Ok. Here it is. The hardcore launch into Holiday baking.

I am seriously going to try and speckle the massive quantities of sweets with savory dishes so as not to give anyone a tummy ache- but truth be told all I really want to do is bake every time I get in the kitchen. And then order Thai takeout for dinner.

And since I somehow managed to get out our Christmas card already and then put up my tree this weekend and bedazzle the entire house, I figure it was officially time to start in with the Christmas cookies. And they came in handy, as it turns out they pair nicely with Bourbon. And Bourbon is what it takes around here to handle watching my husband put 1300 lights onto our 7 foot tree. If you are unsure- that is a lot of lights. And I love him for not being like “we don’t need aaalll these lights, right!?” Instead he goes to the store for more when I don’t think 900 is enough. What a husband.

And in case you were wondering, (which I am sure you were not) I usually go for an old fashioned FLOCKED tree. And then I spray it with irridecent glitter. (Oh, you think I have issues? Get in line ☺) This year I was overruled in a coup, and we have a green tree. I have to admit that it sure smells nice. I haven’t even had to buy a “pine” candle like usual because the real pine smell is buried under coats of synthetic snow and glitter. Nice, huh?

And it was nice- for the 45 minutes it took to get the ornaments on before I decided it just wasn’t enough and buried it under 14,000 strands of tinsel.

You know what Coco said? “Boy mom, our tree sure is hairy!”

Anyways, about these cookies:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and prepare some sheetpans with silpats or parchment paper.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, cream together the butter, salt and sugar. Cream until soft and fluffy. Add the extract and the egg yolks and combine well.

Add the flour and poppy seeds and mix well. Transfer the dough to a sheet of wax paper and wrap it up like a disc. Refrigerate about 1 hour.

Use a little powdered sugar to help roll the dough out to ¼” thickness, and use a round cookie cutter to cut the dough. Place the dough on the prepared sheet pans.

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes until still pale, but cooked through. Gently remove from the pan and set out to cool.

While the cookies are cooling, prepare the Almond Frosting:
In the bowl of a standing mixer whip together the butter, powdered sugar, almond extract and milk and beat until fluffy. Spread the top of each cookie with the frosting and then immediately top with sprinkles