Christmas Dinner: Dessert

Christmas Cookies!  Two fabulous words. First, clockwise, sugar cookies in the shape of train engines, boxcars and cabooses.  Trains are a big thing in my family, well, on the male side of the family.  Don't get me started.  Next are salted peanut chews (YUM!!!).  These are one of my favorites and Mom made many, many batches of these for the wide variety of bake sales during my high school years. The pumpkin cake/bread with a cream cheese filling and the peppermint chocolate cookies round out the rest of the canape plate.  I was able to take some of these cookies back to Chicago and yes, there are still some left...but who knows for how long!