This year for Christmas, I planned on making a yule log and some cookies. Turns out, the cookies part was a little over-zealous so I wound up making the dough but never rolling them out. So, now they’re New Year’s Eve cookies! I’ve made this recipe for green tea shortbread once before as part of a cookie exchange and thought they were yummy enough and extra festive looking.

Because I only happen to have GIANT cookie cutters, I decided not to make them sandwich cookies this time, but to leave each one on its lonesome.  I used the white chocolate mixture as a frosting but as I was (as usual) in a hurry, I didn’t let it set and chill very long so it wound up looking less than lovely, but still tasty as heck. Still, they looked wintry and festive and disappeared quickly enough at my mom’s annual NYE party!

Our family tradition on NYE for the last decade or so has been to make festive hats out of tinfoil. Not because we’re worried about aliens or the government, but because it’s FUN, dammit! Mom fits everyone with a sheet of foil on a duct-tape hat band and everyone just goes for it. I love the variety that we see every year as guests with varying levels of ambition set out to mold something on their heads. Some just crunch up the top and call it good, while others add more and more to it. Some emulate famous or recognizable hats and others (my mother always) make something artistic and strange. I’m telling ya – you gotta try it!

Anyways this is my creation from this year. It started out as an attempt at a Carmen Miranda fruit-hat, but it morphed into something more abstract. Happy New Year, everybody!