baking gingerbread with cute people

That's what we did today.   Later on, we made the bacon and eggs cookies.    Those are the ones where you put three pretzel sticks in a row on waxed paper, dribble on melted almond bark, and top with a green or yellow M&M. 

 But what surprised me was how adept they are at cookies this year.   They're good at rolling out the dough, good at cutting it out, knew to wash their hands first, and even floured the cooky sheets without any struggle, AND arranged them perfectly on the pans.

Wow.

I ran the oven, put them in and out.   We made eight batches.

 The dogs were very interested in everything that went on.

Our big inflatable Santa was taken out by the wind overnight, had to be set up and re-inflated in the morning.  That little girl was so worried about him, kept going to the door to check on him.  I must have heard this fifty times today, "Samma Down!"   

See that big monster cooky there in the picture below?  Tim wanted to bake the leftover sloopy, over-floured ball of dough that was left at the end.   Sometimes I throw it away.  Sometimes I toss it out the door for the birds and squirrels.

But this year we baked it.

Little Jay said he could beat someone to death with it when it hardened.  (Little Jay involved in any type of violence is actually a pretty absurd thought, so that made it even funnier to me.)  He said, "Yeah, we can end this thing."

What thing?   Goodness.

Well it did harden as it cooled and everyone handled it and discussed the weight and so forth.  Then the girls frosted it and it's sealed up in a tin with bits of bread to age. All the gingerbread has to be put through this aging process.  Today it was as tasteless as graham crackers and the kids were disappointed, "What's wrong with it?"  

Nothing.  It'll be delicious in about four days--in a week, perfection, and that's when we'll throw the containers in the freezer until Christmas.

 That big, deadly rock of a gingerbread may end up edible yet.

I mixed up the frosting and these two took over the job.  Capable, capable kids.  When did this happen?

And Lydia had a haircut today.  Every time she has it cut it gets a little shorter, but that's okay.   I took a picture of the back and it looked like the back of Little Jay's head, but that's not any boy.

It was a perfect day, and tomorrow is Friday, and we're going to wrap a few presents and head into the weekend in one piece.    

Onward.  Christmas will be upon us in just a couple weeks.   love always, Val