Homemade Cookies

     When I was a little girl my favorite thing was homemade cookies.  It didn't make much difference who made them, I was always a willing taste tester.  Christmastime was my favorite time for homemade cookies. To me it was "Cookie Season."  My grandmother had a whole back porch filled with holiday goodness.  Us kids were allowed free reign out there.  We'd rush in the door, say hello, kiss my grandmother on the head and dash for that back porch.  All was right with world when we had one of her delicious snickerdoodles in hand.
     The same was true for my best friend Ellen's house.  Her mom was as big of a baker as my grandmother at Christmas.  It was amazing going over there.  Their counter was stacked with tins filled with every cookie you could ever imagine.  Press cookies,  her famous chocolate chip cookies, sugar cut out cookies, russian tea cakes, and my personal favorite Jelly cookies.  Jelly cookies were sugar cookies with a window of seedless raspberry jam and another cookie pressed on top.  I remember watching Aunt Annie make those.  They had to be rolled out and cut out just right or they wouldn't turn out.  Some years were easier than others, but oh how good they were.  I loved them from the time I was just little until I was all grown up and away from home.  No visit to Ellen's house at Christmas was complete without jelly cookies.
     Today I only worked a half of a day.  I thought about how I'd spend my afternoon and I decided to bake.  I stopped at the store and got a bag of chocolate chips and some other things and I whipped up a batch of my chocolate chip cookies.  Nothing puts a smile on Kaysie's face like a batch of warm chocolate chip cookies.  When she started school I was only working part time and on my day off, I'd always make cookies for her.  I've been slacking in the baking department lately and so I remedied that today.
      The holidays will be here soon and the cookies will be stacked in tins on our kitchen counter.  My mom is joining us for the holidays and there will be three generations in my kitchen baking  up some Christmas treats.  I'll be making Aunt Annie's jelly cookies as those are my favorites. I have to make those on a day when I'm home alone as they bring back some pretty powerful memories for me.  I'll send my mom and Kaysie to the mall that day.   I'm sure my mom and Kaysie will bake up some sugar cookies and Russian Tea cakes.  I've got a new recipe to try this year - homemade Oreos with mint filling.  We can all make those together.   It will be a fun time for sure.   I hope that when Kaysie is all grown up that she remembers all the times we've made cookies together and has a favorite kind that she will share with her own children.   Share some holiday memories with your kids and bake a batch of cookies together!  Cheers!