...C is for cookie...

Schedules sometimes don't work out quite the way we plan.

Take our Christmas cookie baking for instance.  We tried to block off an entire Saturday to crank out double batches ~ or even quadruple batches in some cases ~ of five types of cookies, but time was not on our side this year.

And so our annual M family cookie bake-a-thon turned into a several day event.  Guess you could say we spread the sweetness.

Everyone got involved in the action.  The 'big kids' took care of the more complicated jobs.  The girls precisely measured six cups brown sugar for a quadruple batch of "Just like Starbucks Molasses cookies"

these are our very favorite cookies ~ SO good!

Caleb took care of two cups of coconut for the Crispy Polynesian Butterscotch cookies.

We added lots of butter, vanilla and a few eggs.

And we mixed.

And mixed.

What about the little one you may ask?  Not to worry...we found several tasks that demand slightly 'less  fine motor skill'.  Daniel was thrilled to chop pecans for the polynesian cookies (with my grandmother's nut chopper). 

And even more excited to crush candy canes ~ with a toy hammer ~ for the Candy Cane Snowballs.

We also made nearly 200 chocolate and vanilla covered pretzel rods.  No pictures of that process though, the photographer was too busy policing a strict 'no finger licking' policy (and sending any offenders back to the hand sanitizing station) and trying to control sprinkles from hitting the floor.

We never exactly got around to the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip or Coffee & Cream Dreams, but that's okay.  We think our friends and neighbors enjoyed their packages all the same.

As we polish off the last of the crumbs and sweep the last of the sprinkles off the floor, we find ourselves looking forward to introducing Natalie to the M family cookie bake off in 2013, whether it's a 'one long' or 'several short' day affair!