Christmas Cookies

This year, I really wanted to make snowflake sugar cookies. I wanted the decorations to be more delicate than what I get when I use traditional buttercream to frost the cookies. I decided to take the plunge and try doing royal icing for the first time.

I read a royal icing tutorial that can be found here and got to work decorating after Ethan went to bed. It took me about three hours to do about four dozen cookies from the outling to the final touches - the snowflakes above and the ornaments below. As I went along, my technique improved and I'm sure I could whip these out much quicker next time.

I'm pretty pleased with the results for being my first attempt and have some good ideas for the next time I decide to make decorated sugar cookies. I found the whole process to be a nice, creative outlet and a relaxing activity to do quietely while catching up on the drama of the Real Housewives.

I also received an amazing Christmas present under the tree this year. This beautiful, shiny red KitchenAid mixer. I'm so excited to whip up some goodies in this baby.