I love it when my husband tells me stories from when he was growing up. There is something so sweet about family traditions and stories from a long time ago. This recipe and these cookies are one of those sweet stories. When KH was growing up his Grandma used to make these cookies every Christmas. Then his mom began helping and over the past several years took on the tradition herself once Grandma was in a nursing home.  Grandma passed away last year and we didn’t have the cookies for the first of many Christmases. Somehow the idea came up to make these for Easter and so here you go.. nut butter balls that have in a way doubled as what I like to call “tombstone cookies” because they remind me of the large tombstone that was rolled away on Easter morning where Jesus was buried. Despite my (what I like to think) clever tie in to Easter,  KH is pretty firm on the fact that these will remain a Christmas tradition. Still sounds perfect to me!

Beat together thoroughly:
1  cup butter
½  cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
1  tsp vanilla

Sift together and stir in:
2 1/4 cups sifted flour
1/4 tsp salt

Stir in:
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans

Chill dough. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll into 1″ balls. Place 2 ½” apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake until set but not brown, about 10-12 minutes.
Gently remove from baking sheet while still warm and roll in sifted confectioner’s sugar, then cool on cooling rack. Roll again when cool, then store in an air tight container.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.