Christmas Cookies

I have extremely fond memories of making and decorating Christmas (sugar) cookies with my mom growing up. We made everything from scratch. We wore matching aprons. We always ended up with flour everywhere. We couldn't help but taste everything along the way, and eat a few cookies before they all got decorated--hopefully leaving a few to fill our cookie jar and give to neighbors.

What a special treat to get to continue that tradition with Bee and Owen (and someday Rebecca). Owen doesn't look like it in this picture, but he's about to have a LOT of fun!

Rebecca was so sweet to just sit back and watch us cook...next year she'll be able to join in the fun (and mess)!

Of course, we tasted as we went. Owen kept saying he needed "ooooooone more" (holding his pointer finger up--my mom said he looked/sounded just like me when I tell him he needs to eat one more bite of something). Yummy!
The dab of flour on his nose is also a little tradition--not sure how/when it started but you can't make good Christmas cookies without a dab of flour on your nose. (Just remember to wipe it off if you leave the house after making the cookies). In this photo, we're wearing the aprons my mom and I wore when I was Owen's age. Awww, how sweet!
Decorating the cookies was a hit. Owen's turned out surprisingly good for a 2-year old. And regardless of the uneven icing and sporadic mounds of sprinkles, they tasted really good!