Even Claire had fun playing in the flour. She didn't get a chance to play in the dough this year (it would all end up in her mouth), but next year she'll be able to take part in full cookie festivities
The second best part of making these cookies is decorating (best part is EATING the cookies!). Ella was meticulously decorating, making sure that the frosting was evenly distributed :)
This is the "Santa cookie" that we make every year. We make sure to leave this one for Santa on Christmas Eve night
Our finished product!!Minnesota weather really threw a wrench into our Christmas traditions. Usually, we stay home for Christmas Eve so we can go to our own church, have our own Christmas meal, and then open presents together. Then we also get a chance to open Santa presents in the morning underneath our own tree. Then, on Christmas Day around 1:00 p.m., we would hop in the car and head north to spend some time with family. But this year.......if we wanted to get up north at all, we decided we would have to go up on Wednesday (23rd) to beat the storm that was brewing. The "Weather Terrorists" (as my dad would call the twin cities meteorologists) were predicting any where from 12 - 20 inches of snow would fall between Wednesday and Saturday. So I frantically packed and wrapped presents on Tuesday night so we could open presents with the girls on Wednesday morning before we left.
When the girls woke up on Wednesday morning, they ran to the tree to find all of the presents underneath!
Claire opening up her very first Christmas present
We had a fun morning of opening Christmas presents and having a breakfast of scrambled eggs and cinnamon rolls. We were sure to leave a note for Santa to tell him where we were staying, so he knew where to deliver the presents! We then packed up the "family truckster" and headed to East Grand Forks. The roads were really good until we got between Fargo and Grand Forks. The roads became very icy and were a few cars in the ditch. But thankfully, we got to East Side in one piece :)
The next morning, we woke up to a ton of snow! Luckily, the wind wasn't blowing (yet) and the temps were very mild. So, we bundled up the girls and went outside for some sledding. My dad has a huge 60 foot flood dike in the back of his house, so Carl and the girls had some steep hills to sled down!
Even Claire got a ride in the sled!
Christmas Eve, we got to go to church with my family and listened to my niece Daysha sing in the church choir. She even had a verse from "Oh Holy Night" that she sang as a solo!! After church we all went back to my dad's for a steak dinner and (more) presents.
On Christmas Day (night) we headed out into the blizzard and went to Joe Black's (my step dad Denny's Bar) and had Christmas with my mom's side of the family. We had a blast playing games and stuffed ourselves with Denny's amazing cooking. He made stuffed chicken, ribs, bacon wrapped sirloin steaks and twice-baked potatoes with cheese and bacon...WHEW! It was awesome! 
(from left to right - Me, my brother John, my mom, my older sister Ali, and younger sister, Jess)The day after Christmas, we headed up to Argyle to spend time with Carl's family. We had a night filled with FOOD, fun and (even more and MORE) presents! The girls are out right now snowmobiling and sledding!
We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family to surround ourselves with around the holiday season, which truly is the best gift of all!
