Cookies, Cookies and More...

Our kitchen had a look of Santa's workshop about it this weekend.  Every year, my favorite part of the Christmas season is baking cookies.  We've had a pretty good run so far this year, and I expect to try a few new recipes before I declare us finished.

We had an early dispatch at a family birthday party over a week ago and today Olivia brought a box of artfully decorated snowflake sugar cookies to a dozen teachers. 

I love going about the giving of something homemade with an elfish excitement.  Recipients generally fall into two categories:  the "oh no, more cookies, what are we going to do with these?" and the ones who seem so truly appreciative, as if they can't wait for you to leave so they can dive into the bag.  They are the ones who thank us many times over and tell us which cookies are their favorites. 

In many, the homemade Christmas cookies seem to reach a memory, a chord within of a time from their childhood perhaps, or when their children were young and they cleared the calendar for a day of baking.  They are my people during this season of bustle.  The friends and neighbors who greet cookie bearers at their front door with a twinkle in their eye.