Christmas Eve

It was super amazing to have the boys on Christmas Eve!! In the morning my mom, Kenny, Brian, the boys and I made sugar cookies from my Great Grandma Aue's Sugar Cookie recipe. My Great Aunt Mabel was kind enough to send it to me last year and I wanted to try it and maybe start a a tradition like their family has to make cookies at the holidays using the recipe. 

I have to be honest here... the sugar cookies were horrible! The only one who would even eat them is my dad... he will eat almost anything! He said they did taste like hers. I think it was the small amount of sugar and the anise spice in it that didn't agree with our taste buds!

We also made some Big Soft Ginger Cookies that were amazing!!

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons ground ginger 1 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup margarine, softened 1 cup white sugar 1 egg 1 tablespoon water 1/4 cup molasses 2 tablespoons white sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
2.	In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.
3.	Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

We headed over to the Taylor house in the afternoon so my brother could surprise the boys with the
remote control cars that HE bought for them. Its a pretty big deal. they of course loved them!

Jacob

And he surprise the boys AND ME with brand new bikes! It was pretty exciting!!

Later we headed to Radiant for the Christmas Eve service. The boys stayed with us since it was family service. Little Brian has SO many questions about religion. I wish I had the right answers and knew what to tell him... It was a beautiful service and I am so glad we have made going a tradition.

Kenny holding Jacob next to Little Brian

We spent the evening at our house. My mom read the boys a Christmas book (only Jacob was interested)

And then the present opening started... we let the boys open all the presents from us on Christmas Eve every year.

Little Brian and Jacob

Little Brian was SO excited about the DS we gave him, but they loved everything pretty much. I made the family calendars this year to carry on my grandma's tradition, I think that was hard on my mom. Everyone seems to get lots of neat things and we all felt loved for sure. 

We got to do something this year that my mom and I have pretty much always wanted to do... we sang Christmas carols. Remember I am a VERY VERY beginner on the piano!!