New Christmas Tradition Started

Last night I finally started a tradition that I hope continues for years and years. I have always wanted to do this one way or another but it just never panned out until now. With seven grandchildren and friends with kids the same age as my grandchildren, I thought this was a good time to do this. So, almost at the last minute, the plans were laid and the tradition born.

We had a Christmas cookie making party!

Since it was planned at the last minute, I didn't have everything planned out that I would like to do. Still, the kids got a lot done and had a good time doing it. My place is small but I had stations set up for the kids to work at with room for each of them and the mothers to assist. My station was the oven and mixing.

Altogether the kids made cutout shortbread cookies that they decorated with sugar sprinkles, white and milk chocolate covered pretzels they also decorated with sugar sprinkles, graham cracker cookies with neon colored icing filling, and I made M&M cookies just before they got there for them to take with them. Each of them got a bag of cookies to take home with them then.

Next year I hope to add some different kinds of goodies for them to make and decorate. I think this was one of the best holiday events I have been a part of in a long time.

Following are some pictures of the results. There won't be any faces in any of the pictures because our family does not want the kids' pictures on the internet.

Cookie tray getting filled up. They will be decorated once the tray is filled, then stuck in the oven. We only had one true cookie sheet, so we used what we had available. This is actually a broiler pan. Below you will see we even used a couple pie drip pans. Hey, they worked!

A quickly growing pile of baked and decorated cookies. My kitchen counter was a mess of sugar sprinkles once all the cookies were put away.



From the looks of things, it looks like they liked the big sprinkles better than the little ones.