Christmas Cookies and Afternoon Drinking

A few days ago, my Mother in Law called during breakfast to speak with my husband.  They spoke for a bit, as they usually do.  After the call, my husband informed me that my Mother in Law was making plans for my girls and I to come over and bake Christmas cookies.  Wednesday would be the big day.  My schedule is currently wide open, so this seemed like a fine plan.

I love to bake, and my daughters also love to bake.  But it seems I have been going about this cookie baking busy wrong for most of my life.  You see, I have never baked cookies while drinking Glühwein and Eierlikör Punch.  That’s right, more than 40 years of baking and I never thought to include afternoon drinking into the mix.  Well, I can tell you, it makes all the difference. These Germans really got it going on. We proceeded to spend about 5 hours baking and drinking this Wednesday afternoon.  It was wonderful!  We baked enough shortbread cookies to feed all of Germany and possibly a good portion of the Netherlands too.  We also managed to do all of this with our very poor German language skills and a lot of Charades/Interpretive dance moves.  The Glühwein helped a lot with the language barrier, and made it easier to perform charades/interpretive dance moves.

Here is the amazing Eierlikör Punch.

The Mother in Law and myself cranking out the shortbread in a cookie press that her Oma, and her mother both used.

Cheyenne giving a big cheesy grin with some of the finished product.

Not sure what Sierra is doing here, It seems I am slaving away, and she is making funny faces for the camera.  Or maybe she is grinning like that because of the punch?

All in all, this was another great day in Germany.  Hoping that this becomes a new Holiday Tradition for my family.

Anyone have else have any fun holiday traditions that bring them closer to friends/family?  I would love to hear about them!