How do the Bailey's celebrate Christmas, by making cookies while singing songs! Thinking back over the Christmas season I wanted to share with the world all the fun we had and what we made.
God sent His son as a babe to die for our sins, that is the true reason of Christmas. I want to continue traditions from my childhood and improve upon them at the same time. For the second year I choose to make one cookie a week instead of one day of feet aching torturous cookie baking extravaganza. My daughter Eva is learning to be a great baker so somethings were chosen with her abilities in mind.
Cookie #1, oatmeal and dried cranberry. The symbolism of red and white at Christmas is to remind us of the blood that was shed and how that blood can make you white as snow.
http://senceanddollars.blogspot.com/2010/07/oatmeal-and-dried-cranberry-cookies.html
Cookie #2, candy cane cookies. This cookie is a must for my family. Once again the red and white continues here but the reason candy canes were invented was to share the story of Christ. The symbolism of the blood, purity, and the shape of a 'J' one direction and a shepherd's staff the other way reflect that Jesus was truly God's son in the flesh.
Cookie #3, thumb prints. We baked with SIL Heather and used Granny Eva's recipe. I had planned to make this cookie so Eva could lend a thumb but that did not work out. The instructions say to bake a bit then press so they were too hot for Eva to help.
Week 4 was week of confections. Coating chocolate can be purchased or you can use 1/2 a package of almond bark and 1 package of chips. I used white chocolate to make chocolate dipped pretzel rods and the leftover I used Andes peppermint chips to make candy cane bark. I used regular chocolate to make cashew clusters. The big hit with a toddler was the snap turtles. Eva helped unwrap 2 bags of roles and set each Rolo on a Syndar Snap pretzel. Bake at 200 degrees until the Rolo is soft then press a pecan on top. Cool and enjoy.
The final sweet is enjoyed Christmas morning. For years I made cinnamon rolls but once the Baileys introduced me to Kringler I was hooked! This is one of the only things they use almond extract in so it makes since that I love it so.
And that folks explains my sugar high!
