Quest For the Best {Shortbread Cookie Recipe}

Today I'm playing co-host for the Christmas Cookie Countdown at My Reflection of Something. 

Each day a new cookie.  Each day a new co-host.
Of course, what's the fun if you can't play along, too?

If you have a fabulous cookie recipe, link up at the bottom of this post-- just be sure to follow the guidelines.

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I grew up making shortbread cookies.  It was one of my mom's standard Christmas cookie recipes. They only required three ingredients-- ingredients that we always had on hand.  Sugar.  Butter.  Flour.  Can't get any easier than that, right?  Yet, somehow, when I brought this recipe into my own kitchen after I got married, I could never, ever get it right.  The cookies always turned out either too crumbly and dry or too soft and doughy. 

But I have kids, and kids love to dip their fingers in sprinkles so every year we'd try again and meet with only moderate success. 

Last year, we tentatively tried a new recipe that was attached to a cookie cutter Maddie received as a gift, and what do you know?  Success!!  These cookies call for a few more ingredients than my mom's cookies so I guess technically they don't qualify for the shortbread category, but they also have no leavening agent so they aren't sugar cookies either.  We'll just call them keepers. 

Kristin's Keeper Christmas Cookies

1½ cups (3 sticks) butter

1½ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups flour
½  teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 

Cream butter and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed.  Add the eggs and vanilla.  Beat until well blended.  Add flour and salt.  Blend on low speed until just combined.  (Do not overmix.)  Gather dough into a ball and wrap tightly in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate 1 hour until firm. 

On floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut dough with cookie cutters and place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Decorate with sprinkles or colored sugar.  Bake for 13-15 minutes. 

Sharing the love...

also linking up at The Larson Lingo for her Cookie Exchange!)
and,

my sister, Kati, is  co-host for the Christmas Cookie Countdown on Thursday 

(and she is a fabulous baker) so there's even more incentive to follow along with the countdown! 

<a href="http://www.myreflectionofsomething.net/search/label/Christmas%20Cookie%20Countdown" target="_blank" title="Christmas Cookie Countdown"><img alt="Christmas Cookie Countdown" src="http://i1099.photobucket.com/albums/g400/bloggybranson/christmascookiecountdown.jpg" width="150" height="150"/></a>

Gather Round Your Tree

With all the Christmas linky parties popping up this month, why would you possibly want to join another one?  Because everyone likes to take pictures around their Christmas tree...and everyone likes to show off pictures of their kids or pets or beautifully wrapped gifts or handsome date! 

So...gather round your tree.  Then grab the button from the sidebar, blog your photos, and link back here on December 19. 

...old enough to read jokes aloud to your party guests,
but not too old to wear your birthday party hat. 

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Linking to...

Sisters

Sisters, sisters,
There were never such devoted sisters.
Never had to have a chaperone, no sir.
I'm there to keep my eye on her.
Caring, sharing
Every little thing that we are wearing .

{and may I pause to add that what they are wearing are matching Old Navy dresses I found in their sizes at the Goodwill?! ... $6.75 for both!}

All kinds of weather, we stick together,

The same in the rain and sun.
Two different faces, but in tight places
We think and we act as one.

{and may I pause again to note that this weather allowed both of my girls to be outside barefoot in December...but I won't complain because long sleeves with no coats is my very favorite type of weather.}

Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister,
And lord help the sister, who comes between me and my man!

{lyrics by Irving Berlin...and made famous in the movie classic, White Christmas}

Tri-Moms: Homemade Gift Ideas

I'll admit that some years I do better at homemade gifts that others.  Some years it is easier to find a good bargain at the store than to make a gift myself.  At first I felt guilty about buying gifts when I had the skills to make them, too, but I've come to realize that there is a time and season for everything, and that includes gift making.  I have through the years, though, made a gift or two... and it really is a lot of fun to give someone a gift that you put your heart and time into. 

One year, I made each of my nieces and nephew (seven at the time) plus my youngest sister and my children (three at the time) all embroidered T-shirts.  I started in the summer and finished up some time before Thanksgiving. I embroidered a handbag for my mother-in-law the same year.

Another year I had Gavin draw a picture of Brian on a piece of white material and then I embroidered over his pencil marks and sewed it into a bookmark.  The kids and I also made similar bookmarks for their grandparents and one of their aunts. 

This snowman hat is pretty cute.  I made them for Maddie and Owen one year for Christmas and every time they went out, they received compliments.  I made another when Benjamin was a baby and I just finished  sewing a girly one with a pink scarf and purple buttons to tuck under the tree for Alaine this year. 

But maybe sewing is not your thing.  There are other ways to create. 

One year, my kids drew tiny pictures and we slipped them into plastic photo keychains to give to Daddy and Grandma. 

Another year I took a photo of my grandparents' house in the fall when their house was surrounded by beautiful leaves.  Then I framed the photo and gave it to my grandfather for Christmas. 

Another time Maddie and I etched and painted candles (which was far easier than it sounds!). 

When my sister was four or five, she drew a portrait of our extended family.  I photocopied her work and printed it onto blank note-cards to give our mom. 

We've even snipped a bit of mint from our plant, replanted it in a pretty cup, and given that as a gift. 

When you purpose to be creative, the possibilities really are endless.  (But it's okay to go shopping, too.)

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My sister, Kati, has posted a series of homemade gift ideas on her blog this year, too.  Be sure to click on over! 

And as always...
Visit my fellow Tri-Moms, Allyson @ A Heart For Home and Christy @ A Living Homeschool to find inspiration for your homemade Christmas.

Up next: December 20
Focusing Our Hearts For Christmas

Winter Schedule of Topics
January 3: Time Management For Busy Moms

January 17: The Winter Blahs

February 7: Frugal Date Ideas

February 21: Romancing Your Husband