Christmas = Christmas Cookies

Christmas fact # 4: Father Christmas - Developed from several pagan gods. The Roman Saturnalia, a giant who brought food, wine, joy and revelry once a year to all and Odin, who would sweep across the land during the winter. Always portrayed as a giant with a robe lined with fur and holly with ivy or mistletoe on his head and carrying a Yule Log.

Each year at Christmas, my house smells like a cookie factory. I have to say, my family has never been rich, and financially….but we’re rich with the love, and memories, and traditions that have been passed on from generation to generation. So even at the age of 30, come Christmas, mom, Ida and I are dashing about the kitchen making cookies to share with friends and loved ones. Two years ago I had wanted to have a holiday open house, and had made hundreds; (no lie there) of cookies…as it was just going to be a snack party. Well, the day of our open house, we got hit with a freak blizzard, and had cookies coming out the ying-yang.

Last year we threw a Christmas tea party for our lady-friends which went way better. Nice weather, and not as many cookies…but more than enough to go around. So now it has come to baking Christmas cookies again, and we’ve been trying to narrow which cookies to make. It’s really difficult, because there are some favorites which you just HAVE to make each year, and of course there are ones that are specialty so this is the only time of year you make them. But there are so many different types of cookies it is hard to decide. Anyway, this year here are some of the cookies we’ve decided upon. Hope they make your mouth water:

1. Chocolate Chip Cookies
2. Sugar Cookies
3. Gingerbread Cookies with Snowflake Fondant icing
4. Almond Snowball Cookies
5. Tri-colored Cookies
6. Peanut Butter Cookies
7. Italian Knot Cookies
8. Sherry Butter Nut Drops Cookies
9. Maamoul: Stuffed Date-Orange Cookies
10. Jam Thumbprint Cookies
    
    And that’s just to name a few!