Well here we are the day after Christmas… It feels like last week has been a blur! That is partially because Peanut had surgery last Monday to have tubes put in. She has battled 4 sets of double ear infections since October! The first two nights of the week were sleepless.  She was in a lot of pain (not from the tubes but from have 2 terrible infections going on!), and was up nearly every hour. I haven’t slept that poor since Munchkin was a baby!

Needless to say, this week came an went even faster  than it would normally!

We were still able to do a few of our favorite Christmas traditions. We made a gingerbread house, baked and ‘painted’ sugar cookies, made a few more types of cookies,  went to Church on Christmas Eve, went for a drive around our town to see lights, and listened to carols!

Here are two of my favorite cookie recipes!

Secret Kiss Cookies

Ingredients:

1 Cup Butter        1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sugar       1 cup ground pecans

2 cups flour           1 1lb bag of Hershey Kisses

Powdered Sugar

Directions:

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla. Add flour and nuts.

Chill dough for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven @ 350.

Wrap each kiss in dough (a little goes a long way!) Making little balls. Bake for 6-8 minutes. You can place many cookies on the tray I leave about an inch apart. They do not spread when baking.

Cool and then coat in powdered sugar. Be very gentle these are delicate!

Chocolate Mint Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup Butter                            2 1/2 cups  flour

1 1/2 Cups brown sugar               1 1/4 tsp baking soda

2 tablespoons water                    1/2 tsp salt

2 cups of semi-sweet choc chips  2  (4.5 ounce) packages of Andes Mints

2 eggs

Directions: 

In a sauce pan over medium heat, cook sugar, butter, and water, stirring occasionally until melted. Remove from heat, stir in chocolate chips  until melted set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

Pour the chocolate mixture into a large bowl, and beat in the eggs, one at a time. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into chocolate mixture. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets. Roll dough into walnut sized balls and place 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 8-10 minutes in preheated oven, be careful not to over bake. When cookies come out of the oven, press one mint (sometimes a 1/2 is more than enough!) and swirl with a toothpicks. Let them set (or don’t!) before eating!

Store cookies in an airtight container!