Christmas Appies

Tradition for my sister-in-law and myself was getting together with a grade school friend Carol, to make Appies. We would divide up the shopping list and arrive goods in hand at Rita's to spend a day of cooking. Recipes were triplied to be divided between the three of us at the end of the day. The best part was looking at my carefully packaged olive cheese balls, chicken cordon bleu, cheese straws,crab quiche,mushroom turnovers,pecan cherry tarts and antipasto and feeling so rich and prepared for Christmas entertaining.The goodies were nestled all snug in their containers safe in the deep freeze until needed to impress visiting friends. Every year, I would open the containers and be surprised when I realized Laurie and Coco had already sampled the tiny, individually constructed,10 hour work day to make ,3 months to save for ingredients to make these very treasured Appies. At the time I was really mad at them for jumping the gun but now it makes me smile and makes me remember the real fun was in making them. It was the best of times....