Every year before she passed away, my grandmother would spend the weeks leading up to Christmas making hundreds of cookies, delicately and neatly packaging them, and shipping them all over the country to our family.

Last year, my cousins Rachel + Hayley + I decided we were going to continue the tradition in her memory, making all her traditional cookies she made every year, and then adding a new recipe of our own to the mix.

We spent all day in the kitchen mixing, shaping, flouring, sugaring, rolling and baking…

…and when it was all over- we realized what a HUGE undertaking this was for our little Momo, and we were amazed by how 1 woman made this happen for our entire family year after year. It was almost too much for the 3 of us to handle!

We packaged the cookies and shipped them off with a little letter to each member of our family, signed by all of us under the self proclaimed moniker “the Christmas Cookie Ladies”. And so began a new chapter in our family.

The cookies were a huge hit- and this year, we had a little extra help in the kitchen from some seasoned cookie making veterans. Our Aunt Lori who flew in from California, my Mom, and Aunt Deedee showed us the ropes, whipped us into shape, and made sure we didn’t make the same mistake of using the wrong type of flour again (the fruitcakes don’t bounce on the floor anymore!!)