Lovely Christmas Countdown Day

Yesterdays countdown surprise was... 21. Go look at Christmas Lights.  ~But first the kids woke up to find a snowball fight had happened overnight in the kitchen...

 This was fun and Ella had eve more fun eating the mess!

 Brian informed us that to go look at lights we must have cookies and milk.  A great opportunity to try one of the many recipes I have pinned on Pinterest.  I chose one called Gingerbread Softies.  Sounds amazing already right?!?!  You can find the full recipe here.

It made a really thick dough that was easy to work with.

Before  and  After

Ella came into the kitchen and said "wait...  where are the Christmas cookies?"  I told her that's what I was making.  She said they just look like regular cookies.  So this is what I did to make them a little more Christmasy.  I got out the Christmas cookie cutters and since the dough was more sticky than a typical roll out and cut dough, I put a small ball of dough between two layers of wax paper to roll it.

 

Peel back one layer of wax paper and cut with a cookie cutter.  I scraped away the extra dough before picking up the cookie cutter then sprinkled it with sugar, turned it over onto my hand and then peeled off the wax paper and sprinkled the back with sugar.  It actually worked out really well!  and I didn't even have to wash my rolling pin.  ; )     I only baked that batch for 6 or 7 minutes.   

So I should have known when I read through the recipe and it said measurements like 2 cups sugar and 4 cups flour, but is sure made a HUGE batch of cookies...  It made 53 cookies and 8 shaped ones.  And OH BOY they sure are YUMMY!!!  SO soft!!  I LOVE gingerbread flavor but would prefer soft rather than crunchy cookies so these are ideal for my liking!

This picture is for my Mother...  this is only 15 minutes after the last batch of cookies came out of the oven...  and all dishes are clean or in the dishwasher and the counters are wiped clean.  I cleaned up as I went along.  (insert proud smile)

Looking at lights was a lot of fun and we all enjoyed the cookies and milk!  

 22.  Christmas Special Movie.  ~We watched the Prep & Landing Christmas Specials on ABC and enjoyed popcorn and hot chocolate with marshmallows.  It was a cute show and a fun family time!

Merry-almost-Christmas!  We can hardly contain ourselves!...  Lucas woke up from his nap today crying because it wasn't Christmas yet.  Oh, the anticipation!