Success!

Thanks to Emily, I figured out my sugar cookie problem. She suggested that the problem was too much butter in the dough, so when I rolled out the rest of it I was very generous with the flour, and ta-dah! Perfect sugar cookies. The kids are thankful, too. They had gobs of fun decorating the cookies. I think they enjoy decorating them even more than eating them! And, of course, it's much more fun to decorate cookies that have a shape than just big blobs.
Thank you, Emily!

Martha, you let me down

Making sugar cut out cookies is a tradition at Christmas time. I absolutely loved making and decorating them as a kid, so I wanted to continue the tradition with my own children. I was sure that I had made my mother's recipe before, but when we were going to make them on Sunday, I couldn't find the recipe anywhere. No problem, I thought. I'll just turn to this great new cookbook that Eric got me as a birthday gift.
The biscuit recipe is amazing and the apple pie was pretty good (though I totally screwed up the crust, it was my first attempt at making my own crust). But, the sugar cookies did not turn out well at all!
As they baked, the dough spread out very thin so the cookies turned out all deformed looking and you can hardly tell what shape they are supposed to be. The cookies in the above picture are supposed to be (from l to r) a Christmas tree, a bell, and a gingerbread man. I thought that I followed the recipe to a "T". But, the pictures of Martha's cookies in her book are beautiful, and mine are, well, ugly.

Does anyone know what I did wrong? Help!

Busy, busy, thankful and busy

Thanks to Jill for giving me this great idea for a Thanksgiving Tree (that she got from Karen). The kids loved doing it because they were allowed to make a big mess with scissors and glue!

Today we are off to my in law's house for the Thanksgiving holiday. We already have big plans for fishing, making smores over an open fire and maybe even going horseback riding. And, most importantly we are going to watch Texas A&M whip up on UT! Whoop!

We'll be back on Friday so we can prepare for Augustine's baptism on Saturday. My little boy will shortly be welcomed into the family of God! I'll be hosting lunch after the baptism where I will be serving these absolutely fabulous shredded pork tacos. It's a very un-Thanksgiving like meal (which we will be ready for by then!) and an absolute crowd pleaser.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Enjoy this time with friends and family and don't forget to stop the festivities for a few minutes and give thanks!