This year the VP ball was held at the Hyatt Regency Ballpark Hotel St Louis (formally the Adams Mark Hotel) on Saturday December 20th.  Walter Knoll Florist provided the flowers for the event. This project started months ago with samples, that resulted in project that involved  more that 100 people  to have the table decorations created.  This year the centerpieces featured a large glass cylinder with suspended glittered snow flakes lit by LED lamps, the flowers in keeping with the snow theme are all white, using Avalanche roses, Casablanca lilies, white gladiolas, white Fugi mums, accented with shimmering redwood tree pine cones and silver trim and snow twigs.

It took more that 50 on site Walter Knoll Florist employees to make this happen.

Steve and Jeremy Loading the 30 ' Truck

Man, it’s hard to do my usual bake-a-thon for the holidays now that I work in a Flower Shop.  Christmas is one of our big holidays and we’re all putting in a lot of hours in getting those flowers and centerpieces and gifts out for you. There’s lots of extra help though, and the busy busy busyness of it all is intoxicating.

I did over last weekend manage to make up a couple batches of cookie dough which I rolled into logs, wrapped in wax paper and stored in the fridge in paper towel cardboards (you save those, right?) so they stay in a log shape and don’t flatten on one side.

My one cookie gift this year

I have only packaged one gift of cookies for my friends Mary and Bill, but I’ll be taking lots of cookies to work on Sunday when everyone will be working. After all, what’s a Walter Knoll Floral Holiday without Di’s cookies and spicy cheese wafies?

I’m going to share this amazing chocolate cookie recipe with you, not sure where I picked it up, somewhere on the internet, but these are the best chocolate cookies you’ll ever eat!

Dark Dark Dark Dark Chocolate Cookies
Makes about 100.

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, 2 cups sugar, and eggs on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix to combine. Gradually add dry ingredients, and combine with mixer on low speed. Roll dough into 1 to 1-1/2 inch logs, wrap in waxed paper, stuff into a paper towel cardboard and chill until dough is firm, about 1 hour or as long as a week.
When ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with Silpat baking mats. Cut logs into quarter inch slices. Place on prepared baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.

They spread, so leave some room!

Bake until they just quit being shiny, about 8 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Voila!

My cool neighbor Joe tests all my cookies out and these dark dark dark chocolates got a big thumbs up out of him!

Joe Cool

This tree is in the Lobby of the Metropolitan Square building in downtown St Louis (Located at 1 Metropolitan Square).  This year the tree has been transformed to tell the story of the history of St Louis. Included in the ornaments are 32 large, custom luminaries that were hand crafted by Walter Knoll Florist.  These luminaries show a pictorial history of St Louis.  The luminaries are made from Lexan, a clear polycarbonate that has been cast into tubes that then have historical images from St Louis’ past displayed with back-lit illumination.  Images featured include Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson,  Lewis and Clark, The 1904 Worlds Fair, Charles Lindbergh & the Spirit of St Louis,  the construction of the St Louis Arch and many other Saint Louis historic moments.

Standing at over 45 feet tall, this is the largest Indoor holiday tree in the St Louis area.

The Christmas tree in the lobby of the Metropolitan Square Building

This year we added a podium and a book with copies of the images and a description of each photo.

The Podium and Picture Book feature LED lighting

Some Close Ups of the Luminaries

Many of the images came from the Missouri History Museum and  several from the personal collection of Mark Allen from Anmar Photography.

If you are out looking at holiday decorations this season, it is worth your time to go by and see the biggest and best tree in St Louis. The Metropolitan Square Building tree is a great backdrop for a holiday photo.

This tree was assembled and decorated by Walter Knoll Florist and we manufactured many of the decorations as well.

If you would like to ask Walter Sr a question about the decorations click here.

Baby Ethan is here