New Traditions

This holiday season, my family had to adjust to a new first – a holiday without my mom. While we journeyed through our collective sadness, it was important to me to make sure we remembered the spirit of the season and allowed the children to be children. In that vein, I decided a new Thanksgiving tradition would be to bake cookies with the children as a way to pass the time until dinner and create happy moments for all of us. I can honestly say that I succeeded.

My boys LOVE Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies from a local sandwich shop (read Potbelly’s lol) so I thought why not make our own.

I searched online and found this recipe on Food.com:

Ingredients

• 1 3⁄4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup butter, softened (16 tablespoons)
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1⁄2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth and cream. Beat in the eggs until blended, then stir in vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients until blended. Mix in oats and chocolate chips.

Don’t I look festive?

4. Drop heaping spoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet or parchment paper to avoid sticking.

The Princess getting the first batch ready

Superman helping out too

5. Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for approximately 5 minutes before moving to wire racks.

Voila! Finished product! Delish!!

The trick we used to make them ‘special’ was using holiday chocolate chips. The kids thought this was an EXCELLENT idea.

While the recipe says this will yield 60 cookies, we only made 36 and we were ALL happy about it.

And the new tradition was a hit! I can’t wait to see what cookie we make next year!

p.s. If you are interested in even more cookie recipes, check out the list of at Houseful of Nicholes! #HousefulOfCookies