Hey y’all! I spent all day with my mom baking up our usual holiday treats and wanted to share with you guys. I also hope you’ll share your family traditions with me!
Below is a box I gave my neighbor that includes M&M cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, almond Christmas tree cookies, and homemade Chex mix. YUM!
The trees are so cute!
Nice!
My husband and I don’t exchange gifts. (I don’t buy gifts for people at all.) That was the deal when we got together. We started dating around the holidays and I shared with him early on how Christmas time stresses me out.
We do have a Christmas tradition, though. Dinner is prime rib roast. Sides are usually brussel sprouts and some type of potato. Up until Christmas 2019 we always went to the movies on Christmas Day.
We haven’t made our cookies yet but we did make our annual gingerbread house(s). In the past, we always made one big house and worked together but this year we had the kids each decorate their own. Here’s the final product:
I like to keep my Czech Babi’s recipes alive - we’re all about Hoska (aka Vanocka or Christmas bread), butter cookies and black currant Linzer cookies.
I make the linzers with raspberry too since my DW and DD seem to think the currant is a little sour.
Which is the point when mixed with the sweet lemon cookies.
Heathens.
This was a family tradition for us too
Thanks! They are our favorite by far.
It is definitely stressful! The movies sounds like a great tradition.
I love those! They are so adorable. All of your kids look so grown up from your last trip report!
Those all look delicious! It’s nice to keep old family traditions alive. We use a cookie press for a couple of ours too. We found the Wilton Cookie Press II and it’s so easy we bought 3 more to hopefully last us a lifetime. Some of those suckers are awful.
I’ve been using an all-metal Mercato Italian press for decades, but the stress of the butter cookie dough finally started to make the bottom pop off a few years ago.
I tried ordering a new press this year and… it lasted a single filling before the top popped off permanently.
I sprung for a newer version of the Mercato and waiting for it to arrive.
Don’t know why the companies say their press is “all metal!” then you open it up and the mechanism itself is plastic. Ain’t nobody got time for that. 
That’s so funny bc ours is almost all plastic, but it works great. That handle to squeeze them out is a godsend. Mom has arthritis, but with that one she can fill up the trays faster than we can cycle them through the oven.
Wow! I know that all took a lot of time and care to make!
Probably my Babi’s 11 pounds-of-butter-per-square-inch recipes causing the problem.
From my estimation, Czech blood is comprised of 64% Pilsner, 34% butter, 2% poppy seeds.
So creative!
Are your Christmas decorations up yet? I’ve loved seeing your photos in previous years 
I’ve been gradually making Christmas cookies since, believe it or not, October.
But I didn’t come here to share that. I came here to share the concerning situation we find ourselves in. You thought Disney shuttering itself for months due to Covid was scary…but what about this?
Yesterday, while grocery shopping, Aldi was COMPLETELY out of Cream Cheese! How can we make cheesecakes and other holiday foods???
Turns out…there is a national cream cheese shortage!!! So much so, that Philadelphia brand is PAYING people not to make things with cream cheese this holiday season!
Yes, we tried to join the virtual queue to sign up for it and it was worse than trying to get a BG!
Yeah I saw that. My mom made a cream cheese run as soon as she saw the first news report about it. I think it’s crazy and awesome that they are paying people to not buy any.
Flour and bacon have been in short supply too. As long as there’s still chocolate I think I’ll be ok
