Every year, my grandma would make her signature Christmas cookies: Italian sesame cookies, cucidati (Italian fig-filled cookies), Italian chocolate balls (not the salty ones), and her famous anise-scented, frosted cutouts. I'd sit and watch her expertly roll out dough and drizzle icing, while waiting for the first batch to cool enough to take the first bite of the season. She'd pack them in plastic tubs and "hide" them in the spare bedroom, and if I dared try to nip a few, she'd chase me away with a wooden spoon.

Years later, my mom, sister-in-law and I got together for a cookie-baking fest. We made grandma's cookies and tried our hand at some different types of biscotti. The pistachio-cranberry biscotti turned out best, and we had a riot making a giant mess of my kitchen.

For me, the days of butter and eggs are long gone, but that didn't stop my mom from making sure Tony and I would get enough Christmas cookies to fill a bathtub.

Today, we received a HUGE box from my mom full of gifts for us and for the kitties (She even addressed the box "To Danielle, Tony, and Kittens") so we would have presents to open on Christmas day. (Jesus was born, and so I get presents. Thank you, Jesus, for being born.) The top of the box was packed with five bags of different kinds of biscotti (almond, apricot, orange chocolate with chocolate chips, chocolate with pistachios and cherries, and mocha) and one bag of Grandma's sesame cookies that they made especially for us. All the cookies are vegan and delicious.

Thanks, Mom!