I regret, I am not much of a baker. Like to cook, but baking requires too many exact measurements....I'm more of a "little bit of this, little bit that" cook. When my son is old enough, I do plan to bake a few cookies with him.

My most memorable cookie baking moment as a child was decorating my mother's Christmas tree cookies. Seeing those cookies, even as an adult going to my mom's house, always made me think of childhood. The funny thing about decorating those cookies was my mom would get mad (not really mad, but ya know, somewhat annoyed) if we didn't "decorate" the cookies right. We joke that there is not a "right" way to decorate. But she liked when the sprinkles we done a certain way. All of this is even more funny as my mom was an artist.....they are creative people and enjoy things not being exact. Some of the best art is just throwing colors on a canvas, like the decorating the cookies.

My siblings and I still joke about decorating the cookies to this day and my mom has been gone for 2 years already. I am sure she will watch over us from heaven and say my son is not decorating the cookies "right."
Happy baking!!!

I am so not the baker! We do make cookies for Santa's plate but they are the pre-cut cookies that we can decorate.
Growing up my sister and I used to bake cookies with my Grandma. We had tons of fun!
Hopefully when the kids are older they can help easier and we will create a new cookie baking tradition. Right now it's not the easiest with so many tiny hands trying to help out.

Here's the Russian Tea Cakes recipe. It makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sifted confectioner's sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/4 cup sifted flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Mix butter, sugar and vanilla thoroughly.

2. Sift flour and salt, add slowly to butter and sugar mixture just untile blended and stir in nuts.

3. Line sheet pan or plate with wax paper. Roll dough into 1-inch balls, put on pan or plate. if you run out of room, put a layer of wax paper on top and do another layer. Top with wax paper, then plastic wrap.

4. Chill dough at least four hours. You can make the dough a day ahead of baking.

5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line sheet pans with parchment or silicone baking sheet. Take cookies out of refrigerator, remove plastic wrap and let sit out for no more than a half-hour. Place dough on baking sheets, at least 1 inch apart, and bake for 9 to 12 minutes. The cookies do not spread, and should be just set but not brown.

6. As soon as the cookies are out of the oven, dust them with confectioner's sugar and let them cool in the pan for at least a half-hour. If you try to handle them just out of the oven, they're more likely to crumble. Once they've cooled a bit, you can do another dusting of confectioner's sugar and gently remove them to a platter to finish cooling.

I like Melting Moments cookies. Find the recipe here:

http://thecookieswap.com/385/melting-moments-cookie-recipe/