it's the time of year...

Holiday season is here again! It's that much-anticipated season of giving, sharing and joyful festivities. In Manila, Christmas comes earlier. As soon as the "ber" months (how Filipinos like to refer to them) begin, radio stations start playing Christmas carols, Christmas trees and other decorations come out of storage, malls fill up with shoppers and traffic becomes much worse :-) Aside from these common practices, the religious traditions of the Christmas season still remain and are never forgotten.

For my personal tradition, the festive season is just not complete without baking cookies :-) This year, I've been baking these spritz cookies which I find easier and less time consuming to make than cut-out sugar cookies. Aside from eliminating the rolling out process, there was also no need to refrigerate the spritz cookie dough after mixing. Just fill the cookie press with the dough then press straight onto the cookie sheet. It took some practice using the cookie press but it was a fun project.

I like the idea of recycling these Talenti gelato plastic containers. They're so handy from storing snacks to organizing small items in the house. Wrap a piece of colorful gift wrap around the container, secure with a gift label sticker and it's ready to fill with cookies, candies and other goodies. I made a sample packaging shown below.

recycled Talenti gelato plastic container

ube-flavored spritz cookies

May you enjoy the blessings and the bounty

of the holiday season!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!