Cookie Day Weekend, 2010

Every year my mother's side of the family gets together to bake Christmas cookies. Only the girls...and we have a blast! We make enough cookies for 7 families and we make roughly 8 different kinds of cookies. So its not like we get together and just hang out...we really work hard baking hundreds of cookies. Each year we rent a different house and all travel to the location and stay a night or two. We have been in search of the perfect house for years. When this began 30 or so years ago my mom and her sisters would go to my Grandparents house to do the baking. When we all were old enough (and the moms were ready to share the holiday tradition) the cousins and I joined in. When my grandparents passed away and the house was sold we started going to different rental places (Galena IL, Delavan WI, Lake Geneva WI) but found a place near Burlington, WI that we all really liked. This is a great time to spend with family and get a break from our everyday lives (teaching, working, being mothers or wives) and just have some girly fun! This year we all got there on Friday night and had a Margarita or two. Then we got to work on Saturday and baked all day. We typically go out for a nice dinner on Saturday night (who wants to cook dinner after baking all day?!) but the weather was pretty bad so we stayed in. That might have been the most fun I have had in a long time. We had some yummy vodka cocktails and played dominoes and catch phrase...kicking back and having fun! It truly was one of those nights where we laughed until we cried=) Here are some pictures of my family tradition...we hope you have happy holiday season.