Smells Like Christmas

Every year about this time, typically the day after Thanksgiving, I clear out a spot in our front room to set up the Christmas Tree, we use and artificial tree, the others make me sneeze. I try to do an extra good job of dusting and rearranging so that we have plenty of room for the tree, presents and Christmas decorations that find their way from the attic into the house. I also take this time to toss the old scented plug-ins and replace with my favorite Apple Cinnamon or similar Christmasy smells. When I did this last year, "the inventor" walked into the house after I had transformed the front room, saw the Christmas tree up, took a deep breath and said "Ah, Christmas air". I didn't tell him that it wasn't the artificial tree that he was smelling, but the wall plug-ins that I had just replaced. Why burst his bubble.

By far the most fun I have about this time of year is baking cookies. One of our favorite family traditions is baking and eating cookies while we put the ornaments on the tree. I do like Thanksgiving, but for me it is just the first celebration of the Christmas season. It's the warm up band for the main concert. When the last dish of the Thanksgiving meal has been washed and dried, I'm ready to break out the Christmas CD's, warm up the oven, and mix up a batch of cookies. Here's a great place to find those recipes that you can't seem to locate in your recipe box.

Mrs. Claus' Cookbook