Christmas Cookies!

For the third year in a row, we have made Christmas cookies for our neighbors (reserving a few for us, of course). I usually do almost all of the cooking and decorating myself with minimal "help" from the boys. They love to help me cook, and this year I thought they were old enough to help out a little more. First thing in the morning we made the dough, and Levi and Joel did a fantastic job keeping the counter and floor clean while dumping in the butter, sugar and flour. After lunch, we rolled, cut out and baked the cookies. Another successful time together in the kitchen. I was feeling a little over confident, so after naps I had several types of sprinkles, three colors of glaze and other cookie toppings ready to go for a fun cookie decoration session. It started well with instruction on how to glaze the cookies evenly, but the remainder of the time was nothing but messy! Let's just say Joel may have dumped an entire container of sugar pearls "into" his hand, Levi may have submerged instead of dipped some cookies in glaze, and Penny may have eaten enough sprinkles to enter a diabetic coma...

Yeah, I didn't get any pictures of the decorating process, I was too busy trying to keep every sprinkle I own from ending up in my hair/floor/children's stomaches...All in all it was a fun time with my goofy, adorable, excitable little guys! They sure looked cute "helping" me bake, had an absolute blast, and the cookies turned out pretty yummy and festive as well. I think the tradition will live on, perhaps with a few more rules and less options next year :).