1994 - And We're Off!

Shopping assistants, Danielle , on the left,
 and Michelle, flank their mother.
That's their baby sister, Rachel, in the center. 

We decided to get a jump on our joint "Christmas vacations" this year and start baking on Saturday, Dec. 3. But we didn't exactly get a jump on the day because we didn't get moving until 1 p.m. And even then, we didn't have our supplies. So, I shopped with Lisa's oldest girls, Michelle and Danielle, while Lisa got us organized in the kitchen.

Armed with $50 worth of ingredients, we were all set to begin with Sugar Cookies. Unfortunately, Lisa couldn't find her "Joy" cookbook and mine was at home. After searching the kitchen, Lisa asked the girls if they had seen it. Danielle recalled that Mike (Lisa's husband) had been reading it in the bathroom! (He was looking for ways to cook oysters.) After spraying it with Lysol, we were ready to roll. Until it was time to roll the dough — no rolling pin! This time Michelle was responsible — Lisa found it in her room! We still haven't figured that one out...

What we learned:

Remember to use 1 teaspoonful of nutmeg in a double batch of Sugar Cookies. They're hard to time for doneness; we wound up judging by sight, touch and smell. I didn't like the angel cutters because I didn't really know how to decorate them, apart from spreading them with white icing (but the girls did). Lisa also lost her trusty star cutter but we found the wreath (no more makeshifts with glasses and jars). We also used a lovely holly leaf, the old star, a tree, and a snowman (whose darned scarf kept breaking off!). 

Make two double batches for approximately 11 dozen cookies. We decided to frost and decorate them the next day to give our backs a break.