Christmas Eve Eve Tradition

Last year I decided to start a tradition of making homemade cookies with Symone for Christmas. After eating the dough, we made what was left for Santa and family.

Earlier this week, Symone asked "Mommy, when are we making cookies?". It melted my heart.

Here's a recap of what we did last night, including the recipe I used both this year and last.

Step #1 - Apply flour make-up. Fabulous!

Easy Sugar Cookies from allrecipes.com

Keys to this recipe:

* The butter must be completely soft...almost mushy.

* I suggest a lower oven temp than 350 degrees...325, maybe even 300 degrees.

* Put rack in middle of oven.

* Use parchment paper on cookie sheet and cook no more than 8 min.
Cookies will firm as they cool.

Now...the photos of batch #1 - Black Raspberry thumbprints (inspired by a cookie I fell in love with one summer in India) and Hershey Kiss sugar cookies.

Symone creaming butter and sugar with vintage mixer I got at an estate sale. Perfect for a little one.

We tired of it quickly and switched to my electric hand mixer.

After making the dough, we rolled into small balls. For the raspberry thumbprints, we smashed with our thumbs and spooned in a dollop of seedless black raspberry preserves.

Is it me or does my thumb need botox?

As I did last year, I put the cookies on a sheet too big for my oven and had to transfer to a smaller one.

While the cookies were cooking (too long AGAIN), the remainder of the dough gets wrapped in saran wrap overnight for cook cutters tomorrow for SANTA...yea!!!.

Once removed from the oven, the plain ones get topped immediately with a single Hershey kiss then all get showered with powdered sugar by way of a sifter.

After that...eaten (6 of 10 gone in 3 minutes flat) -- so no pretty plate shot LOL

Here's wishing you and yours happy holiday traditions!