Christmas Cookies!

Over the past few years, one Christmas tradition that has developed has been baking and decorating Christmas cookies!  Each year I look forward to it, but will admit that during the process I do have the thoughts of "What was I thinking?"  After all, baking with a 5 year old and 3 year old isn't exactly easy!  But, the kids love it, and when I let go of the disaster that my kitchen becomes and the quality of how things turn out, I too have fun! 

Shane's favorite part by far was eating!  He managed to dump most of the bottle of sprinkles out onto the first cookie he decorated!  And while in years past that may have been the end of the sprinkles, experience comes into play as I now have the kids decorate in a 9 x 13 pan!  That way, when darling child does such a thing, the sprinkles can easily be poured back into the container!  Ahh, the important things you need to know as a mom! 

Faith worked very hard on her decorating!

And he's eating again!  He asked to eat each cookie he decorated!

Sampling of the final product!  While they are far for beautiful, the kids sure had fun!  And regardless of the looks, they definitely taste good thanks to Betty Crocker!  She sure has a great sugar cookie and frosting recipe!

And as I type this now, the kitchen has been mostly cleaned (another thing I have learned - do this activity the day before you planned to clean the house anyway!!), and the kids are outside running off some of their sugary energy!