Cookies and Champagne Playdate

This year Gina offered to host another Christmas "tradition" that began just last year (and I hope it continues for many years to come): our Cookies and Champagne Playdate.  The kids had a great time decorating Christmas cookies and exchanging gifts ... and the girls had fun sipping on champagne and chatting.  I feel so blessed to have wonderful girlfriends and that our kids are also becoming great friends.

What could be better than sharing Christmas over cookies and champagne with good friends?

Centennial Celebration

The SJCC had it's centennial celebration. It was a fun night of food and music on the golf course.

There "may" have been ginormous chocolate chip cookies involved...

...and a dance concert by Luke, who "may" have had at least one of said cookies....
***note:  this is the same kid who refuses to sing in his preschool performances.  Maybe we just need to give him a cookie ahead of performance time?

...and even after Luke's entire "show," Mia remained in the same place, eating her cookie.
***note: Kay in the background applauding for Luke :)

All in all, it was a fabulous evening

The highlight was the amazing fireworks display at the end of the night. The kids were amazed ... so were we! The best, closest fireworks I've ever seen. This gives you an idea of how close we were - they were right over our heads!

Cookies & Champagne Playdate

Such fun!  I love that the kids and the ladies can ALL have fun at a playdate.  Gina, Jess, and their sweet kids came over the week before Christmas to decorate cookies (and the older girls toasted to the upcoming holiday weekend).  Aidan, Bailey, Jack, Charlie, Luke, and Mia had so much fun ...and our kitchen floor showed it :), but it was so worth the mess. 

Concentrating on the perfect cookie design

Discussion over Gingerbread House design

There "might" have been some sugar consumed...

...okay, a LOT of sugar!

Are we decorating or eating?!

Such a big boy

The girls get in on the Gingerbread action too

The kids also exchanged Christmas gifts, and the dino hats seemed to be a hit!

I loved Jessica's message the next morning that she had never seen Bailey so dirty :).  Sign of a good playdate?  I think so!

More pre-Christmas fun

We traveled up to Tahoe to enjoy a white Christmas this year!

Luke & Mommy had fun decorating his Gingerbread Man and making Christmas cookies for Santa

Our car was completely full with our family of four, Brooklyn, our luggage, and the Christmas gifts, so we didn't bring any additional toys for the kids up with us. Because of this, Luke & Mia had very little to play with leading up to the big day so we decided to let them each open another early Christmas present.

Luke opened a Fire Station from Day & Paw (basically a doll house for boys ... he LOVES it!)

Mia opened a baby doll from Mommy & Daddy

Uncle Todd is here ... one of Luke's favorite people!

Christmas Cookies

Earlier this month it was raining for days on end and I just HAD to find something special for Luke to do indoors. We ended up going to Bed Bath and Beyond and getting a cookie press, which we used to make Michael's Aunt Michele's colorful Christmas butter cookies. Luke loved this project, and the cookie press was even easy enough for him to use on his own.

So, I decided that we would make one more attempt at making Christmas cookies this year. I had a box of Gingerbread mix from Trader Joe's (my favorite place!), so I whipped up the dough, we rolled it out, cut out the cookies, and Luke decorated them.

He had fun, but this was definitely a messier project than some of the other baking that we've done this holiday season.

Are they finished baking yet? (oh, yes, we wear underwear around a lot, especially if we have an accident in the pants and Mommy is just too tired - and large - to haul herself upstairs for a clean pair!)

Inspecting his work:

Pleased with the final product (this is before the taste test!):

The downside? Luke discovered that he is not really a fan of gingerbread** ... oh well, live and learn!

**Note to all Mommies: The TJ's gingerbread mix is super gingery and spicy - yummy for adults, not really surprising that it isn't a hit with kids!

Cookie Monster

Mommy and I made cookies together today. It was certainly a joint effort, as I stirred the batter and decorated each cookie with Halloween-colored M&Ms (aka: "potty treats" ... although this term tends to be a bit less appealing when referring to food).

Mmm ... they are delicious.

In the words of Luke, "I like tookies!"