Do you Love or Hate baking Christmas cookies?

Long ago, when I was a young mom—wrinkle free, idealistic, eager, thin, blah, blah—I LOVED baking and decorating tons and tons of holiday cookies.

I made chocolate chip, sugar, butter, and Russian teacakes. I made gingerbread cookies and gingerbread houses and decorated them just like the moms on the cover of Perfect Mom magazine.

I enlisted toddler help and together oh what fun we had. (at least that’s what I tell myself)

We even have a favorite family saying that originated from one family cookie baking ~~fiasco~~ event about my son’s prize cookie (wish I had thought to take a picture, but that was long before cell phones with camera technology).

My first born, in a valiant and brown nosing attempt to win the Best Decorated Cookie award tried writing I Love Mom with icing on the sugar cookie; however, he ran out of cookie and only succeeded in writing

I (drawing of heart) MO

He won to the loud laments of child #2 who claimed it was the ugliest cookie ever! Ah…good times.

That was then. Fast forward through a decade or two and 4 teenagers and NOW I just wish someone… someone would assume the prestigious mantle of cookie baking. I’ll even buy all the ingredients! Just please—one of you—please make the cookies!

They can’t hear me because they are either 1) connected to a cellular device, 2) working, 3) on a date, 4) have a life.

This year I will make only 2 kinds of cookies. Chocolate chip and pizzelles, a labor-intensive Italian cookie that requires its own pizzelle maker.

So while making cookies can be tedious, I LOVE to eat the dough. In fact, I think the dough might be just about the best part of making cookies—I mean aside from the joy of seeing my children’s faces while they devour them!!!

Here’s two chocolate cookie mix in ideas.

Follow Toll House recipe:

add in frozen raspberries at the last moment. Once they start to thaw, the dough gets red—which come to think of it, might look cool if you write vampire novels.
Substitute white chocolate for semi-sweet and add in toasted coconut