Mitten Accomplished!

The girls and I got busy making cookies a few days before Christmas. I made gingerbread dough first, which was supposed to be shaped into a disc, wrapped in plastic wrap, and chilled to be able to roll out and make cookies. Problem was, I was too impatient to wait for the boiled molasses mixture to cool, so my dough was more the consistency of melted fudge. Not really shapeable. . . I thought it looked more like a cowpattie in a bowl than rolled cookie dough. I just stuck the whole thing in the refrigerator and hoped for the best.

The next morning the girls and I made sugar cookie dough before we headed out to see Santa. The girls requested the visit, and took little clipped pieces of the American Girl catalog to be sure their wishes were conveyed accurately.

When we got home we started rolling out the cookies. Had it been just me we would have made three shapes of cookies, tops. With the girls helping me, we ended up with eight shapes. We did the sugar first, and after the first couple of sheets of cookies, I was on my own. I made a small army of gingerbread men, as the dough had firmed up quite nicely, practically becoming one with the bowl.

The next morning we started the icing process. Again, had it been up to me - three colors, tops. With the girls, we ended up with seven colors - the rainbow, plus white.

We used these little icing decorators that I got from Pampered Chef a few years back. The icing was a bit thick, and at first it was a little challenging. One of the decorators popped its top when Gracie squeezed it a bit hard, but we got the hang of it pretty quickly.

We were all working on our cookies, and Gracie was very diligently working at putting stars on a mitten-shaped cookie as I was making a gingerbread man arm. All was quiet as we concentrated on our work when Gracie sighed, put down her decorator, and announced, "Mitten Accomplished!" I got a good laugh out of that - I'm not sure she understood what was so funny. Here is said mitten:

And here is some of my gingerbread army. Not a bad final product for starting out as a cowpattie in a bowl.