36 days!

I know I've said this 932 times since I started writing this blog, but I LOVE CHRISTMAS! Did you know there are ONLY 36 days until Christmas? I know! You want to slap me. Sorry. I can't help it! 

A simple math problem for you 36 (days) + 1 (infant) = 8 days. Seriously. I passed math I promise, but mom math IS different. I want to make sure that I have enough stuff baked. made, etc. for gifting so I figured I'd get a start on it! Bug will happily watch me bake or cook, but I would feel guilty doing a whole bunch later so I figured I'd get a start on it now. I'm going to try to bake one batch a day between now and Christmas so I have enough stuff (because we ALL know there will be a ton of days I will do nothing.) 

I decided to start the cooking baking with some sugar cookies. When I was in college I would spend an ENTIRE night baking when I came home for holiday break. My mom would wake up to hundreds of cookies and I would pass out for a day or two. I also did a stint for YEARS working at an amusement park for a few of those years I made cookies.I use to know the recipe by heart, but don't exactly have a mixer that can handle 10 pounds of flour 5 pounds of butter and 22 eggs...

I LOVE BAKING.

LOVE IT. 

This is the first year that I actually have a space to make cookies. In past years I've just made Toffee for everyone (also the easiest thing in the world) and that was it. I love to bake! 

I also consequently love eating what I bake, and that doesn't turn out so well for me....UNFAIR. 

My adorable assistants getting Big Read ready for me.

I read a few baking blogs and decided to try SugarBelle's Sugar Cookie recipe. It looked good, and I figure she makes cookies EVERYDAY so why not. 

The dough was amazing to work with. Super easy to cut out the shapes and no sticking. I used Almond flavoring (aka my favorite flavor) and the cookies were DELICIOUS. I "accidentally" broke a few so I HAD to eat them. I decided that since they were broken, the calories must have fallen out which made them a Weight Watcher PP value of 0. That makes sense right? 

Now for some random pictures of the Bug. He assisted me with the cookies (don't worry, he didn't touch the actual cookies.)

His dad snuck him a piece of cookie. It was MUCH like the Cookie monster. He mushed it all up and the cookie crumbled out all over. ALL OVER.

Yesterday I made Reese Cup Cookies (do these HAVE a name?) I feel like they were called something else at some point. Perhaps Delicious?

 Super easy recipe to make 40 cookies, but sadly the bag of Reese's had a hole in and some were missing (cough cough.)

Since there were missing Reese's cups, I had extra dough left over. I took out the fun sized Hershey bars (seriously, I skipped right to grandma status. I have candy hidden all over my house) and wrapped the dough around those and baked them. They turned out great! I only had 6, so I sent them to work with my husband. I might buy some other candy and see how that turns out. 

Do you have a favorite Christmas cookie that you make each year?