More Christmas Cookies

Today is December 18 and we're done! Betsy and I got started early this year and our cookies are baked, decorated, wrapped, and almost all delivered. This year we bought ice buckets at Home Goods     as a way to package our cookies. It took several trips to three different stores in the area before we found enough.

When we were planning which cookies to make, Betsy said that we couldn't have more than 6 designs. Of course I smiled and kept my mouth shut. We never counted while we were decorating, but I just did, and we ended up with 7. It's all Walker's fault. At the last minute, Betsy wanted to make some gingerbread men for him. It's pretty hard to resist doing something special for her 2 year old grandson.

The first thing we did was to try a new cookie recipe that we got on www.food.com. We both agreed that these are "The Most Wonderful Gingerbread Cookies" and they're really easy to make. I hate to sift and there's no sifting.

We haven't moved up to the professional level yet, but we think we're getting pretty good at decorating cookies. We tend to learn by trial and error, mainly because we can't remember the mistakes we've made until we repeat them. Here are our tips that we are happy to pass on to others:

     * Don't make too many red cookies. Red icing never tastes great and lemon flavoring doesn't help.

     * It's a lot easier to write words if you use flood icing and a number 1 tip. When you want your
        words to be large, it's probably better to use a larger tip.

     * Your finger works wonders for making the edge of the cookie neater. Of course it only works    
        when the icing is still wet.

     * Don't overfill your icing bags. That's the only way we know to keep the icing from oozing out.
        We always use a clip or one of those special rubber bands, but if you put too much icing in the
        bag, it will come squirting out the top.

     * If you are using two colors that will be touching side-by-side, you only have to let the first color
        dry for a couple of hours before adding the second color.  If the new color is going to be on top
        of the first color, follow the overnight drying rule, otherwise your darker color will bleed into the
        lighter color.

     * Always clean-up as you go along. Royal icing dries like cement on every surface it touches. For
        anyone who decides to postpone the clean-up the way I did, it takes a little more effort and hot  
        water does the trick.

Check out these adorable Christmas cookies. We decided to personalize one of the big cookies for each family. Betsy brought some yellow sugar glitter that made each of the ornament cookies look like the real thing. It has more of a metallic look than the usual grocery store sprinkle sugar.