When I was a child, the pre-Christmas fast defined the season. My mom, who was the most devout, believed we could choose to eat anything we wanted, and she could choose to judge silently.

When my mom started to bake Christmas cookies we knew the season of judging was over. The fact that she was making treats was a big deal growing up. My mom is diabetic, and my dad is obsessed with his weight, and so we never had any sweets in the house. Except Christmas when my mom would go crazy and cook enough treats to feed three armies.

There two treats, Kourabiedes, and Melomakarona. I never liked Kourabiedes. But I adored Melomakarona.

I now have my family, and I never found fasting to be my thing, and yet the memory of those mountains of Greek Christmas treats remains.

The problem with Greek treats is that the recipes are written as if you already knew how to cook them. Key details are left out.

And for many years, our Melomakarona didn’t quite work out as amazingly as we would like.

Until we found this video of Martha and Arianna Huffington cooking Melomakarona together.

http://www.marthastewart.com/952030/arianna-huffington-demonstrates-childhood-recipe-melomakarona-cookies

And like last year, this year we made the best Melomakarona.

And like list year, we made too many.

Here’s what the size of half the dough looked like

And here’s Natasha’s reaction to the size of the dough.

And here is the finished product.

And because this is America and not Greece we had to make a small accommodation. In Greece, your neighbors and friends would come over on Christmas day and expect to be fed. We don’t do this in America. Instead, you are expected to feed people.

And here is Nicholas and me heading out into the cold with our basket of goods and lights to feed our friends.