Family Traditions

This year, my husband and I decided to give ourselves the best gift of all.  We flew our kids here to celebrate Christmas together.  Over the years, we have developed several traditions, without which Christmas is not Christmas.

One of them is my deep-dish apple pie.  I make the pie and my daughter cuts the top crust into something amazing.  Here's this year's edition based off of a CTMH stamp:

The second tradition is cookie decorating.  We are hard-core around here, with cake decorating tips, tweezers to make sure the silver balls end up exactly where you want them, and enough cookie cutter shapes to almost not have to repeat.  At first, we all tried to make cookies which were decorated as the shape suggested.  Then my daughter got really, really good at it.  With competitive men in the family, they finally gave up and created a new tradition...decorate it in any way EXCEPT what was indicated by the shape.

Here's this year's batch:

If you look closely, you will see Mr. Bill, a gargoyle, an exploding gun muzzle, and an angry bird.  Though, you might notice the angry bird looks just a little more "professional" than the other variations.  That's because Lyndell made it.  I'm a little surprised the guys let her steal their thunder that way, but each year brings new twists on this tradition.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Here's wishing you a blessed New Year.

Until next time,
Becca