Several years ago I bought some old-fashioned tin animal cookie cutters in a local antique store with no real idea in mind of how I’d use them. They were larger than I normally use, but I liked their shapes and the variety of animals. I finally brought them out for my “Christmas Comes to the Zoo” project and they became some of my favorite shapes ever.

Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day festival that involves food, prayer, dancing, oil, candles...and cookies, of course!

When the leaves start to change color, I can’t resist making Chocolate Cutout Cookies in the shapes of leaves, pumpkins, and acorns. Sometimes I’ll add a squirrel-shaped cookie to the batch if the squirrels haven’t been too pesty during the summer. If they’ve dug up all my potted plants and terrorized the birds I try to attract into my garden, well, then I refuse to give them any attention when it comes to making fall cookies.