My Christmas Tradition

One of the many things I learned from my mom and dad is that you show the people you care about them all year but you celebrate their friendship during the Christmas season. During my last years in Argentina, I would go to a friends winery and buy wine without their label (it would cost cheaper) and I would make personalized labels and gift my friends, family and those acquaintances that without their services I would not be a happy person (mailman, stylist, personal trainer, co-workers, etc). Once I came to the US, it became rather difficult to do, especially because I was a dirt poor college student and because I had no idea of the etiquette of gift giving.

I started this tradition when I was pregnant with Carr. I started baking cookies and making candy for all the family that I married into, my co-workers and the few friends I had. Now year two, I had to scale down the amount and packaging because I have more people I want to celebrate. But all in all I think I sophisticated the packaging concept thanks to some stamps and card stock that my boss lent me for Christmas.

I really love these "old timey" bags. I saved tons of money on packaging and I think they came out gorgeous.
They have: homemade cookie selection, candy cane and homemade apple butter (that is a story for an upcoming post)

First time decorating sugar cookies. Very labor intensive but I cannot complain, look at the finished product.

I am so proud and excited to say, these are my recipe and no one elses. I made these up from scratch! Hopefully one day, someone will call them Granny's special cookies or something. By the way they are delicious!

This is my depiction of a special chocolate chip cookie "for adults only". It has coffee in them, makes the dark chocolate chips pop in your mouth!

And last, this is me totally exhausted after I finished making a total of 30 Christmas bags for co-workers, friends and family.