Sugar Cookies

This is one of my favorite cookie recipes and it's so simple!

Ingredients

2/3 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

1 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

2. Beat butter w/ electric mixer (I used my stand mixer) on high speed for 30 seconds.  Add sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Beat until combined.  Beat in egg, milk, and vanilla.  Beat as much of the flour as you can w/ mixer. Stir in any remaining flour.  Cover and chill dough for at least 30 minutes.

3. On a lightly floured surface, roll half the dough at a time until 1/4 inch thick.  For best results, keep the half you're not working with in the refrigerator.  Cut into desired shapes.  Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 16-18 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are lightly browned (Add 3-4 minutes for insulated baking sheets).  Transfer to a wire rack (or counter) and let cool.  Let cool completely before frosting - I used Wilton Cookie Icing that I found at Target.

Enjoy!

Christmas Festivities

Instead of doing multiple long posts to recap the last couple of weeks, I'm just going to do one really long post :)

Last weekend, all of the girls from Mr T's side of the family (aunts, cousins, cousins' wives, etc) were planning on taking his grandmother to the Rockette's Christmas Show that was showing in Boston.  However, she had hip replacement surgery just before Thanksgiving and while she is doing very well, she wasn't up to going out for a night on the town.  The rest of us went anyway and had a great time!  We had dinner at a great family-style Italian restaurant and enjoyed the show (despite getting yelled at to stop taking pictures - we arrived as the show was starting and missed the announcement about no pictures - oops!)

The day after the show, Mr T and I hosted our annual holiday party - I don't have any pictures from it, but we had a wonderful time with our friends and family and I have many recipes to share!

Then, my favorite night of the year - Christmas Eve!  Ever since Mr T and I have been dating, I've attended the T family Christmas Eve "Extravaganza" (as I've designated it).  It is one of the two holidays that basically no one in the family misses (4th of July being the other).  In all, 28 people gathered at his aunt's house for dinner, gifts, and quality time together.  My love for this night as only grown since being privileged enough to experience this family gathering - I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful second family.

 my father-in-law

Mr T and his dad

 The grab (basically a Yankee swap)

my brother-in-law and Santa

family love - the "kids" and great aunt G

And last but not least, Christmas Day!  Mr T and I spent the morning opening our gifts to each other and getting ready to host our parents, my sister, and Mr T's brother for dinner.

Mr T and the beer-brewing kit I gave him

he got me the Kinect for our XBox - this thing is awesome

playing with the Kinect - who says you can't get toys when you're a grown up?!

Sox and me

 Sox tired from the morning gift-opening

my mom, sister, and parents' dog, Lucy

my dad and his baby girl

Lucy and my mother-in-law

We actually have one more day of festivities awaiting us - our Christmas with Mr T's parents, brother, sister and brother-in-law.  But we're in the midst of a blizzard (12-18" expected by tomorrow morning!) so we postponed our get-together until next weekend.  Instead, I'm curled up on the couch, in front of a roaring fire and the NCIS marathon on TV, hoping we don't lose power!

Happy Holidays!

hopefully I'll start blogging more regularly in 2011!  I have a lot to post from the last 2 months!