I am 41 and being of Italian descent I have always been around the kitchen. I think I was born with a spatula in my hand. I am married have two kids, 3 beautiful Golden Retreivers, 3 cats and a husband. There is always activity going on at our house and my kids friends know that there will always be cookies around. Cookies are my passion. I love to bake and collection cookbooks. No matter how many coobooks I buy, Allrecipes is still the first place I look for a recipe. After all the sold cookies are finished and delivered, I enjoy decorating sugar cookies with my kids. I would have to say that in the 2 years that I decided to sell Christmas Cookies being able to bake over 700 dozen and still get it all togehter for the holidays is a big triumph in my book. My children have dubbed me the "Cookie Ogre" that lives behind the Keebler Elves tree and terroizes the elves. I guess I do get a bit stressed but heck the hoildays are stressful anyhow. Growing up in an Italian home food was a part of life. I use to always help my mom then one day I decided I was going to surprise my parents and make them an anniversary cake. I got all the ingredients ready and when I went to look at the recipes the directions were missing since my mother who was an excellant cook didnt need the directions. I was so frustrated I cried until she came home and told me how to put it together. Everything was fine till I tried to take the cake out of the pan and it stuck. Ok so my first try at baking was nothing to get excited about but that was the start of my love of baking and cooking. Just goes to show you take from your mistakes and keep building on them till you reach perfection (or something close).