Occasional Sugar: Christmas Cookies, Pies, and Snuggies!

I feel it in my fingers,

I feel it in my toes,

Christmas is all around me,

And so the feeling grows.

This excerpt brought to you by my favorite Christmas movie. Know it?

This Christmas, we had a four-day Christmas marathon. Eric and I celebrated on Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas Day in Yuba City, visiting my grandma. The next day, my parents hosted a 16-person family gathering. We then spent Sunday with Eric's family. It was so much food, and gifts, and hugs, and smiles. A perfect holiday!

I did a lot of baking and everything turned out beautifully. First up, the new tradition (just two years now) of me baking Christmas cookies for my niece and cousins to decorate. I always use Alton Brown's recipe for these. It's easy and basic and the cookies always turn out strong enough to last through the decorations.

Here's a pic of my niece, Christina with my dog, Liz Lemon. Christina and her family gave Liz a doggie snuggie for Christmas! Isn't she so stylish?

I baked three pies for dessert. The pecan, which I've made several times over the past few months, the cherry, Eric's favorite, and my newest addition, the apple (recipe = way too long to post so please use the link). This apple pie is SO AMAZING. It was a lot of work, but it was so worth it. YUM!! I'd probably use a couple less apples next time and perhaps a lattice top crust or some sort of crunch top. The solid double crust was just a bit much - super massive. But the filling was so good!