Christmas cookies ...

 I am having such a great time completing our advent activities.

Today's activity was to make Christmas cookies.
I prepared the dough the night before so we would not have to wait for it to chill today.

I laid Lenny down for a nap, while Frank and Nancy cleared the table!
I decided to roll out and cut all the cookies, to save time
not really, I wanted to save on the mess.
I knew decorating would destroy my kitchen so I could at least control this part!

After all the cookies were baked, I made the icing...
I made the icing runny at first, so I could use it as flood icing.
after I filled my decorating bottle with the icing, i thickened it up.
I split the icing into 4 bowls.
the kids chose to have white, blue, green, and red for colors.
I later tinted the flood icing yellow.

 I decorated all of these... I used a small tip of icing to outline the stars and then used the flood icing to fill them...you can find the tutorial I used here

Who doesn't love a pale gingerbread girl in a bathing suit! 

I made this cookie for our neighbors! They live in a house divided! Meaning one loves Michigan and the other Michigan state! 

Here is the recipes I use...

Easy Cut-out Cookies:

2 1/4 c. flour
1 c. powdered sugar
1 c. butter or margarine, melted
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour and sugar. Stir in butter, egg, and vanilla until well blended. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Roll out dough on a floured surface about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out cookies with desired cookie cutters. Bake 8-10 minutes on a cookie sheet and cool completely before frosting.


Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

3 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. butter or margarine, softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

Mix sugar and butter together with mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and 1 tablespoon of milk until well blended. Gradually add enough of the remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. If too thick add more milk--if too thin, add more sugar until consistency is right.