The Gift that Keeps on Giving!

This gift - led to this....

HOURS of fun - and I do mean HOURS!  And MOST of it was fun!!!  Grandma, Dad and Mom were nearly loony - but hey, if we use it once a year, it's still a good purchase, right!?!?!  :)

It's THAT time!!

Our annual tradition - cut out cookies!!

You may see some at church tomorrow night....

Or at the library this week......

Some might just end up in our bellies too....

But wherever they appear - it was fun making them AND

Sharing them!!!!

Here's the Pile!! That was a lot of cookies!!!

Baking....

I know, you are wondering what I'm up today. (ME too, to be honest!)

But I did accomplish my friendship bread (you see, last week my Mom finished it up for me, yep, I mushed and she did all the hard work!). But today I did it myself. I do take a small amount of pride in that - I mean - after all of my kitchen fiasco's I am almost frightened to step in that linoleum-floored room. (I think Joe gets scared too - he watches me pretty close and asks LOTS of questions). But here it is - my pride and joy!

I branched out this time - yes, take a deep breath! I added ALMOND flavoring instead of vanilla - STOP LAUGHING - I was worried about that minor change but Joe said I'd be ok. And if you want alternative recipes, THIS is a great spot!! SO now the grand prize - I have three bags of starter to share!! (That's just the kind of person I am - always willing to share what I have!!) So don't be shy - speak up, oh, the only glitch is that you must be local - I just can not subject myself to standing in the post office and explaining that the contents of my package are liquid, fragile and yes, maybe even potentially hazardous!!

Cookie Nightmare (I mean fun!!!)

I do not know why we torture ourselves this way - oh yes, I do - the girls LOVE it!!

Enough with the directions, Dad - let's get to work!!

She was eating flour - oh dear, we need to work on that!

Jada's masterpiece - she goes light on the toppings!

Chloe's - she used the whole bottle of sugar on one cookie!  (Ok, not quite, but close!)

Tonight's Feat

Dessert seemed in order - so Pioneer Woman - here we come!
We made her yummy apple dumplings!!
Before they went into the oven:

The Proud Helper!!

Coming out of the oven:

Yum!

Want to know what this is about!?!?!?

Then go HERE.

Cut Out Cookie Time

I know, I know - this is REALLY pushing it in the Bilby house as we already did Gingerbread cut-outs this year, but Dad is persistent and WANTED cut-out cookies so he and Chloe made a day of it!

Gingerbread Saga Continues

So after seeing Jan Brett - of course we had to make our own gingerbread cookies.  We had a fun night - and it didn't take hours - that's nice!  We used the recipe in the book, Gingerbread Friends, and they were SO yummy!

Enjoying a bite after a bath....

The gingerbread army!!

COOKIES!!!

We all were in the mood for cookies the other night and so we set to making them. As usual, Chloe wanted to be RIGHT in on the action. She loves to help and runs for her chair to stand and watch and assist. She is in her glory - chef's hat and all!!

Snickerdoodles

See - our mom does bake sometimes - IF we HELP!!!!

Notice we are still missing some eyelashes!

Chloe's job - making the balls - which usually ended up being snakes!! The boys' job - reshaping Chloe's snakes!!