Christmas Traditions

are best when cookies are involved. today my sister and i took the kids to my moms to bake christmas cookies. it's been a christmas tradition that has endured 4 generations. little has changed since we were kids. i think the only difference is that the kids have more involvement in the baking and not just the decorating.

of course, the decorating is still a childs favorite. it's fun to watch them come up with their own ideas. the little princess has a very creative mind and one never knows what she'll come up with. i'm not exactly sure how this one turned out...

one thing has never changed and that's the type of cookies we bake.

no one goes home until we all have plenty of

spritz and grandma's brandy rings.

of course, when mom and i are involved something always seems to go wrong. this year we had a few problems with a batch or two (or three) of cookies. we were able to salvage one batch and the kids made these.

funny side note about these...when i was mixing in the food coloring, i got it all over my hands. i'm not quite sure why, but the little princess was very upset about this. when asked why, she said, "because i don't want to have a red mommy." after a while she moved on and everyone had a good time. the boys mostly were outside and came in to decorate and the baby even got into the action.

but we left most of the mixing to mom. maybe next year we'll let him give it a try. only not with maura's kitchen aid (right suz...)

i think the baby was alittle upset that he wasn't able to enjoy the fruits of our labor because, while we were packing the car he got into auntie's cookies...

and poor reagan, he didn't even share with her.

and after everything was cleaned and packed up...

we drove home with our cookies and more importantly...

our memories.