ABC's in the Kitchen

Where has the year gone? can't believe I'm saying that again! Every year the holidays roll around and they just keep coming faster. It should be of no surprise that I was seeing Christmas decorations well before Halloween was even here. Now, with more than a week until Thanksgiving I found myself at Trader Joe's last night with my 4 year old daughter buying a gingerbread house kit! I wanted to be sure that I had one ready to go when Christmas arrives!

So, with that....I also bought a package of gingerbread mix. This one couldn't wait...My kids and I love to get messy in the kitchen and last week our cake, while it looked great, it tasted terrible! So we decided to have a quick lesson with the ABC cookie cutters I bought years ago!

The mix was simple...each child had an something to add the the food processor (I recommend using the processor because kids can just throw in the mix, egg, and butter, and away it goes).

Explaining to your three and four year olds that the dough needed to chill in the frig for 60minutes was another lesson in its self. We wrapped it up in wax paper and put it in the frig, then...don't forget the timer! The kids love to keep an eye on it, and it helps them to be patient and not ask every 5 minutes, "is it ready yet?"

While we waited for the dough to chill, we decided to make a few crafts to take with us to the grandparents house when we set off to travel this Thanksgiving. I'll post more about these fun easy crafts later.

When the timer beeped 60 minutes later, we were ready to practice our ABC's and rolling skills. I gave each of my kids a portion of the gingerbread dough, and a rolling pin. I made sure to lightly flour the table. (oh! and don't forget to have the kids wash their hands!) I unloaded the ABC cookie cutters onto the table and we set out to make as many letters as we could. Talking about each letter as we made them. We spelled the kids names, and made a few for friends! We sang the ABC's and arranged them onto a cookie sheet ready for the oven!

While the cookies were baking, we cleaned up and had a little lunch....and before we knew it, the buzzer beeped again....ABC cookies are ready!

So fun!