A Kitchen Tradition

For the past 6 or 7 (?) years, the girls and I have made time in our busy pre-Christmas schedules to set aside a "Cookie Bake Day". This year that day was Monday. We take turns hauling things to each others' houses and this year it was at my house. That means I didn't have to lug all my ingredients and bakeware, but I did have to clean up! So it's a trade-off. We started a little after 10:00 in the morning and when I "hit the wall" at about 6:30 and was still facing another sink full of bowls, spatulas, and cookie sheets to wash (about the 4th sink-full of the day), my sweet husband volunteered to do them for me. The guys are always supportive of cookie day. But before I crashed, we made lots of wonderful goodies. The theme was set with Jessica's Christmas music from her I-pod playing on the radio and a festive bowl of red punch (Mellie's recipe) that Jodi made. With just enough help from the little ones, we managed to turn some ingredients (top left picture) into a wide array of yummy treats (bottom right picture)...including apricot fold-overs, chocolate covered peanuts, dipped pretzels, banana nut bread, truffles, Buckeyes, Haystacks, Fruitcake cookies, Raspberry thumbprints, Crescent cookies, peanut butter candy, dipped apricots and whatever the name is of the new one Jess made with almonds and Craisins coated in chocolate. When we told Emery "No, sir" as he was trying to steal another Buckeye from the edge of the table, he said, "But it's choc-co-lat. I like choc-co-lat." Amen to that, little Buddy! :)