Cooking up sweets for Christmas.

We would go to my maternal grandmothers every Christmas Eve. She baked up a storm and always had a card table set up full of all the Christmas cookies she baked. The smells were amazing. Turkey in the oven, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits and all the sweets.

The year my uncle died, my moms brother, we decided to take my aunt and her four kids to Florida for Christmas. It was too hard to do the usual. My grandma send this huge box down with us that we couldn’t open until Christmas. It was full of cookies! What a welcome surprise it was.

Yesterday, my son Devon got the outside Christmas lights put up and it put some pep into my Christmas step.

So I got up this morning and starting throwing some ingredients together for cookies. I started out with making the dough for classic peanut butter cookies with the Hershey’s kiss. I froze the dough until it gets closer to Christmas.

Then I decided to try a new cookie that my moms card playing friend had made one Christmas. She had given me the recipe a few years ago but I had yet to make them. They are called molasses cookies.

I rarely use molasses, but I remember these cookies being amazing. Lots of spices…

And you had to sift the flour. I used my grandma’s old sifter which made me think of her and her love for Christmas.

The cookies turned out amazing. I love a spicy cookie. There are perfectly crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Next I decided to make granola for my secret Santa present at work. It turned out delicious.

Lots of yummy ingredients sweetened with pure maple syrup. Yummy enough to make any elf happy.

So, my morning was filled with mixing and baking and smelly good things. Christmas carols were playing in the background. Definitely feeling a bit nostalgic, grateful and ready to embrace this magical season.