Christmas Cookies

Merry Christmas! 

I mentioned here about the annual Christmas cookie exchange that we usually attend.  This year we were not able to go because it was the same day as Hannah's birthday. 

But we did have a couple of "bake cookies with friends" dates on our calendar. 

I dug out some old photos of when the older children were little.   

This is Sarah and Matthew - I love how he is covered in flour. 

We had some dear friends who lived down the street from us, and she would have us over to bake cookies. 
(Brandon, Caleb, and Sarah)

Benny and Caleb

I've relaxed a bit over the years, but back then (like 16 years ago) I was so appreciative that she was willing to host us and the subsequent mess and sprinkles for days!

Hannah and Bryson

Her three boys are all now grown and in college.  Our kids have stayed connected and they often laugh over cookie baking memories and say, "We should totally do that again!"  

Well, this year, we did! 

My younger girls had never met the famed Mrs. Cole.

But they sure like her now.  She's just one of those moms that is really great with kids.

What a dear she was to host us again.  They live just a few minutes away from where we attend church, which made it a bit easier to make this get together happen.  We headed over to their home after our services and shared a meal together.

Then we got down to the business of baking some cookies.  Her usual recipe makes 12 dozen!  We used a different one this year, but it was a little trying.  (shoulda maybe used the usual one but cut in half - but oh well.)

Once all the cookies were made, everyone came in to frost their masterpieces.

As with most sugar cookie (or shaped cookie) dough, you can only re-roll the scraps a couple of times before the dough becomes too difficult to work with.  So at that point, Bonnie has always just rolled the remaining dough into shaped candy canes.  Because this dough wasn't behaving, the candy canes weren't really turning out either.
Hannah shaped one and used it as hair for her astronaut (which, we laughed over the fact there was an astronaut included in her Christmas cookie cutter collection - apparently it came with the set!  ha ha)

We decided it looked like Benny.   Can you guess which one he might be in the photo below? 😉

What a blessing it is to have the kind of friendship where the years pass, but you can pick up right where you left off.  It is another blessing to see these little boys that I remember all grown up now and still sweet as pie with Godly character.  That is a joy to my heart.

. . . . .

Our second date on the calendar to bake cookies was just a couple of days after the first.  (No complaints from the kids 😉though.)
This time it was with our "adventure" friends.  Due to LIFE, we haven't had much adventuring going on (well, at least not the educational, museum-going, or art-appreciating type anyway.)

 We brought the Ugly Sweater Cookie Kit that we found at Trader Joe's.

She had some cookies pre-baked for the kids to decorate too.

Self-proclaimed BFF's.
Alexa and Abbie

A little bit of kitchen chaos over here.

A bit of frosting and sprinkling over there.

Hannah and her ugly (but pretty perfect) vest

Dan with his Stripey sweater.

Ellie did a fine job too.

Natalie made some gingerbread mice with Mary and Matthew.
They look like hearts to begin with, but the point is the nose and the rounded ends are the ears once frosted.

These two 😍

Hannah brought her ukulele and together with Abby they played a little bit.
I thought I took a short little video as well, but... apparently I didn't.  😕  I'm still learning about my new camera.

Having children the same ages affords Margo and me conversations about so many things like parenting the youngers, homeschooling tweaks, and even larger family logistics.  The kids play well together and enjoy each other so much.  So, if we can hear above the laughter and noise, we might get to talk a little ourselves.


Hoping you are enjoying your days leading up the celebration of our Savior's birth.

- Carol