Today is the Global Traveler holiday party. Alex and Courtney have traveled in from New York and the rest of the staff will celebrate with us in spirit. For me, the party is the first of many of the holiday season and the kick-off to gift giving. Shopping for my Secret Santa gift was my motivation to start the rest of my holiday shopping, but I still have some gifts to buy. When I was little, my mom’s Christmas cookies always meant the holiday season was upon us. My mom went cookie crazy for the holidays. Courtney’s blog yesterday brought the smells of freshly-baked cookies wafting past my nose because we always gave homemade cookies as presents to teachers and friends. There would be 12-15 different types of cookies and dozens and dozens of them everywhere each holiday season. The mixer and oven would be going all night and on the weekends. I would always help my mom decorate with sprinkles and little silver balls, and I always insisted she make my favorites, spritzers. Spritzers (I am not sure if that is the technical name!) are small butter cookies made using a cookie gun. The dough would shoot out in different shapes – Christmas trees, snowflakes, circles. They are perfect bite-size cookies – absolutely delicious! I have tried spritzers made by other people, but my mom’s remain the very best. Giving the cookies as gifts or as supplements to gifts was always a big hit! My mom would buy cute, decorative tins and baskets and adorn them with ribbons, candies and chocolate-covered pretzels. People looked forward to my mom’s cookies just as eagerly as I did. Instead of visions of sugar plums dancing through my head, I had visions of chocolate chip cookies! The smell of cookies baking means Christmas to me more than anything, even the smell of fresh pine needles. -Kimberly Krol, eFlyer editor, circulation and public relations executive