Cookie baking

No Christmas is complete without my mama's sugar cookies. I think I look forward to it more than the kids. My nieces came over and took part in our annual sugar fest. Anytime sweets are involved, my kids are all smiles.

My mom found these adorable aprons at Pier 1, my old alma mater. They were too cute!

We baked cookies the day after the Connecticut tragedy. I've had a hard time wrapping my head around it still. My mom's a 1st grade teacher, my oldest is in 1st grade and being a teacher myself, I just can't imagine what these parents are going through.

So I ate up every precious second with my family, mess and all, treasuring every second.

The cookies were crunchy from the overkill of sprinkles, the kitchen was a total mess, but it was wonderful.

 

When you have an artist in the home, cookie decorating becomes another form of art. It's almost too delicious to eat. 

Key word: almost

Landry's Christmas bow cracked me up, she looked like some Christmas cookie ninja.

And it made it even more special that my nieces were able to come again this year.

In the midst of our cookie baking:

Nolan: "Mommy, remember when Aunt Tonya made cookies with us?

Me: I sure do sweetie.

Nolan: That Christmas had a lot of cheer.

I love that he remembers her and those memories because I will never forget them either. This is my favorite picture that I had of them together in 2010, the last year she was able to bake with us. Last year, she was in the hospital.

And even though she wasn't "here", I really felt she was.

But oh do I miss her and I just look at her girls and see so much of her in them.

I love my little sugar cookie dough thief above. Ummm hmmm, that's proof that he's MINE! 

 

So between Connecticut and my sister, I just savored this year more than any prior.

How precious is this life I've been given and I will forever be grateful and never understand how I am so lucky and blessed.

Oh Sugar!

There have been years that the second Black Friday hits, it's mayhem. We're shopping, baking, crafting, wrapping, seeing Santa and squeezing more things into a weekend than there are hours.

And every year I tell myself that I'm not going to do that to myself again the next year...and then I tell myself the same thing again the next year. Do we see a pattern?

Some things I think are fun, others are no where near the fun meter but off the charts on the beat down meter. One of those things that I absolutely love though and make sure we fit in, is our cookie baking. I remember cooking with my mom growing up and how it was so hard to resist the urge to eat the cookies right from the oven.  The key was waiting until they were iced and the icing is what made them so soft.

Getting dressed for the part is half the fun. Who cares if that hat hasn't fit either one of them since they were 2. We grow ginormous heads in this family, thank you very much.

There were messes made and cookie cutting extremes so much so that you couldn't tell if you were eating a stocking or a tree...but c'mon, does it even really matter?

The attention span needed for cookies is pretty overwhelming for a three year old, but he was an awesome sport. He knew that good things come to those who wait.

Having  my mother-in-love in town to help this year was an extra special treat and quite the lifesaver. It's amazing that it took 5 adults to wrangle three kids, keep the house from burning down and photograph the entire event. It takes a village, right?

My parents came over as well and my mom is the most prepared cookie maker there is and does have the best sugar cookie recipe known to man.

 

The sugar rush was definitely evident when nap times were dismissed. It was so much fun to see them concentrate so intently on each little cookie as if it was a masterpiece. The sprinkles were mountains on top and I had to shake them off as I would glitter but there was some serious love put into those cookies. 

I might regret this baking session in January when we visit the dentist.

But for now, there are absolutely no regrets.

Lovin' from the oven

If you were only allowed to eat one kind of cookie for the rest of your life...what would it be? For me? Hands down, without a doubt, homemade iced sugar cookies. I would feed it to myself intravenously, if possible.

But seriously, why do they have to be so much darn work? Not sure if it's actually a lot of work or just having a bunch of young hands in the kitchen with you is what makes it such hard work.

This mama is not a fan of gingerbread. I mean gingerbread people are cute and all but the taste, aack! But my mom is a huge lover of all things made with ginger and they are fun to squish through your fingers like it's playdough decorate, so my fat little dough boy did best little chef impersonation. He was so darn cute making them that it almost made me want to try one of those awful tasting cookies.


The best part was that my mom and nieces did all the hard work with my children so I could just sit back, pick up the camera and just delight in their love for baking with their family. There was some good-memory-making-aura going on in the kitchen that day.


Tell me my kid ain't the cutest thing using every bit of strength in those pudgy hands to make the cutest gingerbread man you ever did see.

Even my 15-year-old niece, who let's face it- I'm sure would have much rather been with friends, was right in there making that dough with the best of them.

And Nolan without prompting knew that if you really wanna do Christmas baking the right way, you know you're going to be a helper. And who's Santa's biggest helper? His elves of course! So why not dress the part. And dude, that poor elf was breaking a sweat from rolling that dough.

Cookies were eaten as quickly as they were iced and sometimes that wasn't even a requirement in order to be devoured.

Plates were intently watched and I'm positive that more were eaten than I knew about.

One thing was certain...there was no shortage of sugar!

Cookie monsters

I still have very vivid memories of baking cookies with my mom at Christmas. It was so much fun rolling the dough, cutting out the cookies and icing them. I think it might be why homemade iced sugar cookies are still my favorite cookies.

This year my sister, Tonya, and my nieces came over to join in the fun. We put on the movie Elf (another one of my favorites), and got started on some Christmas cookie fun. I was surprised at how Nolan really was into it this year. Last year, he liked it but was done after about 10 minutes. This year he was right in there with the dough rolling, cookie cutting, and icing them with the rest of them. The problem was trying to get the kids to not eat so many so we would have some left over for a few days for us all to share.

Campbell wasn't so much into the cookie making...he was more of a cookie taster. He's a smart kid, making everyone else do all the hard work and then delighting in the cookie goodness...I can't blame him! Before you judge too quickly, it looks worse than it really was. After he attacked the icing, he only ate half the cookie.

Rollin with Nolan

Look at that fine cookie artNolan helping with the icingGrandma in the kitchen with her grandkidsHe didn't know where to start. He couldn't get it in his mouth quick enough...so he started with his nose!Everyone was in the kitchen

the final works of art!

Christmas cookies

Christmas FFF #2-making sugar cookies

My mom makes some mean sugar cookies. We usually have them all gobbled up after we've made a couple of dozen. So I took the boys over to my brother's house and my mom, sister-in-law, and my niece Aspen cooked sugar cookies and decorated them. I couldn't believe how long Nolan's attention stayed on baking these cookies. He is a true baker! He helped roll the dough, cut the cookies, wait for them to bake, ice and even decorate them! Pretty good for a 3 year old.

Here's our little baker with apron and chef hat and all...

How cute is this mini roller...can you tell that Grandma loves to bake with her grandkids?

My niece Aspen getting so excited about baking!

Aunt Becky and Grandma helping roll the dough

Now the good stuff...icing!