Christmas Cookies 2011

There is nothing like a tall glass of milk with a frosted Christmas cookie.

Unless it's three or four Christmas cookies 

and a second glass of milk.

I have to thank G-Bear and E-Bear for my festive, nostalgic dessert tonight.

We made Christmas cookies all afternoon yesterday.  

Exhaustion rarely tastes this good.

This is our second year  making Christmas cookies together.

Last year we used Trader Joe's cookie kit, in all it's blissful simplicity.

This year we made our own gingerbread dough and four types of frosting.

I promise no children were maimed and no mothers lost their lives in this holiday feat.

It is hard for me to believe that I have accomplished this with my children two years in a row.  

Seriously, we have had a blast each time.

I wouldn't trade these memories for anything.

I have found that it pays to be prepared, but not overly controlling.

It pays to have rules, but not too many instructions.

I prepared by making our gingerbread dough the night before.

I let go by letting the kids roll out the dough and cut the shapes themselves.

I have two rules with the cookies:  Mommy does the food coloring and Mommy does the frosting.

Then the kids get biiiiiiig plates and lots of sprinkles, and they get to decorate them however they wish.

E-Bear and G-Bear took to work like pros.  They even did a great job sharing the jars of sprinkles.

Thankfully, we had plenty to go around.  

I am always impressed by their creations.

Baby Bear enjoyed watching the show.  He loves to be in the center of the action.

 This was a great way for us to celebrate "ThanksNicholas Day," as E-Bear kept calling it.

The recipes we used were fantastic, and they were not difficult to make: 

Gingerbread cookies from Everyday Food Magazine, December 2004

(I made the dough the night before and chilled it overnight -- so worth it)

The white glaze icing was 1 cup powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 

and 2 Tbs water, then blended together with a mixer.

The colored butter icing was 2 1/2 Tbs softened butter, 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 

1 1/2 Tbs water and 1 tsp vanilla, whipped together with a mixer. 

We split the batch into three bowl and then added food coloring.

The frosting recipes above made the perfect amount for our three dozen gingerbread cookies.

One last time, here are our creations.  Look closely and you may notice this year's new additions:  a snake (thank you, G-Bear) and a few sharks (thank you, playdough tool bag, raided by the Bears). 

Stop by for cookies!  We have plenty to share.