Christmas cookies!

I haven't been blogging much- it's been a busy time at work and at home. I have made time for one of my favorite holiday traditions, however: cooking cookies!

The first batch (last Wednesday) were traditional gingerbread men with a twist: a coworker was returning from staying home with his new baby after being gone 2 weeks, so I celebrated his return with 'baby gingerbread boys'

I followed this Epicurious recipe and rolled out the dough, cut the cookies, and decorated them like babies with diapers. I thought it wouldn't be in good taste to include a couple raisins stuck to the back of the diaper, so I left those out :)

Last night, I made cookies for today's small group meeting. I used the "cutout cookies" recipe from the back of the Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix bag (using less butter & more flour than the typical recipe), and I was only moderately pleased- the cookies spread out more than I would have liked & therefore didn't hold their shape. I decorated them after work today and decided they turned out OK. At least they're pretty.

Later this week, I have plans to make snickerdoodles and perhaps chocolate chip cookies for people at work. This may sound terribly unhealthy, but I'm actually not eating many cookies, I'm giving them to other people to eat, so I continue to look slim by comparison (though I am eating my share of cookie dough!)

Next challenge to tackle: a gingerbread house. I've got the icing, some decorations,a and graham crackers. We'll see if it happens.