Day 1 of my Christmas baking: Thumbprint Cookies with cherry filling center

Finished product: Thumbprint Cookies

 I've got my Burl Ives Have A Holly Jolly Christmas cd playing on my stereo to get my Christmas energy going and it's working!

All of my assembled ingredients

Mixing the butter, shortening, brown sugar, egg yolk and vanilla

My little assembly line...

My favorite part of making thumbprints: the thumbprint

Now into the oven for about 10 minutes

 My Mother used to make thumbprint cookies every year for Christmas. She would use red cherry jelly and green mint jelly for the center. This year I am using cherry filling. I've made these every year since I was 17 years old because it was part of her Christmas cookie tradition. I use the same recipe that she used from bettycrocker.com. Instead of almonds I use walnuts. Oh, they really are scrumptious cookies, not too sweet, just right. Great with a cup of coffee. ( but what isn't great with a cup of coffee though!)