christmas = cookies

Mmmmmm, one of my favorite parts of Christmas is the cookies! I try to keep things fairly simple, but we still make a variety of goodies.

I got pretty flustered with the kids "helping" me, so we nixed pics during a few of the cookie making sessions. I'm planning on some New Years cookies, so I'll be sure to get pics of us making those!

We started out with some of our staple cookies: molasses crinkles, peanut butter blossoms, sugar spritz cookies (cookie presses HATE me, btw), and oreo balls.





(I had a few "limp" kisses b/c I put my kisses on and then stick them back in the oven for a few minutes to get them to set into the cookies.)



Oreo balls are a fairly new item on our cookie list, but they are so easy and SO good! My husband LOVES them! You can also change them up by using mint or peanut butter oreos and white chocolate bark instead of regular chocolate.

You just crush up one package of oreos (we put them in ziplocs and hammer away, then pulse them in the food processor) and combine with one package of cream cheese, then shape into small balls. (I understand some people stick them in the fridge to harden them up a little at this point, but I just keep going.) You dip/roll your balls in one package of melted chocolate candy bark and place on wax paper to dry and harden. So good!

The girls and I also made sugar cookies and gingerbread people. We even tried out a new recipe for Linzor cookie bars w/ ground almonds and raspberry preserves. YUM!

For New Year's, I'm planning to try out a fancy orange/poppy seed sandwich cookie recipe and maybe some meringues. You can never have enough cookies, you know! Why stop at Christmas? :)