My New Year's Eve parties have varied wildly throughout the years. One time, I spent the evening with a large group of friends all dressed up, eating fancy food and dancing in fancy lights and thinking fancy thoughts. And we even sang the fancy song that everyone sings at midnight. And there was kissing. It was the real deal. One time, I went to my inlaws house. They went out and I fell asleep on their couch at 9:30 p.m. and woke up the next morning with my shoes still tied. One time I went to a giant street party with thousands of people and live music and it was freezing and there was ice everywhere and I was still young enough to pretend that it didn't bother me to be standing outside in the middle of winter in the dead of the night. And I was running around with my friends pretending to be this super trendy person who hangs out with huge crowds and parties until dawn as a means of attracting boys. I'm so glad that did not work out for me. One time I played ...

As it turns out, I would way rather make cookies than do other "productive" things. You know, like making beds and buying actual food that doesn't consist of bagels and string cheese. Or shoveling snow. I used to like shoveling snow. And then I moved next to some magic mountains. And every time someone, somewhere in the world gets 1-2 inches of snow, TWELVE inches appears on every horizontal surface in my neighborhood. The piles of snow on the side of my driveway is now too high for me to lift another shovel full of snow to put on top. So that's a lot. Also, I'm lazy, so it's not actually as high as my head or anything. I play by hockey rules. Keep it below the waist. I thought it was going to snow all day so I told my husband I was going to catch up on laundry today. But as soon as he left to take his last Law School final of the semester, I was magnetically drawn to my kitchen. Probably because I was hungry. So I ate some lunch. As it turns out, bagels ...

You know what's kind of my thing right now? Black beans. I love them. I put them in dishes where they clearly don't belong. (I'm a vegetarian. I can justify it.) (Actually, I'm just super good at justifying pretty much whatever I want.) I also toss them in a blender with some cream cheese and eat it with carrots. SO delicious. But also kind of weird because it looks like a chocolate sauce and everyone thinks I'm basically out of my mind. You know what's NOT my thing right now? Shopping for Christmas presents. I'm just plain awful at it. I procrastinate like it's an Olympic Sport. And then on the day when " I'm really going to do it this time " it snows. Like, a lot. Like more than 10 inches. And I live on a hill. And have children. And I'm afraid for their lives, so I procrastinate some more. I have looked online to make sure a store had an item, gotten to the store and found out they don't actually have that item. I've...

Let's all just pretend like December was crazy busy and we forgot ourselves in the good times we were having making fun holiday cookies. And no one realizes that it's closer to the end of the month than the beginning and I still haven't drawn a winner for the Pantone Color Challenge. Yikes! As it turns out, I *have* actually drawn a winner now, but as usual, I won't tell you until you fall in love with all these gorgeous cookies from the challenge. I just keep finding more details to love in this Birthday Circus set by Rebecca at The Cookie Architect . I mean... did you catch the trapeze act going on in the center tent??!! Amazing! Rebecca was also the genius behind the Gingerbread House of Cards project this week. I am always in love with pretty much everything Sarah from Klickitat Street makes. And these bright, festive Christmas cookies are no exception. I love that she used so many different lines, shapes and textures in one cookie collection!! ...

I have always wanted to make some kind of crazy complicated gingerbread house with multiple floors and rooms that you can actually see into. I've been planning it for years. Little sugar crystal chandeliers and royal icing paintings on the walls. Wood grain on the stairs and snow drifting in perfect heaps on the rooftop and the white fencing surrounding a geometric little garden in the back. And it would be 4 feet tall and take over 2 months to make. And also, there would be a secret  passageway. Because really, what is the point of building your own house if you don't get to have a secret passageway? My house right now has a secret bathroom, and I can tell you that it is NOT the same as a secret passageway. But, as it turns out, trading a passageway for a bathroom isn't as simple as it sounds. And neither is building a gingerbread house from hazy half-sleep imaginations. So instead, I make little gingerbread sleighs. And I fill them with candy. And attach candy to...

I kind of like group projects. Not the kind where you divide up all the work that needs to get done, but secretly you don't trust anyone else to actually do their part so you end up doing 95% of it yourself anyway, and then it turns out that the only part that actually didn't get done by your co-workers was that 5% anyway and even though you spent the entire last three weeks of your life not eating or sleeping... you still fail. I like the other kind of group projects. The kind of project where everyone puts in a little something good and the results are something absolutely unbelievable and fantastic. The kind of project that inspires you to go outside your daily efforts, where you can't stop dreaming about possibilities and wish you could have three more chances to do something amazing. Basically... a cookie project. I was super lucky to be part of this Gingerbread House of Cards project imagined, organized, and masterfully executed by Rebecca from The Coo...

Remember two days ago when I said I was basically in love with molasses? And everyone got a little weirded out that I had such a close association to an inanimate object? And then I went and posted a recipe that wasn't incredibly flattering to said inanimate object? I'm going to make up for it today. If you like molasses... at all...even if you only like it enough to let it sit by you at lunchtime, then you are going to LOVE these cookies. Even if you kind of hate molasses like my husband,  (Maybe he's jealous. That would be awkward.) you will still like these cookies. But I make no promises if you actually just loathe molasses. If that's the case, you should probably not make these. And also, maybe you should look into why you have such strong negative emotions for an inanimate object. Just saying. If you are interested, the recipe is over at my friend Katrina's blog -- In Katrina's Kitchen . She's actually having a whole cookie party over t...