So tell me, how was your weekend? I hope it was the best, first weekend of December ever!!! And now I say it’s only fitting to make this the best, first Monday of December by baking up a storm of Christmas cookies. You with me???? Okay, so this past week I was in the mood to decorate some Christmas cookies but I realized I don’t have a basic cut-out sugar cookie recipe on the blog and I was like “What!?!?” That’s unacceptable in my book, what an outrage. Of course, I think everyone has plenty of the very basic types of recipes for them so I thought I’d do a little variation and add cream cheese to mine this time. I tried a few different versions cuz the cream cheese gives them a different texture and, I’ll be honest here, the first batch were like cardboard. That’s part of the experimenting and recipe development process though. I think around batch number 3 they were pretty good and then by batch number 4 it was almost exactly what I was going for. I wanted enough cream cheese in them to taste it but not so much the it ruined them by making them dry. You’ll have to tell me what you think, but I think this recipe gets that balance just right. Alright, then after all the baking and boring stuff it’s time for the fun part, decorating them with anything and everything you see fit! Yay! Confession: I have a problem with getting overwhelmed by my own overload of inspiration in things like cookie decorating. I mean, do you have any idea how many ways you can do them, there are endless possibilities. You can make them round or cut them into shapes, you can add coloring to the dough or just to the frosting, you can coat them in sparkly sugar and call it good or leave them plain and add icing…. Oh, and don’t even get me started on things like slice and bake shapes and sprinkles! Do you see my problem here? Hopefully you’re more decisive in this than I am. As you can see I finally chose one of the most simplistic approaches and left them white on white with minimal icing to save myself the headache, but of course colors would be fun for the kiddos. It’s just that the older I get the more I appreciate plain, no-dye icing and a more rustic look. It’s the purist side of my personality. Call me a cookie snob, but it’s like I feel that they’re more sophisticated looking that way. Ah, speaking of that, question: how do you guys feel about colored Christmas lights? Yes, you love them, or no, not at all? Kinda, sorta? I’ve realized this Christmas season that I’ve allowed something to happen to me and I’m finding it pretty hilarious in fact. I’ve taken on one of my parent’s opinions (Haha, I know, the very thing we all promise ourselves never to do, right?) and I pretty much hate them. My dad always said that he thought they looked cheap so we never had them in our decor and now they just don’t seem right to me. Fine, I guess hate is a bit strong and I should clarify what I mean. I just don’t like them at all when mixed with classic white lights in the same room. Maybe they’re okay if it’s only colored lights in a room or on the outside of a house, but I still prefer the white over the colored ones all day long. For example, my sister wanted to decorate her son’s room this year since it’s his first Christmas that he’ll be old enough to really enjoy it, so she used the extra lights we had after putting up all the decorations and the only lights left were the colored. I actually like how she used them when they were on their own. Yeah, okay, I’m a weirdo and this probably doesn’t make much sense. Anyway thought, whether you like all the colors or not, you still should make these cookies and your Monday is gonna be awesome! Ooooooh, and, AND, don’t forget to weigh the options for your perfect accompanying drinks! Cocoa, nog, chai lattes, mugs of steaming hot coffee, or anything else you might see fit to drink with them! Have a great week! The holiday season just wouldn't be complete without a day of cookie baking. These simple sugar cookies get their lovely flavor and texture from a few unexpected ingredients.