coming new year! 

May your cakes be filled with luscious creaminess,

your lives powdered with luck and grace

and your days merry and bright. 

See you in the next bliss-filled year! 

(Photos copyright: Kirsten Steen)

Light and Joy

via Pinterest

Sorry to have been gone so long. Had some technical difficulties of the hacking kind. Wish I could share with you my new password but it would not be fit to print here.

So after the long build up to the holidays, the end of the world as we know it and the winter solstice, we are now on the downswing to a bright and shiny new year, longer days and new chapters and beginnings!

I am so very grateful for my friends, loved ones, bloggers and my peeps and wishing all the greatest of holidays filled with every kind of light and joy your heart can imagine. 

Medieval Christmas~Missing Paris Day

I love the little medieval houses at the Marche de Noel in Paris. 

My sweetie bought me one several years ago which sits over the fireplace at Christmas

and on a lower shelf where I can see it all year long.

 I hung a tiny wreath ornament over it's tiny door which makes me smile, 

a dollhouse-sized wreath I stole from the tree for its perfect location.

Do you have a favorite Christmas decoration? 

(Photo copyright: Kirsten Steen

Marche de Noel at Trocadero, 16th Arr., Paris)

Love Life~ Buddhist Thought for the Day

"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions." 

~The Dalai Lama

I always come back to the phrase, "The Power is in the present moment." 

Reflecting on this over the years, 

sometimes I understand it and sometimes I don't. 

But I think it is about choice,

our own choices being the only ones that can make us happy... or not.

In each given moment. 

Not always an easy task, holding and pocketing the present moment, 

making it shiny with our worn fingertips,

but always...leading us to our future

and pointing to our destiny.

(Photo copyright: Kirsten Steen

Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco)

Pere Noel Meringue~ Missing Paris Day

Just around the corner from us in Paris

is rue de Lourmel

which like every other street in Paris,

loves to dress up for Christmas. 

Even the butcher gets in on the fun. 

But my favorites are always the patisseries

who can make anything out of meringue. 

If I could, I'd buy one of these little Santa Meringues for every one of my friends

and send them with a Ho Ho note granting their every wish for Christmas.

Though he might not show up in your mailbox,

consider the wish complete. 

(Photos copyright: Kirsten Steen)