Christmas Cookies

Every Christmas since we have been married, I have made several batches of cookies for us and our extended families to enjoy.

Last year I decided to try making gingerbread, and found a decent recipe online. I noted last year that the spices in the gingerbread were not strong enough, so added more this year. It worked as they taste a lot better. When they first came out of the oven, they were not as spicy as I would have liked, so I mixed some cinnamon into the frosting. It was the perfect addition, as they now taste wonderful, and look pretty good, too.

Now the sugar cookies are another story. I have been using this recipe for four years now, and I love how easy it is to work with the dough. They taste wonderful, too. The only thing I do not like about them is that the dough expands almost twice it's size when fully baked. It would be fine if I had smaller cookie cutters, but as I have yet to find a set of smaller ones that I like, I find myself wishing that these cookies looked better each year.

Needless to say, my goal is to finally find a good set of cookie cutters that will be small enough to work nicely with the sugar cookie dough.

Other than gingerbread and sugar cookies, I made a batch of peanut butter blossom cookies and a batch of regular peanut butter cookies. Hubby requested the peanut butter cookies as they are his favorite.

I am glad to say that after the three days of preparing, baking, and frosting cookies, I still enjoy baking. Every year, I wonder if I will over do it and not enjoy baking after the cookie frenzy is over. I can report that this year I am still enjoying baking, as long as I do not have to bake anything in the next few days...