"A Holly Jolly Holiday"

With Christmas right around the corner, the first few doors of our fun-filled Advent calendars with chocolate, toys, or some type of enjoyable surprise lie empty and bare, the smell of cookies lingers in the air, and the kitchen counter is covered in flour and spilled milk. 

Keeping the Christmas spirit alive 

A family tradition my mom and I have done every year is making a variety of cookies from scratch, using recipes passed down from generation to generation.  Each cookie is unique, as some have red or green cherries on the top, some in the shape of Santa, reindeer, a snowflake with frosting or icing that would run down the sides ,and the kind with Chinese noodles, hazelnuts that are then covered in chocolate. Once every cookie is uniquely decorated, they are all placed in red, green, silver, or even sometimes in little to-go boxes with Santa on it, which are all ready to be shared with my family on Christmas Eve. 

With the tree lit in colorful lights and decorated with ornaments from years passed, I lay out the cookies and pass them around as the family gathers around, laughing nonstop as they watch their all-time favorite Christmas movie, Christmas Vacation.  

Ever since I was little, these two holiday traditions were what I felt was the most giving thing of all, as it never fails to bring out the spirit and joy of Christmas.