Cookie extravaganza!

Things have been rather boring around here due to the weather....the girls and I have been stuck inside for the past two days, so there's not much to report. I did manage to get some of my photos from Christmas loaded onto my computer, so I thought I'd share some from our "Cookie Making Event."

Cody agreed to let me have our Christmas meal catered this year so I could spend more time doing the "Christmas-y" things that I never have time to do. We host both of our families at Christmas, so I spend most of my time cooking and cleaning up....which means I don't have a lot of free time to do the fun, family activities. So we finally got to make Christmas cookies this year--from scratch! Here are some helpful hints to those of you out there who are brave enough to try this in the future:

1. Try not to stress out about how messy your kitchen will get....it WILL get messy, and you will be the only one who cares to clean it up. (This was the most important rule for me because I'm such a clean freak.)

2. A three-year-old is more interested in eating all of the sugary confections than actually decorating anything.

3. Too much almond extract in the icing will make your cookies taste yucky. If you have an 11-year-old who is making the icing...make sure you double check the measurements.

4. No one really wants to eat the cookies after making them. They're much too pretty, and you've already gotten your sugar-fix from sampling the dough and icing.

And, finally, THE MOST IMPORTANT HINT---

***They sell a box of pre-made cookies in assorted shapes, complete with colored icing, at Sam's. You get about 50 cookies for less than $5. (Trust me, it's worth the $5.)

The bigger and much more important truth is that we made some memories this Christmas that my girls will remember. And while it was a lot of work, it is worth doing again just for the experience. And I think that's what life is mostly about....making great memories and sharing the experience together.

Stay warm!