I think my favorite part of Christmas isn’t receiving gifts, it’s giving them. When ever I find that perfect gift for someone, I immediately want to rush over and have them unwrap it.
Which is precisely what led to this, this evening.
My sister, Kelly, and her boyfriend, Anthony, came over this evening for cookie decorating, beer drinking, and dinner eating. As soon as they walked in the door I immediately thrusted the gift I had just wrapped hours before.
They love their dogs just as much as I love my Maddie, so these bone shaped ornaments baring each of their fur babies was just what their young tree needed.
Sometimes the simple gifts are the best ones. 
It was nice having Kelly and Anthony over tonight.
I made my famous Black Bean and Pineapple Enchiladas (I need to write out the recipe for this because it’s a good one).
And some baked yucca.
Derek and I had purchased a Holiday Sam Adams sampler pack earlier today primarily because it contained a couple of their special Chocolate Bocks.
The beer was rich and flavorful. A great holiday pick.
Cookie decorating party tip: prepare the dough before your guests arrive. That way all you have to do is pop it out of the fridge and get to cookie cutting without missing a beat.
I went with Martha Stewart’s classic gingerbread cookie recipe for the dough. My only problem with the recipe was that it called for way too much flour. The recipe asked for 6, but I only used 4.
I debated between sugar cookies and gingerbread and decided I really wanted gingerbread. My plan was just to treat the gingerbread like sugar cookies either way. 
Maddie was our supervisor during the whole cookie baking process. She didn’t miss a beat with cookie droppings or excess dough damage.
Cookies ready to be iced.
It’s party time!
Nothing like a great cookie decorating session to bring out the kid in all of us. We laughed. We told dirty jokes. We ate our weight in gingerbread. (I had two cookies + icing & dough)
Go Noles!
The best part is I can just bring all the cookies to work tomorrow and spread the holiday joy.
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