Kicking Off the Christmas Season with a Give-Away!

Good morning everyone! I hope you're having a great day, whether you're out shopping like a crazy person or just relaxing at home. As for me, I'm enjoying the first snowfall of the season. It seems appropriate that the first snowfall would occur today, because for me, the day after Thanksgiving is the official kick-off of the Christmas season. So to kick the season off right, and also to celebrate my 300th post yesterday, I thought it would be fun to host my first ever give-away here at Cassie Craves.

First, a little bit of back story. As you all probably know by now, I'm pretty obsessed with cookbooks. I am also obsessed with Better Homes and Gardens, which is where I find so many recipes that become instant family favorites. A while ago, I signed up for one of their annual recipe cookbooks to be sent to me through the mail, but as I so often do, I neglected to read the fine print -- which also signed me up for automatic shipments of all of their cookbooks. A little while later, I started receiving volumes of their Christmas from the Heart and Christmas Cooking from the Heart series, and somewhere down the line something got screwed up and I received two separate shipments of the same set of cookbooks. Because I am lazy about returning automatic shipments, I put the duplicate volumes aside and promptly forgot about them. Until now.

Just in time for Christmas, here's what I'm offering to one lucky winner today:

Christmas Cooking from the Heart, Volume 6: This cookbook is full of delicious-sounding holiday recipes. You'll find everything from appetizers to main courses to breads to breakfast and brunch, as well as the Christmas cookies Better Homes and Gardens is so well-known for. Among others, you'll get the recipes for pumpkin-pear bisque, gouda and red onion pizza, sweet potato fritatta with cranberry salsa, mocha-hazelnut biscotti, and caramel apple crepes. My mouth is watering already!

Christmas from the Heart, Volume 17: This book contains one of the most awesome and creative holiday craft/homemade gift ideas I've ever seen: using last year's holiday cards to make coasters. I am so doing that next year. It also includes step-by-step instructions for how to make ornaments, creative centerpieces for your holiday table, and beautiful wreaths. It even contains some recipes, like icy cranberry margaritas (yum), white chocolate-apricot mini scones, and chocolate-malted sheet cake.

The books have been sitting in a box in my closet for a while now, and are both like new. So here's all you have to do to win them: Leave a comment on this post letting me know what your favorite Christmas cookie is. That's all. The contest begins now and will end Wednesday, December 2, at 12:00 PM Eastern time. Unfortunately, due to shipping costs, I can only open the give-away to residents of the continental United States. The winner will be chosen at random using random.org's number generator.

So let me know what your favorite Christmas cookie is! And if you can, link to it too -- I'm always on the look-out for delicious new cookie recipes!