Let's start of with one of my favorite Christmas songs:
Merry Christmas everyone. This time of year can be very hectic, with the decorating, holiday parties, gift shopping and everything else going on, its easy to forget the true meaning of Christmas. Being with friends, family and just spending time with the ones you love. And being thankful for your blessings as well.
I always enjoy spending time with my family and the traditions we've come to hold during this time of year. One of the things my kids love doing during Christmastime is putting up the tree and decorating it. Here is our tree this year:
There's alot of special ornaments that my kids have made throughout the years. And this year my daughter (8) made the tree topper in school, its an empty toilet paper roll, decorated to look like a tee-pee.
Another thing we do every year, is give a gift to a child who is not so fortunate. It's set up through my childrens school. We get one child's name and Christmas wish list, and buy them a gift they want. I have my children come and pick out the gifts. This year we bought a gift card to Walmart, scarf, hat and gloves for the little girl we got.
Another tradition we have is baking cookies on Christmas Eve.
Our favorite to make is Sugar Cookies.
I like to eat them plain like this, with no frosting:
Here is my sugar cookie recipe:
INGREDIENTS
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
wax paper
cookie cutters
rolling pin
cookie sheet for baking
FROSTING:
powdered sugar, water & food coloring
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients until it froms a dough. The dough is now ready.
This is the fun part:
Get ready to cut out the cookie dough into shapes.
Place the wax paper onto the kitchen table, put some dough and roll it out flat with the rolling pin. You might need to add some flour to the rolling pin so the dough won't stick.
Once the dough is flat, cut out shapes with the cookie cutters.
Place your cut out cookies onto the baking sheet.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.
Once your cookies are baked and cooled, decorate them with easy to make frosting. (my kids love this part)
FROSTING:
Take about 1/2 powdered sugar and place it into a small bowl. Add a few drops of water until the sugar becomes thick, keep adding water droplets and sugar until you have a thick frosting. You need to play it by ear, until you get the right thickness.
Add a few drops of food coloring.
Decorate your cookies to your heart's content!
Here's the plate of cookies the kids made up for Santa last year:
And last but not least here are a few fun Christmas sites:
What about you? What are your Holiday traditions?
