BOYERS — For nearly 10 years now, Carla Funfer has carried on the tradition of Christmas cookie baking with her four sons Dakota, 19; Austin, 17; Callen, 10; and Barret, 8.

“My kids give them to their teachers and bus drivers, but we also make cookies to donate to our church that makes baskets to give to shut-ins,” she said.

The Funfers use their family's traditional cookie favorites and add yearly to their list. They make 10-12 dozen cutout sugar cookies, peanut butter blossoms, peanut butter cup, almond, chocolate chip, thumbprints, Italian drop cookies, belly buttons, molasses and chocolate cake drop cookies.

All of the boys enjoy participating in the baking of the cookies. With four boys, Funfer has to schedule around a busy hunting season which takes priority over cookie making.

“I make adjustments to schedule when we can. We might bake one day, freeze them and frost them closer to Christmas, or spend an entire day in a frenzied cookie marathon,” she said.

She added the boys' favorite cookies are the Christmas cutout cookies because they enjoy using the cookie cutters and icing the cookies as wild as their imaginations can run.

Following are Funfer's Italian Almond Cookie and Pretzel Belly Button cookie recipes:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, unbleached3/4 teaspoon baking powder1/4 cup butter, unsalted1/2 cup cane sugar, organic3 eggs, large1 1/8 tablespoons almond extract, pure1 cup powdered sugar, organicAdditional 1 teaspoon almond extract2 tablespoons milk1 candy sprinklesPreheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.Add flour and baking powder to a medium mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes.Beat in eggs one at a time, add almond extract, and mix until well blended.Add the flour mixture a little at a time, and mix until well blended. The dough will be soft and sticky.Drop rounded tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets.Bake 5 to 7 minutes until the bottoms are golden and the cookie springs back when pressed with your finger.Remove the cookies from the baking sheets to cooling racks to cool.To make the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk and almond extract in a medium bowl until smooth.Place the cooling rack of cookies on the cookie sheet to catch the extra sprinkles.Dip the tops of cookies into the glaze, return to the cooling rack, and sprinkle tops with candy sprinkles right away while the glaze is still wet. Let the cookies set until the glaze hardens.Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks or freeze for up to a month.

Pretzel squares OR small pretzel twistsUnwrapped Hershey's chocolate kissesChristmas-colored M&MsPreheat the oven to 200 degrees.Place pretzels onto a baking sheet.Put unwrapped Hershey kisses on the center of the pretzel.Place into the oven. Pull them out as soon as the chocolate is soft, about 4 minutes or so.When taken out of the oven, quickly place an M&M on top of the Hershey kiss and squish it down.