Christmas Cookie Exchange


Today I baked twelve (yes – 12!) dozen cookies for our annual  Christmas Cookie Exchange Party. It’s a time when we gather together as family and enjoy conversation, music, and goodies. It’s a nice time to just relax and enjoy each other’s company. Here are pictures of the “before” and “after” of my cooking-baking day. My cookies are now ready to go in pretty Christmas bags. Yum. Yum. 

 
And here are some treats for you: A list of the “The 13 Best Children’s, Illustrated, and Picture Books of 2013” on the online Publishers Weekly from the source brainpickings.org.
 
Here’ an online guest blog interview with Nikki Grimes on the Teaching Books website.
 
For both writers and illustrators, here’s a video on the School Library Journal blog by Caldecott Honor author and illustrator Peter Brown on his creative process.

Happy Holidays!