Shoulda been a Keebler Elf.......

I love Christmas time. Mainly because it's the only time of the year that gives me an excuse to make cookies until i have cookies stacked everywhere. I could do it year round, but really, who wants cookies in July? Husband says it really puts me in the Christmas spirit. I say, Christmas puts me in the cookie spirit. I've always enjoyed baking, it's almost as soothing as photography for me. But i really seem to go cookie crazy this time of year. The baking genes run deep in me though, i have a great Aunt who, in her prime, was an AMAZING baker, i grew up in a house where cookies were abundant at Christmas time, and everyone was homemade with love. I remember, growning up, always being excited for this time of year, not because of Christmas, but because i got to HELP, help make cookies. And so i continue that tradition. Bitty, thankfully, loves helping, so far. But really, what 3 year old doesn't like playing in flour and making a mess? And i love it! I always had this vision of my child sitting on a kitchen counter, helping me make cookies of all kinds. However, unlike me, Bitty inherited her daddy's love of eating cookies. I'd sooner make them versus eat them. Although, for as long as i've been making yummy cookies and what knots, i mostly stuck to the recipe at hand, sometimes meshing two seperate recipes together, but not very often. This year's been different. This year i've sorta been making the recipes i already have, my own. Adding stuff, changing quantities, taking things away. You get the idea. I must say, i shoulda done it sooner. This year's been more of an experiment, perhaps that's why there are so many boxes of cookies stacked everywhere.  I've also been trying new recipes. Which is oddly exciting for me. After years of making the same tried and true recipes, i've grow tired of tasting the same things. Granted, my perfected molasses cookie recipe has earned the right to stay the same. As has my snickerdoodle recipe. My family's chocolate chip cookie recipe got a makeover to resemble one of the softest sugar cookie/Lepp cookie i've ever really tasted.  Although, as much as i love my molasses cookies, i swear if i open my over door again, and get wafted in the face with the smell of molasses, ginger and cloves, i may just throwup a little.