This week has been full of at-home time. We don't have our normal routine to pull us away from the house in the evening. I get to go home from work everyday to see N and Zoe, still in pajamas, playing some kind of new game. Last night they made a boxcar. It was a real box turned into an imaginary car. They were fixing a flat tire. It's the kind of scene that makes my heart smile to the point of bursting!
I'm not the type of person who likes to sit around and relax. It's safe to say that my idea of relaxing and N's idea are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Because I have at-home time in the evenings, I have ideas. Two nights ago I made homemade salsa and guacamole. I know, nothing quite screams Christmas like salsa and guac.
We are doing a non-traditional taco bar for dinner on Christmas. I even found a place here that makes homemade tortillas! I got a taste of those in Austin and I fell in love. I think I'm feeling more Feliz Navidad than Merry Christmas right now!
I've also go other, sweeter ideas. The Pioneer Woman had a segment on her blog dedicated to frosting sugar cookies. We're talking royal icing, piping and all around fancy. I figured since I would be home, I would have the time to do fancy. I had dreams of taking pictures, posting them to this here blog, with comments like, "it wasn't as hard as I thought!" or "they turned out cuter than I imagined!" My mind became boastful and excited!
Last night Zoe helped me roll out sugar cookie dough and we decided to make stockings, candy canes and ornament shaped cookies. Our first batch was some cute stockings. Our cookie cutter was about the size of my palm. Oh, they would make such cute cookies! We set the timer on the oven and started to cut out candy cane cookies.
Then the timer went off. I opened the oven and gasped in disbelief.
I had no idea store-bought sugar cookie mix contained a secret ingredient. Something I can only refer to as "the Incredible Hulk." Those cute, palm-sized stockings had turned into a blob of cookie that grew to three times its original size. No longer were they cute stockings, they were blob of cookie that couldn't be decorated into anything recognizable.
The candy canes did the same thing.
The ornaments, well I can't even talk about them.
All my plans were thrown out the window. My desire to have fancy sugar cookies was dead; killed by cookie blobs.
N, bless his heart, said "I'd still eat them!" Unfortunately he'll never know if he's eating a stocking, a candy cane or an ornament that now resembles a rectangle cookie with a weird point at the bottom.
That Little Dough boy is probably at his bakery going, "mwahahahah! Think you can pass your sugar cookies off as being homemade? I'll teach you!"
At least I'll still have the blissful memory of cutting out sugar cookies with Zoe. She was precious and even had a little flour by her eye and on her forehead. It was a time of innocence and hope.
I refuse to let this be the year that the cookie blobs won. My New Year's Resolution is to find the perfect homemade cookie recipe, practice it to perfection and next year have all the fancy.
If that doesn't work, I'll call the grocery store bakery, order about 2 dozen sugar cookies and then use royal icing to decorate them.
A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!
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