Of course, not being a Christmas cookie fan, I didn't have good cookie cutters. OK, I do have a nativity set that doesn't really look like a nativity set, and besides, I wanted the tree and candy cane and stocking - you know, the true meaning of Christmas ;). So I spent quite a bit of time trying to find Christmas shapes. Finally found a set of 100 shapes (all seasons and holidays, not just Christmas) for $10 at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, so we were all set to make cookies.
So, we invited friends over to help make and decorate Christmas cookies Tuesday. The kids all helped make the dough (I have four different recipes, so I picked the easiest one, for which I actually had all the ingredients). Silly me, though, I forgot that the dough needs to chill for an hour before rolling our, so we had a bit of dead time. But that gave Isaac and Ben a chance to run around and burn off energy, and we also had time for lunch.
After lunch, it was time to roll out the dough and cut out the shapes. Isaac and his best friend Ben participated for a bit, but then they got bored, so they played while Audrey and Zach (Ben's brother) used the cutters. They had so much fun!
Then it was time to decorate. I like the ease of tub frosting, but I love the look of royal icing. So I made the icing, and added food coloring, so we were all set to beautify our fun Christmas shapes. The kids had a blast decorating their cookies! Zach ate them as soon as he decorated them, Ben and Isaac decorated all of theirs, and then started eating them, and Audrey just wanted to look at the pretty cookies, and clean up messes as they happened. When she was all finished, she ate the icing and sprinkles off her snowman, so we had to redo it. She still hasn't eaten an actual cookie.
Quentin slept through the entire process.
