Baking Christmas Cookies

My co-workers have not-so-subtly been hinting that it has been too long since I last brought in homemade treats. That hinting combined with the fact it is the Christmas season meant it was time to bake this weekend!! I pulled out my handy-dandy (albeit slowly dying) Kitchen Aid yesterday and decided to whip up some Christmas-themed shortbread cookies.

The night before as I was in bed falling asleep, I wondered if it would work to make two colors of shortbread dough, layer them, roll them into a log, chill the log, and then slice the log and have swirled cookies. (Yes, that is what I think about as I fall asleep ... I think it is a sickness! Maybe should look into a local chapter of Bakers Anonymous ... I wonder if they'd let me bring homemade treats to the meetings!)

As soon as I pulled the mixer out of the cupboard, Conor was running through the kitchen shouting "I want to help! I want to help!!" (That boy is my little baking apprentice through and through!) So, the kids hauled chairs from the table over to my baking station and helped me whip up the dough. (Note to self, don't let them unwrap the butter and put it into the mixer bowl before checking for leftover paper.)

After the dough was done, the kids went back to playing, which worked out nicely for the coloring, layering, rolling aspects of the project. I was rather nervous about the cookies' final appearance; would baking negatively impact the colors? Happily, I learned that it didn't! The cookies are adorably Christmasy.

Conor wore the elf ears as ear plugs ... hey, he thinks it works, so we go with it

Watching the mixer do its thing; the kids know they have to keep their
hands back, so Annika holds the bowl handle while Conor covers his ears... I
guess the elf ears didn't work after all

Ready for baking!
(Note the holes in a few of the cookies ... that's where
I dug out the butter wrapper remnants)