It's the most WONDERFUL (and YUMMIEST!) time...

...of the year!

I LOVE Christmas...I love EVERYTHING about it-the music in church that sounds like angels are literally singing right in front of us to celebrate Jesus's birth always gives me chills-the excitement in a child's face when they open "that" gift, the family gatherings, the MUSIC, and yes...the BAKING (notice how I didn't say SHOPPING?  LOL!  I love to shop-but NOT this time of year-I prefer to go out when people are smiling and not frowning and refuse to let it stress me out!) ...so yes..the BAKING...

It was a simple "OF COURSE!" when my sweet friend AJ Otto asked me if I'd like to join her in a "VIRTUAL COOKIE SWAP" here on our blogs-what a GREAT idea!

I have a recipe and some photos to share of my Grandma's "GOOD OL' FASHIONED "SPRITZ" (or cookie press) COOKIES:

Now, these cookies are well, a little BLUE.  Ava REALLY wanted blue snowflakes and Jacky wanted the traditional green Christmas trees.  I couldn't make them TOO blue b/c all the food coloring kind of freaked me out, LOL!   So, we did a very LIGHT blue and then I added a few drops of YELLOW after Ava's were done to do Jacky's trees.  You can use WHATEVER COLOR YOU WANT...or none at all ;)

Here's the RECIPE(you will need a cookie press for these fun and kid-friendly cookies):

1 Cup Butter (2 sticks)                    2 1/4 Cups Sifted, All-Purp.  Flour
3/4 Cup Sugar                                 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 Egg                                               1/4 tsp Salt
1 Tsp. Almond Extract                    Food Coloring (optional-few drops)

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream butter and sugar together, then add egg and almond extract.   Slowly mix in dry ingredients and mix well, adding a few drops of food coloring toward end if desired.

Fill Press, form cookies on ungreased cookie sheets.  bake 10-12 minutes and remove at once onto cooling racks.
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Two of my dollies were off playing at Grandma's last night- we had birthday parties, first communion class stuff-ALL kinds of goings on yesterday , so when we finally got back home into our toasty warm sweats, Jack, Ava and I had a BLAST decorating and mixing the dough together (and yes, those are pigs in a blanket you see, LOL-our little "appetizer" while waiting for the cookies, haha):

I used this cute BAKERY BAG from Taylored Expressions along with the November KEY INGREDIENTS Kit featuring October Afternoon's "Modern Homemaker" paper which is PERFECT for this project ;)

After filling the bag with cookies, I punched a strip of cardstock and added some Modern Homemaker DP.  I then stamped the frame and "From my Kitchen" sentiment from the "From my Heart" stamp set onto Choice Buttercream cardstock and added the heart in the center :)

It was actually Jacky's idea to spell out the word "cookies" in stickers (shown above) and I said, hey, why not!?  I took a cute Rollin Pin chipboard embellishment (also comes w/ the Key Ing. kit!) colored the ends with a Copic Marker (E18) and then used a craft knife to shave off excess paper.  I adhered it to the bag to give it a little 3D look :)   For the finishing touches, I tied some twill from the November Key Ingredients kit (you get SO much ribbon with this kit!) and tied a button with some Carribean Twine from the Twinery!

We had SO MUCH FUN creating this project and baking up a STORM...even more fun eating them, hee hee.   Ignore my frizzy, funky side ponytail and lack of makeup, please-like I said-sweats and jammies, people!   Anyway-now...

 Won't you join us now for our "Swap?"  Here's the list of participants-who are SO MUCH MORE than that to me-these girls are my friends and they make life SWEETER even w/out the cookies :)   I am SO BLESSED to have friends like this to do fun stuff with-love your girls!  HAVE FUN!

AJ Otto

http://thewillowgarden.blogspot.com/

Eva Dobilas:

http://evafromca.blogspot.com/

Kimberly Crawford

http://kimberly-crawford.blogspot.com/

Jimmi Mayo

http://thestampingshopper.blogspot.com/

Jenn Balcer

http://jbalcer.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/

Tina Fussell

http://travelingmama.net/

Tiffany Johnson

http://tiffguam.com/

& me!