Cookie Fun!

My six-year old granddaughter has puttered with me in the kitchen since she was still in diapers.  She's graduated from standing on a chair at the mixing station to sitting on a bar stool. She's in kindergarten, learning to add and subtract, so she can really help with the measuring now.  We have had many memorable cookie baking sessions.

She also loves to decorate cookies so I thought it would be fun to have a few of her friends over for a gingerbread decorating party. To save on time, I cut out and baked the cookies the day before. We shopped for sprinkles and candies and set the table with a plastic tablecloth (great way to avoid the mess!) She was so excited to have her friends over!

Gingerbread boys and girls, snowman, tree, star & mitten!

Of course we needed a snack for the little decorators so we spent a Friday evening making peanut blossoms.  My Christmas season is not complete unless I've made at least one batch of these cookies for the season!  Kids love them, what is not to love about the combination of peanut butter and chocolate?

The girls had a lot of fun decorating the cookies.  The chatter and laughter of these little girls filled my heart with joy.  They were so proud to take their finished creations home to their families (and the calories went to their homes, too!)

Such concentration by my granddaughter!

Coloring books for adults is a big trend right now.  It's said that coloring relaxes people and relieves stress. I think decorating cookies is a similar therapeutic process.  All week, after the gingerbread day, I had the urge to do some cookies. I cut out and baked sugar cookies during the week.  Saturday morning I sat down and, with Christmas carols blaring, proceeded to color using royal icing. My Hubbers was gone for the day and it was a very relaxing afternoon for me.  We had a small family dinner that night so the bonus was I had our dessert covered, as well as a few for neighbors and friends.

I found the idea for these cookies on Pinterest (I love that site!)  The snowman is made with a cupcake-shaped cookie cutter.  As I currently have 8 plastic shoeboxes of cookie cutters, it's always nice to find multiple uses for a cutter.  I never would have thought to make a snowman out of a cupcake!

My Christmas gifts have been bought, made, and wrapped.  I didn't send out Christmas cards this year. But I have made a lot of cookies and frosting!