So Monday night, I went over to my parents’ house to bake cookies with my mom. We try to make time to do this every year around Christmas. We were cutting it close this year, but we did it!

I have made Emeril Lagasse’s recipe for raspberry lemon thumbprint cookies the last two years to give to family in treat bags. My parents love them, so mom and I decided to make these. We used to make sugar cutouts and decorate them, but that takes so long, and we didn’t have that kind of time.

The lemon zest and juice really give these a great flavor.

And the secret ingredient is Chambord, which gets mixed with raspberry jelly. Yum.

Mom surprised me with an early Christmas present. An apron! I’m such a mess when I cook, so this will really come in handy.

Look at me in my fancy new apron!

Anyway, so we mixed up the batter, then rolled it into balls.

And Mom made a “thumbprint” in the top. We cheated and used a 1/4 teaspoon.

And then in goes the Chambord and jelly mixture.

You can see the lemon zest in the dough.

And when they come out, they look like perfect, round little jewels. These cookies and so pretty, and so good.

My dad came home while Mom and I were baking. He had a bag that Shiraz couldn’t resist.

And I tried to get some shots of my Mom’s Christmas tree. She’s so good at decorating and her tree is always beautiful.

I didn’t crop this photo, because for some reason, I like everything it shows. So, here ya go.

It was a really nice evening, and I’m so glad we found time to bake cookies. Only two more days of work. I better get to wrapping! Oh, who am I kidding. I’ll be wrapping at midnight on Christmas Eve!