End Results

I needed about 5 more cooling racks last night when the sugar cookies were coming out of the oven. After 10 cups of flour, I think we hit a record number of cookies. There are still a lot of cookies that need some frosting, but we made a dent today.

K arrived bright and early bringing additional supplies and a lot more energy than I was feeling that early in the morning.

She started in on the pretzels, while I was still downing my last cup of coffee.

The pretzels had dried and she had already dropped a batch of fruit loopers, while I was finishing a batch of peanut butter fudge. By this time we needed a break; poinsettias (champagne and cranberry juice) to the rescue! See, baking really is a celebration!

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We made two batches of Galaxy cookies, which may become our new family joke. One of the brothers gave me a recipe for these little gems. We've followed it for years. Today, we actually looked at the Betty Crocker Cookbook and found the original recipe--absolutely nothing like the recipe my brother gave us! The cookies look alike, and that is about it! We are kind of wondering where he manufactured that recipe he came up with!

We made a small dent in icing sugar cookies. There are still plenty to do! K iced enough to take with her to CT's family, and I have enough to share with the Mr.'s family. The rest will get done as needed.

So here is the platter that headed west with K. The balls with pink frosting are galaxy cookies, then the fruit loopers, sugar cookies, peanut butter fudge, and the pretzels.

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Only one major mishap: little red and green sprinkles were spilled everywhere! A broom and dustpan were needed. L would have been proud. (Actually, she would have been nuts with all the chaos and mess.) OK, I might still be finding some of those little sprinkles decorating the kitchen floor; however, I'm trying to think of them as Elf dust! By Easter, I may have them all rounded up!

Cookie Baking Day

Today is the day for cookie baking and candy making. K arrives at 6:30. The Mr. has to work, and L declined the fun. She actually IS a cook and prefers her own kitchen to our messiness! That, and I think sleeping in was just a little too appealing!

We have a division of labor where the sugar cookies are concerned. The Mr. mixes them up and rolls them out. I bake them, and then the girls and I have always been in charge of the decorating.

The Mr. and my mom had an annual sugar cookie phone call. Mom had given us her recipe. It called for 6-8 cups of flour. Every year he called to ask her, "How the heck much flour does this recipe call for?" Mom always got a chuckle out of it.

This year the Mr. mixed it up as usual, and it took 10 cups of flour to get the dough to the right consistency! Did I tell you this recipe makes a lot of cookies?

Sugar cookies are a favorite around here and an annual tradition. In fact, in the year of the Cabbage Patch dolls, I was in the basement sewing doll clothes. The Mr. was doing cookie duty, and I kept hearing screams of laughter from the kitchen. The girls were probably 2 and 4, and Dad was delighting them by flipping unbaked cookies in the air like a pancake and trying to catch them on the cookie sheet. There was flour everywhere!

Another year, a couple of the Mr.'s coaching friends arrived in time for icing the cookies. That was the year of the anatomically correct reindeer and Santas. yikes! I had to screen which cookies the girls could eat. I wasn't about to answer any anatomy questions based on sugar cookie decorating.

This year, we are sticking with sugar cookies in the shape of a circle. I'm thinking they will make adorable "ornaments" with colored icing, a few sprinkles, and some red hots for decorations. And yes, this is the lazy way out. They are a lot easier to cut out than candy canes, Santas, trees, and reindeer.

If K and I don't kill each other, I'll post some pictures of what we accomplish.

Only two more sleeps 'til Christmas...