It's beginning to look at lot like... Christmas!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving spent with family and friends.  We did here (even got to a hockey game-- the home team won, although we were all rooting for the visiting team :) ).

Saturday we got the tree up and "Christmassed" the house a bit.  We usually do this the day after Thanksgiving, but decided to wait this year.  (It will still be up until at least New Year's Day-- it's an artificial tree, so we can do that-- darn allergies keep us from having a real one!)

The back porch is almost done (which means later this week I can move the stuff out of my kitchen and back to where it should be).

I will be setting a date for our Cookie Party soon.  We had a fun time with this last year and are looking forward to it again.  Everyone brings a cookie to share (and recipe for me to post :) ) and I provide sugar cookies and decorating materials for all to decorate.  Erik just bought some new cookie cutters on his camping trips, and we are looking forward to using them.

What holiday traditions do you have?

Cookie Party

Yesterday my son and I hosted a cookie decorating party.  Everyone brought one-two dozen cookies to share and we provided the sugar cookies to decorate.  It was so much fun!!!

Before everyone arrived, we set the cookies out on platters I found at the dollar store.

From Cookie Party

Then, we got down to the decorating!!

From Cookie Party

From Cookie Party

From Cookie Party

From Cookie Party

My son created an elf cookie on the extra dough:

From Cookie Party

Even the hubby got into it and helped to decorate the floor!!

From Cookie Party

From Cookie Party

Here is what was shared:

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies and Chocolate Chip Cookies:

From Cookie Party

Peanut Butter Cookies:

From Cookie Party

M&M Cookies:

From Cookie Party

Biscotti:

From Cookie Party

Thanks to all of our friends and family for coming to decorate with us.  We really enjoyed it and look forward to doing it again.

Here are some recipes that were shared, too:

Biscotti (Pictured above):

2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 baking powder
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1/4 salt
1 1/3 cup almond slices (or butterscotch chips, or chocolate chips or whatever)

Cream butter. sugar and eggs.  Ad dry ingredients and mix well.  Add almonds, (chips, nuts, etc).   Roll dough into a 3"x 13"  log and place on greased cookie sheet.  Bake 50 minutes at 350. Cool completely then slice into cookies.  Re-bake until golden brown (if needed).  Dip in melted chocolate and sprinkles as desired.

Cream Cheese Cookie Press Cookies
1 cup of margarine
3 oz. of cream cheese
1 cup of sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp.of vanilla
2 1/2 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Cream margarine, cream cheese & sugar.  Beat in egg yolk & vanilla.  Blend in flour, salt & cinnamon.  Press out dough in cookie press.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 min.

Thanks for sharing your cookies and recipes!! Enjoy!