Dragonlane Artisan Jewellery

Every year my mom bakes up a storm at during the holiday season and one of the things she always bakes , even now, are plain old butter cookies that are rolled out and then cut with Christmas cookie cutters. They’re just packed with butter and sugar and they’re so simple and delicious.

I began copying my mom’s Christmas tradition of baking after moving to England and really struggling with homesickness. I baked my favorite cookies — taken from my mother’s recipe box — and I gave some away to friends and neighbors. My British family and friends were delighted with this tradition and the act of baking for other people really took the edge off of my homesickness.

So now it’s my tradition. And this afternoon I made batches and batches of butter cookies —

Some will be given to neighbors. Some will be eaten right here in our home.

AP and I finally opened the hall closet and foraged around in there until we found our skinny little tree. We found a bunch of other things, too, that we’d long forgot. I quickly shoved those old, musty things into a garbage bag before AP registered that they were being thrown out. They are gone. Our tree is up.

This is it – our artificial tree that we bought the first year we were married, when we lived in a tiny flat. It’s still with us and I love it as much as I love my mom’s cookies. I love it because it holds all the memories of all our Christmases together with the kids and the cats and the dog…because it is humble but holds all of our baubles and lights proudly. But most of all I love it because it only takes about 20 minutes to set up and decorate.

It’s looooovely.