Italian Cookie Day

I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful, large Italian family. If you have ever seen the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, that is my family, only Italian instead of Greek! It is a Christmas tradition to make some Italian cookies every year. My 100-year-old aunt has done this every year. I have helped out once before about 7 years ago. There are many others in my family that make these cookies. Last week I received a call around 8:30 pm asking if I wanted to help make cookies the following day! I was SO excited! I had a list of things to do, but quickly dropped the list and headed down to help out! My great-aunt Della was there, her daughter Patti, and cousin Carol Jean. Carol Jean's son John and wife Shannon also came over. Carol just redid her entire upstairs, and has an AMAZING kitchen! They have one of those island counters that is 9-feet long and topped with marble! It was so great to be able to use that to make the cookies! I was there for 6 hours, and we still were not finished! I had a previous commitment and had to leave early! We had a really great time visiting and helping each other out! My Aunt Della was cracking jokes the whole time! She kept saying that because she was in the triple digits now, she could take it easy and work slow! (She did neither of those things!) Anyway, here are a couple of pictures:

Anna-Sophia and Lilly

Anna-Sophia kneading some dough, Shannon entertaining Lilly while I worked!

Aunt Della working hard:
Aunt Della and Patti working together, kneading the dough: