Christmas Cookies

I love to bake, and I especially like to bake Christmas cookies!

When we moved to the retirement community, I must have told myself I wouldn’t be doing as much baking, because I don’t seem to have my cookie press or the cake pan that can be used to make that adorable manger scene.  If I did bring them with me, I have no idea as to their whereabouts.  But that’s okay, because there aren’t any children around to enjoy the edible manger scene, and there are still so many cookies I can make.

There are some deterrents.  I have essential tremor and sometimes a cup or spoonful of an ingredient ends up on the countertop instead of in the mixing bowl.  I have back pain if I stand up working for more than about 45 minutes, so I have to take breaks and sit down.   But on the other side of the argument is this irresistible urge to bake cookies….lots of cookies.

I should not be eating these cookies.  All that sugar isn’t good for me, and now there is that darn A1C test, which measures the average glucose level over the past 3 months.  I’m due for that in February, so the 3 month period does include Christmas cookie season.  It is my intent to give most of these cookies away…but…many of the old folks here that I plan to give them to probably shouldn’t eat too many either.  My husband just succumbed to his fourth warm-out-of-the-oven cookie from the current batch.  He used to run so regularly that it didn’t matter, but he is slowing down, and his waist is expanding.

At this point, I have baked sugar cookie cutouts, date bars, snickerdoodles and white chocolate-cranberry cookies.  I am planning on peanut blossoms, cherry blossoms, Christmas jewels and brownies with mint M&Ms mixed in the batter.  Eight different kinds should satisfy me, but my head is spinning with cookies from Christmases past.  What about rosettes, spritz, gingerbread, thumbprints, coconut orange tartlets, bon bons, fudge melt-aways, Russian teacakes, lemon bars, molasses crinkles???  What about all the kinds I haven’t tried for which I have recipes clipped out of magazines or printed from the internet?

I guess I could blame this on having a degree in chemistry, because there are similarities between chemistry and baking, but it’s more likely that this is all my Mother’s fault.  I have been conditioned since childhood!

I loved my Mother's cookies and so did many other people, including Santa.