Christmas Cookies

Ellen, Brenna and I baked Christmas cookies today... together... the three of us... my vision of what I've always wanted to do with my children... came true.  Christmas music even played in the background.  Ellen really loved the large gingerbread cookie cutter, but only one (of two) managed not to break, so it was her's.  Having the girls in the kitchen with me can be challenging, but Ellen wanted to learn how to place the cookie cutters around the edge of the rolled-out dough and even taught Brenna how to push down "all the way". I tried a new cut-out cookie recipe today and they turned out really well.

 

 Oh, and Bunny helped, too.

 For some reason I thought Brenna would automatically attempt to spread the icing...

 but she did what any 20-month-old would do and ate most of the icing off the cookie (don't worry, the knife is blunt).

 Ellen decorating her gingerbread man.

 "No, Mom, there's no icing in my mouth!"

 Brenna really enjoyed sprinkling on the sprinkles and gold stars.

 And tasting the sprinkles.

 Ellen's beautiful gingerbread man.  I love how the gold stars are all in a line.

 Our finished creations...