Christmas Traditions

Growing up, my family had a number of Christmas traditions that just simply happened every year. To name a few...Fondue on Christmas Eve, the 11pm candlelight service at church, Christmas breakfast at Neenie's, chicken cordon bleu for dinner on Christmas, and of course Christmas cookies! Today it was time to share the Christmas cookie tradition with Isaac. My mom's family is german, and the absolute best Christmas cookie on earth (at least in my eyes) is a german cookie called Lebkuchen (which is best described as a molasses cookie). The fun of making Lebkuchen (at least as a kid) is the absolute and total mess you get to make of the kitchen. First off, you have to roll out all the sticky cookie dough with tons of flour so it won't stick to the counter and cut out all the different shapes with the cookie cutters. Then you bake them and let them cool. Finally, you get to the artistic part where you put the homemade frosting and your choice of sprinkles on. This is the part that Isaac got to help with...the artistic part! He jumped right in like he'd been doing it for years. He'd finish one cookie, and push it to the side to make room for the next one.

After he decorated the first few, he needed a cookie snack. But it was back to decorating and maybe sampling the sprinkles here and there.

We won't blame anyone for not wanting to try our lebkuchen this year!