Some years ago I found myself in Tutzing, am Starnberger See, and Munich just before Christmas.  It was a sort of revelation, a transportation into an old world Christmas. And really everything was like a picture postcard.  Particularly memorable was the Christmas Market, walking along in a thin layer of snow, bright lights in the stalls, beautiful Bavarian glass decorations for sale, and lots of yummy things to snack on.  Maybe it was the beer, but the whole scene was magical.

This morning I was sitting down to write today’s post and I was focusing on gloomy things.  It has, as I have said, been a particularly depressing year.  But then I came across this beautiful photoessay by Andy Eckhardt for NBC News on the German Christmas Markets.  I was delighted and cheered by the images particularly by two.  First, there are the children gleefully looking at a display of Christmas cookies. Second, is this attractive smiling Christmas angel walking among the crowd in the Christkindelmarkt in Nuremberg.

So for a few moments this morning, I saw the world through the eyes of a child.  Such is the magic of photographic imagery. It is a world filled with awesome cookies and beautiful smiles.  And while, I know that I will soon wake up to the cold of morning, I find myself wishing that we could bottle these wonderful feelings and maybe ship them out around the world to melt the evil doers. Such is the magic of photography.