Making Christmas Cookies With Kids

This week starts the beginning of all our frenzied holiday baking.



But first I just had to share that Ian finished up his birdhouse on Saturday and brought it home to paint and decorate.  He was just beaming as he showed it off to me.  He is so very proud of himself and kept his "first ever plans that [he] drew."  It looks great even with just the primer on it!

front view

side view

Once we had lunch and schoolwork out of our way we settled on what we were going to bake today.  


Ian made gingerbread cookies (which we'll later dunk in almond bark or white chocolate and sprinkle with Christmas sprinkles).


Alec and Evan worked together to make the eggnog cookies.  We found a Betty Crocker pouch of eggnog cookies and since Alec just loves eggnog he really wanted to try these.


Cracking eggs 
scooping cookie dough 
I started on our apple pies and since Ian finished up his cookies pretty quickly he offered to help with the apple pie.  He peeled the last two apples and mixed up all the spices, sugar and flour that go into the filling.  It was nice to see how little help my boys actually needed making these basic recipes.


Peeling apples 

Other than our apple pies, we did use mixes for the cookies. In years past I would have made most everything from scratch.  However, knowing my boys can help and be independent in the kitchen makes using mixes worth it, to me.  I love that we can combine family traditions like holiday baking with learning valuable life skills like following directions.

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