Sure do love those Christmas Cookies

The other day for FHE we made lots of Christmas cookies!  We made them to deliver to the kids' nursery and primary teachers as sort of a "thank you" for putting up with the kids all year and teaching them so much!  (And boyhowdy, those nursery teachers have earned themselves some cookies!) 

The kids were all so excited to help.  Unfortunately, as the number of helpers increases, the process of making cookies actually seems to slow down instead of speed up.  For example, at one point we had to add 3 1/2 cups of sugar to the cookie dough mixture.  In order to keep everyone happy, Arden got to put in one cup, then Dax got to put in one cup, and then Cora got to put in one cup.  I got to put in the last 1/2 cup.  This is how everything went.  (Actually, that was one of the easier ingredients since there were 3 cups...the real drama was when there were only 2 teaspoons of baking powder.)  However slow the process, they were happy to be my little helpers.  Here is Dax, helping me finish rolling out some dough:

They all liked to take turns choosing what cookie cutter to use.  Daxton's favorite were the Christmas trees, and Arden liked the stars.  Cora liked the "jingle bells."  (I am seriously struggling to get the new blogger interface to put my pictures the right way.  Any suggestions???)

After they were baked, we had to wait for them to cool off before we could frost them.  Unfortunately, not all of the cookies survived long enough to get their frosting:

Fortunately, a few did survive to the frosting stage, and Daxton and Arden LOVED to put sprinkles on.  Cora too, of course.  She dumped and ENTIRE new bottle of sprinkles on her first cookie.  Should have taken a picture of that cookie.  Here is one of Dax's creations, about to be eaten by the artist himself:

Arden likes to put a little bit of each kind of sprinkles on her cookies.  





After all of the testing, there were still enough cookies to drive around to the nursery and primary teachers, and the kids added a little Thank You/Christmas card to each plate.  Corbie was SO dang excited in the car as we drove around.  As soon as I started to slow down, she started screeching, "I wanna come wif you to da dohwuh!  I wanna hode da pwate!  I wanna hode da PWAAATE!"  Luckily, Daxton didn't mind that Cora got to hold all the plates.  He was happy to stand next to her and yell "Merry Christmas!" along with Cora when the door was opened by one of their nursery leaders.  At one house, he stuck his head inside and said "I looove your Christmas tree!"  Silly kid.  Arden was a little shy to give the cookies to her primary teachers, but she was brave and did it, and even threw in a "Thanks for being my primary teacher!" along with her Merry Christmases.  

I am so thankful that there are so many amazing people willing to teach and love my kids, and I appreciate them much more than a plate of cookies can say!  They are so awesome and so patient, and I can't wait to see what the kids will learn next year.  (watch out Sunbeams, here comes Dax!)