I can’t wait. I love Christmas so much! Yesterday, I went over to my mom and dad’s for a big day of cookie baking and Christmas Eve dinner planning. It turned out that my mom had made most of the cookies already, but we did spend a couple of hours making Thumbprints. We roll ours in chopped almonds and use apricot and raspberry jelly for the filling. We also usually make Russian Tea Cakes (also known as Mexican Wedding Cakes), Mandelbrot (a Jewish biscotti-like cookie) and Pizzelles (Italian waffle cookies.) This year, in keeping with our Scandinavian Christmas theme, we tried a new recipe: Scandinavian Rye Cookies. They are basically a sugar cookie with some rye flour added. They turned out pretty tasty. We also received a package in the mail this week from Robert’s family in New Mexico containing Biscochitos (Spanish anise seed cookies.) In my family, we almost never make cookies with chocolate or mint flavors or ones that require icing or frosting. We tend to prefer drier, crunchy, even slightly salty cookies, flavored with nuts or spices; the kind of cookies that go really, really well with coffee. What Christmas cookies do you traditionally look forward to every year?