Christmas 2024 & our ultimate cookie datenight
If I could recap the this holiday season, or bundle up a small batch of moments that were the core memories of Christmas this year, they’re all centered around family, fun, this sweet holiday home we’ve created for ourselves, and embracing all the holiday moments for just us 4 here at home. Honestly. it was one of our most relaxed holidays, and it was heavily centered around being here at home, and it was awesome.
As for our home, it’s the little things that have been so special. Waking up everyday and clicking on the Christmas tree lights while it’s still dark outside. Putting on our staple reindeer hand-bands when I’m doing literally anything Christmas related. Having a Christmas cookie literally anytime I’m having a cup of coffee (because if you’re not freezing Christmas cookies and busting them out to dunk in your morning coffee, you’re not doing the holidays right). I loved getting this place fully covered in Christmas the first week of November. I loved turning on a Christmas playlist with pretty much every time we sat down for dinner. I loved the opportunity to share our home with family + friends. It was all so enjoyable.
As for new things we did, we finally checked off a big bucket list item (& it’s a simple one!). We made hot chocolate to go, packed up the dogs, and drove around to look at Christmas lights in the Jeep. And if that’s not a core memory of this Christmas, I don’t know what is. Also, I’d be remiss not to note that it was the ultimate pick me up after a day spent in the emergency room and the blood clot drama of the season. Regardless, it was fun. Jordan + I both continuously reference it as a big highlight of the weeks leading up to Christmas.
As for the holiday memories centered around welcoming family + friends at our home, seeing all the little kids in our have have fun at our house was awesome. At moments it was anxiety ridden + colored with furniture may be destroyed (me + Jordan both had to walk each other off the ledge at moments) but it was truly awesome. I felt like our house just had so much life, and it felt special to see family, friends, and their kids enjoy the holidays at our house. These kids have FUN. Like real, care free, genuine fun. We decorated cookies, we played games, we danced to festive music. And it was all so fun! We shared our love for cookie decorating with some our friends and their kids, and the vision of that 2 year old shoveling frosting into her mouth at any opportunity she got will live in my brain forever. And probably crack me up forever as well. We got to see our nephews & niece get into the holiday spirit with a few fun games - Poke a Present being a big hit this year. It was all a blast. It was a mess, but it was a blast.
And then there was my favorite night of the year, and what I’d say is our standing holiday tradition that’s been in play since our move to Washington. The night of the Christmas cookies, and boy oh boy is it a night. It involves a few dozen Christmas cookies, at least 3 Christmas movies, and a focused + ready to decorate mindset. Frosting gets colored + bagged up, and we decorate until our wrists start to cramp away. To our credit, our decorating capabilities do get better each year, and this year I think produced the most beautiful cookies yet - the signature trucks being a big crowd pleaser (& the favorite cookie for us to have on hand in the days leading up to Christmas).
The key to the perfect night of cookie decorating is the routine, & we have this routine down to a science! We bake our cookies the night before. Call it an after dinner activity. Then we do all the decorating the next day. We make sure to have great leftovers on deck or a fun takeout order to look forward to, and we spend all of our energy just decorating away. This year we had two very distinct color stories to work with, and I think our family + friends enjoyed both.
Also important to note - the recipe is nothing fancy. An old school Pilsbury recipe that is no fuss + pretty perfect. And the frosting is the same story, but I love this frosting recipe because it’s always so shiny + nice looking. I use the same frosting recipe each year to get the signature shiny glaze, and the consistency is firm enough to hold shape yet it’s easy to pipe. All together, these are fun, delicious, and perfect sugar cookies. So much so that every Christmas when these bad boys come back into our life, I think to myself “gotta make sugar cookies more often.” My favorite holiday activity for just us two, and I’m glad we got to fit it in this year.
For the cookies (I always double the recipe in my food processor)
2/3 c. butter, softened
3/4 c. granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 c. flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp milk (we use almondmilk)
For the frosting
2 lb. powdered sugar
2/3 c. water
1/2 c. meringue powder
food coloring
Prep for the cookie bake by lining a couple baking sheets with parchment + preheating the oven to 375.
Make your cookie dough: Add in the butter + sugar to a stand mixer, and mix on medium for 1-2 minutes. You want to cream ingredients together until they’re light + fluffy. Add in the egg + vanilla - mixing on meidum low until it’s fully combined. Add in half of the flour, the baking powder, + salt, and mix on low until fully combined. Once fully mixed, add in the flour + the milk. Continue to mix until the flour is fully mixed in. Once flour is mixed, increase the speed to medium + mix for another 30 seconds. Cover the dough with plastic wrap + refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Roll out the cookies on a lightly floured surface to a 1/4 inch thick. When placing the cut cookies on the baking sheet, space apart as they will spread a bit. Bake the cookies for 7-8 minutes, watching carefully to ensure they don’t burn. The cookies should be ever so slightly browned on the edges. Remove from the oven and let cool for 3-4 minutes on the baking tray before transferring the cookies to a wire baking rack to cool completely. Repeat this process until all of your cookies are baked. Cookies need to cool completely before icing.
For the icing, whisk all of the ingredients in a large bowl. The frosting should be smooth, and if it’s too thick you can add in additional water 1 teaspoon at a time. You want the frosting to be runny enough that you can mix it + it will flow through a thin icing tip, but the icing should pass the “drizzle” test where you can drizzle a stream of the frosting over the bowl, and that drizzle will hold its shape for 3-5 seconds before being fully absorbed back into the frosting.
Once the frosting is mixed, divide the frosting into smaller bowls, dye with your chosen food coloring, and bag up each color. Proceed to frost + have fun with decorating.