Every year my mom gets a group of people together to make cookies for Christmas. I have made it a habit to take photos of the final products. This year we made date pinwheels, jam thumb prints, peanut butter kisses, hand painted sugar cookies, and peppermint meringues!

I have gotten a lot of questions about the hand painted sugar cookies, so here is a little bit more about them --- BIG shout out to the wonderful Megan of Megan Hogan Art & Design, who showed me how to make these cookies! --- We used a recipe similar to THIS for the cookies & THIS recipe for the royal icing. After letting the cookies cool & then icing them, let the cookies sit until the icing is hard to the touch - or put them in the freezer till the icing is hard. Now it's time to paint! It's super simple, just use food coloring & vanilla to thin the colors. It's pretty much just like watercolors. Once you get the hang of it, it's so much fun & chances are you won't want to stop. I am already looking forward to making them for all different kinds of occasions. 

 If you all haven't noticed, I really love to bake. --- Fact: in high school I was either going to go to school for Culinary Arts or Photography, we all know which one I picked, but my dream of baking is still there and growing strong. Rambling aside...I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas !