Cookie Love

Linzer cookies

Originally uploaded by Raspberry World.

I hosted a cookie exchange this weekend. These Linzer cookies were my contribution. I made six dozen using this recipe from the King Arthur Flour website. I also ordered special glazing sugar, toasted hazelnut flour, and Linzer cookie cutters to make these lovelies. The results were completely worth all the effort.

My friends and I had fun getting together to swap our cookies. There are some pictures up in the December Flickr set.

Decorating this house for the holidays has been fun. I tried to use our own greenery as much as possible, other than a $10 wreath from the grocery store. Marty and I pruned the out-of-control holly bush way back on Saturday and I used the greens indoors and on the porch.

We also put up both of our Christmas trees: one in the living room; one in the dining room. Alex is old enough to be careful with the decorations this year, and next year we’ll be back to having a one year old, so I didn’t hold back this year.

It is nice to see so many of our old things again. Many of them have not been used since Christmas of 2001, since we left for Germany in 2002 and moved into a small condo when we returned to Connecticut. This is the first year we’ve had room to take out most of our things (and I still didn’t use everything).

A few things I’m particularly enjoying this December:

- clementines
- baking cookies (we have made so many more than just the Linzers)
- a (mostly) stress-free pregnancy, so far

I am 34 weeks pregnant and things are going well. We are expecting arrival in mid-January, if not sooner. Stay tuned.

Obviously, I’m not doing Holidailies (daily December updates) this year, but I will try to post more frequently than I have been lately.