Butter season. It's here. The inside of the door on my freezer holds several pounds of Land O Lakes butter. Many more of the 1-pound boxes are stacked on the shelves in my refrigerator. My holiday baking has begun.
Baking Christmas cookies is one of my favorite things in the whole world. There's nothing that puts me at peace during this crazy busy time of year like getting into the kitchen to do some baking while Christmas music plays in the background. Maybe it's because I think of the many years my mom and I baked holiday cookies together. When I make the thumbprint cookies, a family favorite for generations, I can almost hear my mom tell me to roll the little balls of cookie dough no larger than a walnut. Now I use my small portion scooper and each cookie is the exact same size. She would have loved that little tool. We would stay up until all hours of the darkness to bake hundreds of special cookies that had become a tradition through the years.
I stll make many of the same cookies my mom and I created each holiday season. But, each year I find new ones to try. I have a stack of clipped cookie recipes that I flip through each November, pulling out a couple that will become newbies on the cookie tray. Some of those become keepers and are tucked into the "Keep Forever" file. Others are half-heartedly consumed and are never found on our holiday Christmas cookie platter again.
My kids beg for chocolate covered pretzels every holiday season. We have been making versions of these for years and years. Sometimes it's just the long rods with sprinkles, or the thick "pretzel shaped" ones. 
It's already in full swing. Thanksgiving turkey mania. You know what I'm
talking about. The endless, frenzied debate over how to cook the
perfect turkey. With all the food magazines, cooking shows and turkey
hotlines available, I know you'll find more information than you ever
wanted on the bird.
Latkes, also known as potato pancakes, are a traditional treat to eat at least once during the eight days of Hanukkah. The reason you eat latkes for Hanukkah is because they are fried in oil. Why oil? Hanukkah celebrates the re-dedication of the second temple after a battle and along with the victory came the miracle in which mere drops of oil in an oil lamp lasted eight days. The "miracle" is much like a story about a fat man coming down a chimney with presents...
Allen Byers was a creature of habit. He made traditional stuffing,
took a nap at the same time every day and was better at giving presents
in June then he was at Christmas. Although I never would have dared
suggest changing his nap time, one year I did work up the courage to
suggest he try a stuffing recipe from his favorite cookbook, THE
ALICE'S RESTAURANT COOKBOOK. Even though what the book proudly
declared was Alice's favorite stuffing didn't call for any of the
traditional ingredients, he let me talk him into trying it.