A mother of a player on Job's soccer team was telling me that her family looks forward to a box of treats from another family member each year. This woman spends 12 days baking 12+ dozen cookies. Each day is a different type of cookie.  At the end she has 12 types of cookies to package up and send out to family and friends. I know that is too ambitious for me but I can bake for my family a little. "What comes to mind when you think of Christmas cookies?"
is the question that I asked my kids. This year I wanted to bake things that they liked and represented their idea of Christmas. I've rushed to bake cookies in the past because it was part of advent but I really didn't have time to really make anything and it ended up being a rushed not fun activity.  Not one of my children really had a specific cookie in mind so I went through my recipe books and looked over pinterest to come up with some kind of special treat.  Some of my favorites are pinwheel cookies. I love the orange and chocolate taste together. Sometimes I keep rolls in the freezer to pull out but didn't have any this year so I made up a batch to stick in the refrigerator for a day I could bake.  Then I did the same with gingerbread.  All that needed to be done was to have it rolled out, cut and baked to be decorated on a different day. Then there wer the buckeyes. I first tasted buckeyes at MSU.  My roommate received a package in the mail with buckeyes and they were so delicious, better than a Receses cup. I've had cravings for those ever since. Thanks to pinterest I finally have a recipe for them.  Then there are the Palmiers. These are so very simple to make.  Puffed pastry and sugar, that's it. You can buy boxes of these cookies in France for everyday but they are oh so elegant and very easy.