Christmas Gingerbread Cookies

One of our favorite family traditions is to make Gingerbread Cookies for Christmas.  We've done it every single year since Chablis was 6 months old.  We pull out the cookie cutters that we've had for forever and the old wooden rolling pin that basically gets used once, maybe twice a year.  We put on Christmas music and lose ourselves in flour and dough.

When the kids were small I'd give them each a hunk of dough and let them mold it and play with it, while I did most of the work.  These days Chablis does most of the rolling and cookie cutting work....

Here they were screaming at each other because Chablis didn't like the way Tony was placing the dough on the cookie sheets.  I grabbed my camera and told them I'm taking a picture so 20 years from now I can pull it out and say "Hey, remember when we were making cookies and you 2 were fighting over where to place the dough?"  They both cracked up because they know I will remember this and they double know that I will produce the photo and remind them of it in 20 years! LOL!

This is what the cookies look like when they're done baking....

Then we start decorating them with frosting and candies.....

Each of them also makes one HUGE Santa gingerbread man for themselves.

Our gingerbread cookies will never win a prize for beauty or be sold in a bakery for $ 2.00 apiece.  We sprinkle candy or chocolate chips on them with a free hand.  I don't care if the multi-colored frosting is drizzled down the sides in a runny pool or if some cookies just receive a thin stripe of frosting.  Because for me the fun is in the making, and the music, the heat of the oven, the scent of baking cookies wafting through the kitchen, and the eating afterwards with a cup of hot chocolate.  After all, isn't that what family traditions are really all about?

GINGERBREAD COOKIES

5 to 5 ½ Cups All Purpose Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 teaspoon Salt

2 teaspoons Ginger

2 Teaspoons Cinnamon

1 teaspoon Nutmeg

1 teaspoon Cloves

2 sticks softened Margarine

1 Cup Sugar

1 ¼ Cup Unsulphured Molasses

2 Eggs

Mix the softened margarine, sugar, molasses and the eggs.  Add 5 cups of the flour, baking soda, salt and all the spices.  Mix well using a wooden spoon, not a mixer.

Put mixture onto a floured surface and add the remaining flour until the dough is firm and not sticky.  Start rolling out some of the dough on a floured surface, to ¼” thickness. Cut with cookies cutters.

Bake 375 degrees for about 10 minutes.  Keep an eye on them.

After they cool, decorate with frosting….

1 stick margarine

2 Cups Powdered Sugar

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

Milk

Use a mixer and add milk and additional powdered sugar until you have enough frosting.  Separate into bowls and add colored food drops.