These cookies truly melt in your mouth.

3/4 cup soft unsalted butter

1 cup flour

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

1/2 cup corn starch

1/2 teaspoon almond flavoring

red and green food coloring

Beat the butter until it is nice and smooth

Add the almond flavoring and beat it in.

Stir in the flour, cornstarch and confectioner's sugar, then beat until nice and smooth.

Divide the dough into two balls. Work the red food coloring into one ball, just a few drops, then work a few drops of the green food coloring into the other ball.

Now pinch off some dough from one ball, about the size of a walnut, and roll it into a ball in your hands. Work with one color, placing each ball on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Wash your hands and do the same with the other color. These cookies are not going to spread, so you can fit a lot on a cookie sheet.

When all of your balls are formed, flatten them slightly with the back of a of a fork.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until the bottoms are golden.

These are the cookies I looked forward to every year at Christmastime. They became a tradition because, for me, Christmas wasn't Christmas without these cookies.

Sadly, I couldn't continue the tradition with my own children because when my mothyer died the recipe was lost for many years, until my aunt also died and I found the recipe written on a piece of paper and stuck between the pages of her cookbook.

But there is a happy ending. After I found the recipe, I baked the cookies for the next Christmas and my grown children loved them. So they've become a tradition again.