Cookies for Santa

This was our 3rd year to make cookies for Santa and we keep getting better and better. 

Our 1st year, we were just learning. We had lots of fun with the flour... flour on the floor, flour on us, and about double the flour needed for the recipe. Then, not realizing I was doing the wrong thing,  made a Royal Icing to decorating the cookies which turned out very VERY hard. 

Our 2nd year, was also fun. Less flour and better icing, but I had colored the icing red and green and I had red and green stained hands for a few days.

This year I found a wonderful recipe on-line:

The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies 

Who can resist a recipe with that claim? Not me! And I'm glad too because they were the best!!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

I halved the recipe for us and still made almost 2 dozen.  

Her favorite part has always been rolling the dough

This year I heard a lot of, "I can do it without help".

I loved stepping back and watching her confidence. And she really did do a great job! 

Our motto was to ice one, taste one, ice one, taste one.

Yummy! 

Santa was extra lucky this year - not only were the cookies "the best" - they were made with 

A LOT of LOVE! 

ABC's

As a mom of a 3 year old who loves to help cook, this activity proved fun and educational!

 Charlotte needed help learning some of her letters, so I went to our local teacher supply store and purchased ABC cookie cutters. We made the dough together and then rolled it out 1/4 of an inch thick for the cookie cutters. 

Before she chose any cookie cutter, I made her tell me which letter it was and then she could cut the dough. 

What I learned was that she really knew more than she'd let on.... When cookies are involved, who wouldn't learn their letters quicker?

When we took the cookies out of the oven, we sprinkled rainbow decorating sugar on top. And, before she could eat any cookie, she had to tell me again which letter it was.