Last night, Chris and I went out to New Jersey to trim the Christmas tree with my family and to do our annual cookie baking. It was fun to enjoy the first official night of vacation in the company of my family, drinking wine, making inappropriate jokes about some rooster seat cushions, and whipping up new and old favorite recipes.

As always, it was nice to enjoy my mom’s cooking. The dogs enjoy it too. If you’re reading this, mom, the spinach pie recipe is a keeper! And I want the details for that cabbage and white bean thing!

After dinner, it was time to don silly aprons and get to work.

In about 4 hours, we managed to make something crazy like 15 dozen cookies, which will be going out to our nearest & dearest. My mom’s fabulous kitchen and equipment (Chris was quite taken with the standing mixer) made the work so much smoother. No, none of the recipes are even remotely healthy, but I believe that if you want a cookie, have a real cookie, the kind your great-grandmother would approve of.

We got a little silly near the end, but when it comes to late-night cookie-baking, if you’re not delirious and cracking each other up, you’re not doing it right. 

These were much prettier by morning, I swear!

Hope you all have a fun few days planned, whether you’re celebrating or not. Mickey Jagger says, “Happy Holidays.”

…And I’ll leave you with a link to my favorite Christmas song : )