Cookies never shined this brightly.

Your very own virtual Advent Calendar:

(just for you)

The more I see this number decline,

the more I freak out about Christmas shopping.

Eek!

I need more time!

Let us sing our song so we can forget about how far behind we are.

Everyone join me in “The 12 Days of Christmas Cookies”:

The older I get, the more I realize that people fall into 2 categories:

1. Those that love Christmas.
2. Those that hate Christmas.

I have yet to meet someone who is in between and could take or leave it either way.

No, there are clear lines that divide the population and by age 30ish,

you have your mind made up.

(It’s in the “Coming of Age” rule book).

Those that love Christmas, do so because it is a time of

magic and beauty.

A season where their lives are filled with

Presents,

Family,

and Love.

Those that hate Christmas, do so, well, for the same reasons.

Presents (they cannot afford)

to buy for those that they really don’t like to begin with.

Family. Need I say more?

And love. What a commercialized sham.

I tend to be pessimistically optimistic in my day-to-day life

(meaning I grumpily approach life as a half-full glass of water,

yet with a sense of cheerful suspicion that someone has replaced my water

with some sort of poison).

But when it comes to this time of the year,

I cannot help but squeal like a little school girl in expectation

that my glass is half-full of eggnog (the non-dairy kind).

One of the things that especially transports me into this happy state is Christmas lights.

Christmas lights are so personally transfixing for me.

They wrap me up into a different reality and fill my heart with a sense of

child-like wonderment.

I could stand and stare at them for hours.

Maybe it is the fairytale that they tell when I experience them.

“Once upon a time,

in a land far, far away,

there lived a girl, who at that brief moment,

had no care in the world.

And everything was beautiful just for that moment…”

Shortbread Cookie Recipe

Makes several dozen

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 c. Earth Balance (softened)
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 3 1/2 c. Authentic Foods Rice Flour Blend
• 1 tsp xanthan gum

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cream butter and sugar together with a hand mixer. Mix thoroughly.
2. Combine flour and xanthan gum. Mix gradually, 1 c. at a time, into butter/sugar mix until well blended.Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake for 15-20 minutes (1/2 the time for small cutouts).
3.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake for 15-20 minutes (1/2 the time for small cutouts).
   
   
   If you are doing cutouts:

• Roll into 1/8″ thickness between 2 pieces of wax paper. Cut out with cookie cutters.

      For cookie stamp directions:

• Go to Brooke’s blog to check out how she did it. They look delightfully awesome!

Sometimes it’s good to listen to a fairytale every now and again.

Reality has a way of barging into our lives way too often, anyway.

And if you ask me, I think that it’s completely okay

to forget about our troubles and immerse ourselves in lights, even if it’s just for a month…

she typed, as she sipped on her Silk eggnog.