Home For Christmas With A Gingerbread Man!

As much as I love Christmas with the Christmas trees, the Christmas music, and the decorations, I do NOT like making sugar cookies or gingerbread man cookies. They take too much time and are too much of a mess for me. Dough rolled in balls works just as well for me, and they are much easier to ice. When the granddaughters were small we decorated sugar cookies, but I baked them at my house, then took them with us to St. Louis and frosted/decorated them at their home. That kept the decorating mess out of MY kitchen! Actually, they did really well! I’d iced a cookie then laid it in a 9×13 cake pan and they plastered them with colored sugar, sprinkles, and anything else we could find for cookie decorating. Everyone knew to tip the cookies over on the plate before eating to get rid of the sprinkle excess! And do NOT inhale when taking a bite or you would have a coughing attack from the loose sprinkles and sugar.

My mom didn’t make gingerbread, but she baked lebkuchen cookies – a German molasses cookie. They were always part of her holiday baking, and the house smelled so good with the spices. They were soft and chewy and you couldn’t stop with just one. I have her recipe collection, and several years ago I tried to recreate those cookies. I should have known better because the directions were hard to follow for anyone other than my Mom. Somehow the hard discs that I made were nothing like Momma’s. Best to simply keep that memory in my head and not try to recreate again!

I’ve used Real Red and Crumb Cake for a color combo before, but I love the fresh take from Stampin’ Up! with the Poppy Parade and Pecan Pie color combo for this card!!! The Timeless Christmas DSP include these fun prints, and I love the peppermint candy and gingerbread for easy decorating. NO rolling pins, no sugar and sprinkles, and no calories. The perfect cookie!

Here’s a timeline for the rest of our August gatherings:

• Tuesday, August 17 (tomorrow) – the In Person Christmas Card Class will meet from 1:30-6 pm at Zion Lutheran Church
• Thursday, August 19 – the MAILED kits will ship!!! This includes the emailed tutorials.
• Saturday, August 22 – going to St. Louis to meet with our Accountability Group.
• Tuesday, August 25 – The FRAMED VIOLETS In Person Class will meet beginning at 11am at Zion Lutheran Church
• Friday – August 27 – The MAILED Framed Violet Class will mail out! Emails will also post that day!
• Saturday – August 28 – heading to Grand Rapids, MI for a Stampin’ Up! gathering.

Final Thoughts….

All of the kids and grands were together last night for dinner. After the little boys went home for bedtime, we played JUST ONE GAME of Uno with Nora and Fiona. Nana won, then came the fateful words from Nora – “let’s play for second play!”. Never play for second play people – it NEVER ends. After going through the deck three more times, and Nana having to help keep Fiona on task by helping her play her hand I won again, leaving Nora and Papa to play to the finish. Those girls dumped cards on Papa every time they could, and he sat there laughing with tears rolling. That’s not a normal reaction from Papa Jim, and Megan and I were tickled to see him having such a good time playing with them. By the time they finally called it done, he had more cards in his hand than the draw pile! Pretty sure he won’t be quick to agree to the next Uno game!

Here’s hoping you have a great day doing whatever you enjoy, and God Bless!!!