Cookies!

This afternoon, The Boy, The Girl, The Tot, The Dad and I hosted a crowd of little kids and their mothers (and a few fathers) for our first (annual?) cookie-decorating party. It was great fun!

The Kids and I spent the morning rolling, cutting, and baking Alton Brown's sugar cookies in holiday shapes (The Tot was disappointed that I would not let him eat the cookies as they came out of the oven). And when our guests arrived, I set out bowls of royal icing (colored with India Tree natural food tints), Wilton sugars and nonpareils, chocolate hips, waxed paper, knives and all the blank-slate cookies. The kids made cookies, ate cookies, and ran around the house together while the moms chatted. We were going to watch The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, but everyone was having such fun in free play without it that we skipped it. I think a good time was had by all (except maybe The Tot, who needed a nap, and Cara, who didn't know my crowd of city-mom friends).

The Girl and The Tot fell asleep on me after most of our guests left, and The Boy was in bed, again, before 7 p.m. tonight!