What's your take on all the sweets and treats made throughout the holidays?
Are you crazy for them or do they make you crazy?
They make me crazy. The holidays already feel so full and rushed. I like to bake, but everywhere you go, there are cookies!
How are you supposed to keep from gaining 10 pounds in the month of December when there is chocolate and sugar everywhere!
I'm fairly certain that if I didn't have children, I wouldn't make any treats for the holidays. Why go through all that work when you know you'll end up with a pile of goodies you didn't have to make by the end of the season?
I do it for the boys you know, all the nostalgic memories they will have when they are grown and think on Christmas' past?
I know the holidays are about traditions and stuff. Making cookies is a part of that. I even made it so our Advent calendar instructed us that we had to do it. That way I wouldn't be allowed to skip out on the treat baking.
So we did our cookie baking.
And this year, I even let the boys help.
(I know, Awesome Mom points for me)
Then I even let them eat some!
(That helps me score major Awesome Mom points)
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| This is how the pretzels look when I dip them . . . |
We have some other favorites, but I only wanted to invest the time, energy and resources into two.
So we chose dipped pretzels (one of my favorites, and more addicting than crack-cocaine. At least I think so. I wouldn't know from experience)
These are a sticky, gooey, mess with kids, but very simple with little to no instruction needed. I like the white almond bark the best, but the boys like the milk chocolate.
All you have to do is melt the chocolate in the microwave and let the kids dip away. I did cover my cookie sheets in wax paper to make my life easier though. Incredibly, I'm getting a little smarter, the older I get. :)
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| This is what happens when the boys get to put on the sprinkles! |
Our second treat was ginger bread cutout cookies. The boys love to do cut outs, and Hunky Hubby loves ginger bread. I however, do not. Consequently I am not tempted to eat these cookies, thereby saving me from ingesting extra calories.
Or it just saves some room for more pretzels.
If only I wasn't so weak.
I do like to decorate the cookies and the boys do too. This year they all managed to hang in long enough to decorate at least 3.7 cookies each. Leaving the other 49 cookies for H.H. and I to do.
Surprisingly to you, because you don't know him as well as I do, H.H. is a pretty darn good cookie decorator. He displays creativity and 'outside the box' ideas. As fun as it is, I'm really happy when they are all done.
We used a new recipe for the cookies that I found on the internet. H.H. said they tasted really good and weren't as hard as last years. (he just doesn't realize how hard it is to perfectly bake an already brown cookie!) I'm not a fan of the frosting we used though and we won't be making that kind again. I like to pipe on the frosting because it's neater and prettier. The frosting kept getting runnier and runnier as we used it! Our warm hands were melting the butter it was made out of I guess.
Fortunately it still tasted good.
Or so I've been told.
As I suspected, two kinds of cookies were more than enough. Somehow, there is a phenomenon with Christmas goodies. They seem to multiply magically overnight. For some reason, you just never run out. I thought we only had a large plate and a large ziploc full of treats, but I looked at my counter top the other day and there were 3 plates of cookies, one huge tupperware full of Cap'n Crunch candy, one bag of cookies and a box of chocolates.
Plus, I bought peanut M & M's on clearance the other day.
I just couldn't help myself.
We'll be eating gingerbread men well into the new year.
But, the pretzels are all gone.
Hey don't look at me!
I didn't eat them all!
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