Holiday Cookies

Growing up, holidays meant tradition.  More than doing the same thing the same way year after year, we relied on certain things that were only done during the Advent season.  One of these traditions is my great-grandmother's molasses cut-out cookies with hard sugar frosting. 

My sister and I used to paint them with colored frosting and cheap plastic paint brushes.  It was a highly anticipated project that we did with Granny.  Last year, my older sister made the cookies while we were all home in Seattle.  This year, I made them with Ikaika.

He had so much fun rolling and cutting the dough.  He's still too young to decorate the cookies, but someday I will bust out the food coloring and pass that tradition on, too. 
I've been all jacked up about these cookies - they taste exactly the way they are supposed to - and Mr A asked me the other day if they are my favorite type of cookie.

Interestingly, no.  Certainly, they are delicious cookies and, since my fav are ginger snaps, they aren't a far cry from the taste I love.  But, what makes these cookies irresistible is the nostalgia.  If you asked me in December, I would beg for these.  If you made them in July, I could take em or leave em.  Its the tradition I love more than the actual recipe.

**the original recipe calls for bacon fat (I used shortening).  I'm pretty sure that would be amazing and I'm seriously debating making them the authentic way next year (and eating exactly ONE!)



We made a few other cookies (Norwegians, ting-a-lings, choco-oat bars), packed them all in little decorated cans and then took them to the neighbors.  Ikaika seems to be "getting it" more this year, and I want to be sure that he "gets" the giving part more than he "gets" the present part!