Today is...

National Bake Cookies Day

'Ya gotta just love Bake Cookies Day.........
Bake Cookies Day comes at an opportune time. It's right amidst the major December holidays. It serves as a reminder to bake holiday cookies, if you haven't done so already.
Young and old celebrate this day by baking their favorite cookies. Make a party of it, and bake cookies in groups with family, friends, kids and grandkids. Don't stop at baking just one kind of cookies. Plan to bake a number of cookies. Try a new recipe, or two, or three, or....
If you bake more than you can eat, good for you! Wrap up gift trays filled with cookies for friends and neighbors. Many cookies freeze well, too.
Important Note: we are very surprised that Bake Cookies Day is not immediately followed by "Eat Cookies day" 

December is National Fruit Cake Month & National Egg Nog Month

images and text courtesy of MyPunchbowl.com" -- http://www.mypunchbowl.com/

History for December 18   1865 - Slavery was abolished in the United States with the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution being ratified. 1936 - Su-Lin, the first giant panda to come to the U.S. from China, arrived in San Francisco, CA. The bear was sold to the Brookfield Zoo for $8,750. 1956 - Japan was admitted to the United Nations. ________________________________________________________ "To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy not rich; to study hard, think quietly, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds and babes and sages, with open heart, to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the commonplace. This is to be my symphony." --William Henry Channing