This Christmas season has been all about making memories with our two kiddos. Baking during the holidays is a no fail way to spread some festive cheer, and we're not strangers to drowning in flour and sugar between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. This year we wanted to start including Jasper (26 months old) in our kitchen fun by letting him participate in some easy activities. What better way to get into the holiday spirit than cookie decorating?
Psst... stay tuned to the very end of this blog post to see how you can enter a giveaway from Krusteaz to win everything pictured above!
We started our weekend with a trip to Costco to stock up our new chest freezer and also to take advantage of some savings on bulk ingredients for our holiday baking over the next couple of weeks. Since we shopped on a Saturday, Jasper was able to help us try all of the fun samples available that day. His favorites were the fresh-made bread from the bakery, Cello Parmesan Whisps, and block manchego cheese.
Starbucks was offering a fruitcake frappuccino and the offer lasted only through the weekend, so we had to give it a try. The drink is composed of cinnamon, caramel, hazelnut crème, matcha, and a dried-fruit packet containing dried cranberries, golden raisins, Zante currants, and dried cherries. It's topped with a swirl of whipped cream, matcha powder, and caramel. Though fruitcake is one of the most joked about holiday desserts around, I really liked the frappuccino version of the dry, brick-like confection. It tasted fresh and fruity, and the addition of the matcha was my favorite part - the green tea flavor just worked with everyone else going on.
Matt was the one who ordered the frapp and I ordered a holiday spice flat white. If you like the fun holiday drinks but are looking for ones that are a little less fancy and sweet, try this one. It tastes like pure Christmas without being too cloying.
Armed with supplies and fully caffeinated and sugared, we were ready to bake! We reached for our box of Krusteaz Butter Vanilla Sugar cookie mix. The box contains special instructions if you want to make cut-out cookies, reducing the butter a bit for a sturdier dough.
I separated the dough into two sections and colored half of it red. I cut out the cookies using this set of mini Wilton Christmas cutters. I LOVE these cutters! They make perfect toddler-sized cookies. A set of these cutters is included in the giveaway at the bottom of this post, so be sure to enter for a chance to win your own!
Once I cut out the shapes and had them arranged on parchment paper on the baking sheet, I gave Jasper some pinch bowls of sprinkles. The first thing he did was shove a handful into his mouth!
We showed him what to do, but he thought it was hilarious to keep eating the sprinkles one after the other.
A little more hands-on guidance was needed to show him what to do!
Every other handful went into his mouth instead of onto the cookies, but he eventually got the hang of things a little better. He giggled his way through the whole process, and that is what is important. He was having fun!
We expected that he would try to eat the raw cookies, but other than saying "Ahh, cookie! Cookie!" he didn't touch the dough.
Ready to go into the oven!
Lumpy, misshapen, and random sprinkles dispersed all willy nilly.
In other words, they were beautiful. As new parents, we're constantly reminding ourselves that making memories is not about having everything perfect and Pinterest-ready. It's about having fun together and creating new experiences for our kids.
While he had fun schkoffing the sprinkles and making a big ole mess in the kitchen, I'm sure he agrees that the best part of Christmas baking is eating the fruits of all of that labor. Yum yum!
Using the reduced butter cut-out recipe, the Krusteaz cookie mix made a great, quick sugar cookie with crispy edges and chewy insides.
I look at these and see the most gorgeous cookies ever because Jasper helped us make them!
The bit of extra slobber baked in from his sticky fingers makes them even tastier, don't you agree?
Krusteaz Cookie Mix Prize Pack Giveaway
Krusteaz has offered to give one of our lucky readers this incredible prize pack! The winner will receive:
- Two boxes EACH of the following cookie mixes: Triple Chocolate Chunk, Butter Vanilla Sugar, Snickerdoodle, and Shortbread
- An EZ Deco icing pen
- 12-pc Wilton Mini Christmas Cookie Cutters
- Foo-doodlers edible food writing pens
- A Krusteaz tote bag
Because we're already into Christmas week, this giveaway is going to extend for a bit longer than usual and will end on January 2nd, 2017. Use the widget below to enter!
