Christmas Cookie Week 2008

I know, it's been over 2 weeks since my last post. Being new at blogging, I'll have to figure out how to blog AND enjoy the Christmas season next year. And even though it's already 2009, I still want to share our Cookie Week.


The week before Christmas, my chicklets and I made cookies here at home. And I don't mean we spent one day baking or made one batch or chose one type of cookie. Our house became a cookie-baking factory. This is what we made:

* Chocolate Macaroons
* Sugar Cookies with Pistacios and Cherries
* Florentines
* Monster Cookies
* Swedish Christmas Cookies
* Sugar Cut-Outs
* Cheesecake Petit-Fours
* Spritz Cookies



This has never happened at my home before. In the past, I've bought the prepackaged dough (and there's nothing wrong with that) and made one or two of those. Of course, that was when we did school until right before Christmas.

But not this year. I decided to eliminate as much stress as possible from our Christmas season, so structured school has been on an extended holiday. Yeah!

So in my efforts to make these weeks off exciting, our kitchen was overrun with almost everything baking-related. I said almost.

In my past, I was a hamburger helper gal. I really had no interest in cooking or baking. If I'd had a family that did not require food, my stove would have become a desk. Or a bookshelf. Or a craft counter would have been cool.

But then I became domesticated. (No, not like a cat.) I started enjoying cooking and baking. Part of that came about because of a line I once read: "A good meal is a daily love gift to your family." I definitely wanted to communicate love to my family.

So I have tried harder to like making food. Now I love cooking and baking. No, I don't always care to cook. But baking has become more and more a fun activity for me. Probably because I enjoy eating what I bake. I really do.