Christmas Cookies and the before

Today was our day to do our traditional Christmas cookie decorating. This year I was excited about the prospects of really enjoying it as the girls were able to do most of the decorating. I was right and it turned out to be wonderful fun despite the hours right up to it. Let me share about the hours prior to... I thought I was doing great. I had the steaks marinating and the twice baked potatoes ready to go back in the over. The sugar cookies were all mixed up and in the fridge waiting to be baked. I was ready to get dinner on and then on to the festivities. Then I had a revelation...it would be a better idea for me to actually bake the cookies so we could decorate them after dinner instead of standing around waiting on them to cook/cool. So, I pulled out the dough and began to cut the cookies with the cookie cutters(Disaster #1) The dough was too gooey and was impossible to work with. Thankfully I had a sugar cookie mix in the cabinet. I quickly whipped that up and will use the other to make mexican wedding cookies instead. With the cookies baking and breathed a sigh of relief. The grill was going and I was waiting on Chris to call and say he was on his way home. When he called, I put the potatoes in and headed out to put the steaks on. (Disaster #2) I discovered the grill as now off--the gas had run out. So, I decided to stick the oven on broil and hope for the best. The steaks turned out good and dinner proceeded as planned(thank goodness). Next up was the decorating which did not come with any disasters. The girls did a good job(for a 4 and 3 year old that is). They glopped icing on and poured sprinkles everywhere---but they had fun. No yelling, fussing or fighting and all had a good time. Enjoy the pictures. Stephanie decorating her cookies That's Katie's cookie--not just a glob of icing! Katie licking the knife. Daddy enjoying the fruits of our labor--he did decorate a few. Stephanie eating and decorating at the same time. Katie eating that gooey cookie