Cookie making/Christmas tree getting day

It's been quite a day at the Mattfield house today. The kids did not have school (teacher workshop) so it was really busy. And FUN!!! I had the privledge of making homemade sugar cookies with my kids, using the same recipe my mom used making cookies with me. Brought back memories of creaming the sugar and butter together by hand (no Kitchenaid mixer!), using the old wooden rolling pin to roll out the dough, using the little metal Christmas cookie cutters....I pray my children will look back with as much fondness on our time together as I do on my time with my mom.

Plus, this is the best sugar cookie recipe I've ever had! I made sure I hand-wrote it on a sheet of paper before I got married just so I'd have the exact same recipe as my mom. Here it is.....

Sift -- very important to sift -- 1 1/2 cups confectioner sugar into a bowl with 1 cup of butter.

Mix in 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1/2 tsp almond extract.

In a separate bowl, combine 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp creme of tartar. *On a side note, the creme of tartar is very important. I learned that the hard way!* Add 1/3 of the dry ingredient mixture at a time to the wet ingredients, mixing well.

Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in saran wrap, and place in the refrigerator for 3 hours. Take it out and let it stand 15 minutes before rolling out the dough.

Find a few children who are excited about rolling out dough and cutting out cookies to help you! Worked well for me today! Bake the cookies at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes.

You should have cookies that look something like this. Place them on a cooling rack to cool before trying to frost them. *Again, spoken from experience! (ahem)*

When cookies are cooled, get "said children" plus 1 to come back and have a frosting party. Be prepared to clean up lots and lots of frosting and sprinkles off the table and floor. But seeing their "art work" and huge smiles is well worth it!

TA DA!!!!! Finished product. Yummmmmmmm. Please let me know what you think if you try the recipe.

Then our day took us to going to look for a real Christmas tree for the basement. Of course we chose the coldest evening so far to go looking. 20 degrees with a cold wind --- BRRRR!!!!

But, we were successful! *Doesn't Joey (standing in the front in the red jacket) look freezing?!?!?! He ran right to the van as soon as this picture was taken.*

Jeff did the cold work of getting the tree tied down to the roof of the van while the kids warmed up inside. We are extremely thankful for a roof rack to tie it to! hahahaha Then it was home to eat the yummiest (is that a word?) lasagna I have ever made.....and it was in the crockpot! I will post that recipe another time. Trust me....it will be well worth the wait!