The best Christmas Cookies ever!

I am not a Christmas cookie girl.  Let me clarify, I like to eat them, but I don’t like to bake them. My deep dark secret is I can’t really bake cookies.  I usually suck at it.  They almost never turn out.   Due to Meister’s allergies I can’t just go to the store and buy a bunch of beautifully decorated cookies. I just couldn’t feel safe feeding them to him.  I mean, he looks good in blue shirts, but not when his face is blue from anaphylaxis.   

So, I got by with no Christmas cookies for the first 5 years of Meister’s life.  You don’t miss what you don’t know, right?  Well last year was our first Christmas with the Hubs and Miss Thang.  They wanted  needed the Christmas cookies.  It was tradition.  It was what you do at Christmas.  So I conceded.  I screwed up a batch or two.  I may have cried and stomped my feet.  Just sayin…Then I remembered the cookies from one of my favorite blogs.  Bake at 350 is all about decorating beautiful cookies.  This gal knows her cookies and I was sure she’d have a good recipe.  She did!  It worked!  I actually baked cookies and they actually turned out!  We decorated and ate them.  They were awesome!  They stood up to the handling during frosting and such.  To top it all off, they tasted so good!  Buttery and yummy!  Here is the recipe. We omitted the almond extract and they were just fine.

Fast forward to this year.  It’s cookie time baby!  I got out the recipe.  I made the dough.  We rolled, we cut, we baked.  The kids will frost today, but I got to do a little frosting all by myself last night.  I think I have found my calling.  No?  pssst-it’s Ralphie in his bunny suit and the “Major Award”

(please excuse the crappy lighting and my lack of super expensive camera.  I just have to make do with my old junk.  HA!)

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Me, Harry Potter, and Santa

Last night I received affirmation that I am doing something right as a parent. 

Miss Thang and I were walking up to a store and the bell ringer guy looked like Santa.  I pointed him out to her and she did the usual kid gawk, walk, and stare.  It was precious.

At the next store the bell ringers were two teenage boys.  Miss Thang looks up at me and says, “that boy looks like Harry Potter.”  My geek heart swelled ten times it’s size.

I felt the love

I have a wonderful blended family.  By this I mean, both my husband and I have been married before and we each have a child from the first marriage.  I have a son, Meister who is 6.  He has a daughter, Miss Thang who is 3.  We have decided to not have any more kids.  This means I will never have a biological daughter and The Hubs will never have a biological son. This is both something we really struggled with.  I mourned the loss of not having another baby, of having a daughter of my own. 

Meister’s bio-dad lives eight hours away and doesn’t have a whole heck of a lot to do with his daily life.  So the Hubs is the one who picks him up from school, attends conferences, and helps him with his homework.  ( I do that stuff too, but you catch my drift!)  The Hubs is definitely fulfilling a role for Meister, and he is filling the void for The Hubs.  I on the other hand do not fulfill a role for Miss Thang.  Her Mom is in her life, which I think is the absolutely wonderful.  Kids of divorce should see their bio-parents as much as possible.  I digress.  Miss Thang and I have a good relationship.  I get to do all the girly things with her and have tons of fun.  We paint nails, curl hair and play dress up-it’s great!  But, I am not going to be helping her get ready for her first date or play mother of the bride.  I’m the step mom, and that’s ok. 

Three paragraphs in and I’m finally getting to the point of this post.  Sometimes I wonder if Miss Thang feels as close to me as I do to her.  I usually initiate nail painting, dress up etc.  She has fun, but she doesn’t come to me and ask to do these things. I had almost finished curling my hair when Miss Thang came in the room.  Her face lit up and said “Will you curl MY hair too?!?”  It was the look on her face and the fact she asked me to do this simple thing for her that made me feel the love.  I was SO friggin’ excited that she asked me.  My eyes may have leaked a bit.  How dumb is that? 

Miss Thang