The snolfs have long enjoyed playing with my cookie cutters, but they aren't good at taking proper care of them (many are from my mother's collection, which means some are easily 50 years old), so they're generally off limits. This was the first year I thought both of them could handle all the steps in making cut-out cookies, so I gave it a try. We had a lot of fun, and amazingly enough, they lost interest in the cutting and decorating before we ran out of dough. For those who want to see some of the doings, please continue on.

I did all the setup work in advance, of course; and fortunately for me, I've a good sugar cookie recipe that doesn't require refrigeration, and which doesn't get tough with repeated rollings of dough. I made six shades of colored sugar, and seven or eight shades of "cookie paint" -- evaporated milk combined with food coloring. The snolfs loved painting the cookies -- but Lobo feared for his camera so we don't have shots of that step. Here's a photo of some of the cookie paints in between decorating sessions:

Here are the three of us concentrating on getting as many cookies as we can out of a freshly-rolled bit of dough:

Son-snolf was able to grok the advantage of placing cookie cutters carefully, and closely, on the dough. Consequently he was able to do his cutting himself, and with few exceptions did a very good job.

Daughter-snolf, however, required near-constant supervision. She was so excited her budding self-control just couldn't contain it! She did pretty well for her first time, though.

And here's a look at the first cookies we did:

Yes, those are mooses, airplanes, ice cream cones, and rabbits among the yule trees and lone snowman. I have an eclectic collection of cookie cutters, and we have, er, unusual ideas about decorating things. My son made a wonderfully psychedelic ice cream cone, while I did a snowman with a telltale yellow patch on him (which the snolfs thought uproariously funny).

The only thing I'd consider doing differently is the cookie paint. The evaporated milk is a little thin, and doesn't add anything to the flavor of the cookies. I'm wondering if sweetened condensed milk would work well, and double as a tasty frosting. I was also mildly disappointed that I couldn't find dragées anywhere I looked for decorations. Although we don't live in Kalifornia, I wonder if this food cop is part of the reason why.