Christmas Cookies!!

Every year I try to do some special baking and food projects around the holidays just for children to have fun doing.  The last many years we have taken a day in December and built gingerbread houses as our special fun day.  I personally love having them do gingerbread houses, as the children have so much fun building them.  They spend hours working together making them beautiful and perfect.  Then those beautiful houses sit around as fun decorations until they are way to unpalatable to eat!  I know…kind of mean.  But I don’t like any of us eating refined foods, especially sugars, candies and white flour.  Last year the gingerbread houses were so rock-hard our chickens would not even eat them till they were rained on for a while! YIKES!

 These are some pictures from last year. (2012)   The kids look so much younger to me!  They sure have grown and matured in the way they look in just one year!

 Yes, below is a gingerbread Home Depot William built with his friend J last year. 

This year I decided to go all-out for the children and have them roll out dough and use cookie cutters all on their own.  

Then bake and decorate their cookies with all kinds of fun frostings and as many candies as I could cheaply afford.  

Needless to say my children were wide eyed as our kitchen counter had several types of candy on it.  We hardly ever buy candy at all.  I even bought some kinds for this project they never had before.  Like red hots and snow caps.  (I know they are a bit deprived in that area.  They never even knew what fudge pops (fudge-cycles) were till my dad brought a box down for a treat one day a few years ago.  :)

Zeke mixed the frostings making different colors.

Taking such care to do it all just right!

I was Antonio's hands and did as he asked on his cookies and frosting choices.

It was not long and we had many beautiful cookies all over the place.  At first a few.

 Then more.

Soon we began to run out of extra plates and places to put them.

So some were happily eaten while they worked and of course we sent some down for grandpa to sample.  Zeke had fun helping make and decorate all the cookies but made a special tray that were gluten free just for him to eat.

William said he was going to do some stop animation with these guys?  Wonder if they will ever be movie stars or just get eaten?

Of course they all had a wonderful, messy, sugared up time.  :)

Antonio wanted to eat the moose cookie.

Life is never dull with boys around!

Yup to much sugar.

We really do have a good time.  I truly do enjoy the children God has given to Tim and I.  God is so good.  He is with us all the time.

1 Peter 1:8-9  Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

 

blessings, 

susan