Christmas Baking 12/8/10

Each year for the last 3 we have baked up a storm of Christmas goodies. We exchange goodie plates with neighbors and we share them with our co-workers. I was beginning to feel a little behind schedule due to our trip. Usually by the 2nd weekend after Thanksgiving we already had several things baked. So, when we finally had a free evening, we started our Christmas baking.

One of the things we make are pretzel/Hershey kisses/m&m candies. The kids line the cookie sheets with pretzels......then unwrap the kisses and out a kiss on top of each pretzel. We usually do Hugs, Mint, and Candy Cane flavored kisses......
then we bake them for a few minutes in the oven and top each kiss with an m&m. They then have to cool and harden over night.While the kisses were cooling we decided to use a new "toy" we bought after Christmas last year. I found this tool that cuts the cookies and then presses a picture imprint on the cookie.While the imprint cookies were baking we started making some cut-out cookies from the short bread dough. We had to show Samantha how to do it once, and then she did it like she was a pro. I think cutting out the cookies is Marc's 2nd favorite (only to frosting them) part of making cookies.
My kiddos made some pretty good looking cookies if I do say so myself. ;-)While I was at The Dollar Tree one day the previous week I found these cute aprons. I thought "What the heck, they are only $1 each", so I bought 4 of them. When I asked Daddy Marc if he was going to help us bake I had him put on his apron. His response was "Since when does "Honey, help me bake mean having to wear cute matching aprons?". Silly man! ;-) I think we turned out really cute! :-)
Now that we have round 1 of baking done, I am not feeling quite so behind schedule. The things we made turned out pretty darn yummy if I do say so myself. :-)