In Progress: making a little holiday cheer*

*cookie images may not be suitable for some audiences.

well, it wouldn't be the holidays without a little baked goodness, a little good ol' holiday cheer straight from the oven. am i right? who is with me? well, this year i went back to iowa and dusted my parents' kitchen with a lot of flour and powdered sugar. the result? deliciousness. yep. that's right.

please notice the star cut outs on the edge and two pine tree cut outs for the center - very festive, me thinks!

first on my list was a holiday pie to eat on christmas eve (which is when my immediate family celebrates christmas). my dad loves apple pie (and had a few from his last orchard visit left in the bucket), so apple was proposed. i, personally, am not a fan of the apple pie (gasp! i know, so un-american), but do not fret, i still make a mean apple pie. and, i made an apple pie for christmas eve, but i put a little kick in that pie. that's right - i added cranberries. bet you couldn't have guessed, huh? we all know how i feel about the cranberry, and ocean spray brought cran-apple (genius) to the world long ago - so it seemed only logical that i put a little festive flavor in the apple pie. and - not to brag - my pie crust kicked ass. i think it was because i incorporated the butter into the flour by hand. lately i have been using a food processor to make my crusts, but straight-up elbow grease is so much better. mmm, flaky and delicious!

dad working hard on his masterpieces - maggie hoping he drops one

in addition to my pie making, christmas cookies were certainly in order. my mother baked the cookies well before i got home (she gets antsy, and frankly, couldn't wait), but she left the decorating up to me and (to my surprise) my father (who was rather eager to help). we were decorating some to go into a care package for the jeffster and some to keep at home. the frosting (which flavor-wise i did not love) dried hard and shiny - which was nice. enjoy our work below! note: dad did all the stockings, i did most of the cookies in the lower section of the photo, and if the cookie has multiple sections of different colored frosting - it was most likely dad's. enjoy.