This post contains sponsored content by Krusteaz. Please see our About Us page for full disclosure regarding product reviews, sponsored content, and affiliate links.
Images on this page were taken using the Canon G7X Mark II, the point-and-shoot camera we use for all of our casual blogging and personal photos. We love it! (not sponsored)
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We go to the movies together and have a lot of fun when they help to make their fav cookies
We like to play games.
We love to bake and family game nights!
We love baking together. Whether it's for the holidays, sharing with friends, anytime of year is a good time.
We love to go hiking in the snow!!~
We like to play board games, go on bike rides and also bake together.
we love to bake
WE Ike to do crafts together. Get out our craft supplies and get creative.
The kids like to bake and make sweet treats. This is so fun. They especially like it when the icing is finished.
We love to make holiday cookies and give our neighbors some for the holidays!!
We love playing cards and making crafts. My 3 year old niece loves glitter crafts.
Some fun things that we love to do is baking
I like to take my kids snowshoeing in the winter, great exercise and we get to enjoy nature as well.
We like to have game nights and also love cooking together.
We barbeque and play in the park.
We love playing games and going to parks
We love to go on bike rides as a family and bake cookies.
we like to watch lots of movies
We like to do jigsaw puzzles.
We watch movies.
we like to make cookies and homemade Christmas cards too. it is a lot of fun.
We like to play board and card games.
We like to bake and watch movies
We enjoy baking together as well as going for hikes.
We love making crafts, playing board games and making cookies!
We enjoy going to the botanical gardens and zoo here.
Family baking time is my favorite holiday activity!
We cook together, we do make up together, we play games together, we go places together. What do we not do together? 😉
Baking (and eating!) cookies
We like to bake and go to the movies together.
love to bake and play outside
We love to make homemade cookies and also pizza together with the kids.
We love looking at Christmas lights!
We love to cook all kinds of things together but decorating cookies is our all time favorite thing to do!
We like to bake or go to the zoo or museum.
WE like to play hockey on our backyard rink
We love to hike & bake. Which I guess is a great combo! 🙂
We love to bake and play outside
We like to go hiking or biking at the local greenbelt.
Crafting
We go on camping trips and biking adventures.
We love going to the beach
We like to go to the movies, sledding, making snowmen, baking cookies and playing board games!
We love to go camping, even in the winter time.
We love baking and cooking together. We love family game nights.
We alos love to bake -cookies, breads, cakes!
This year, we invited the neighbor boy over and we made "gingerbread" houses with graham crackers for walls.
We like going to museums and movies.
Thank you for the giveaway. Happy Holidays!
We like to have a cookie decorating contest. Afterwards We munch on delicious cookie and hot cocoa.
Great giveaway! We'd love to play with those cookie cutters. Thank you!
I love this brand for pancake mix. not sure if I've ever tried their cookie mixes. Would love to try them. Love your sweet boy's sticky fingers snitching sprinkles 🙂
sorry, didn't answer the question. I also bake with my kids......one more than the other. They decorate those mini gingerbread houses (less arguing when they have their own) and we practice for our sunday school program together.
We love to challenge each other at mini-golf and bowling
This looks like a wonderful idea to create a basket for my adult daughters for Christmas! They're always looking for things to do with their little ones....
We like to make and decorate cookies, then deliver them to our neighbors.
We love to do arts and crafts together. My kids love to express their creativity.
We love going to museums as a family.
Fun activities I like to do with the kids: visit museums, have picnics in the park, visit the zoo, tour local historical centers.
We love baking!!
We all love going on nature hikes-when the weather is a little warmer!
We like to bake together, we also have game nights where we play board games as a family and all electronics are put away
we love baking desserts together
I like making breakfast with them!
making gingerbread housses
I love to cook with my four-year-old niece. She's so interested and digs right in.
I like to do craft projects with my grandson. Anything that involves glue or tape - he's in!
Assembly of the gingerbread houses!
We enjoy movies and museums.
We drive around looking at city Christmas lights.
We like to go on family bike rides
I like to check out Christmas light displays with my family.
We love to go to the movies. Thanks for a chance.
We love playing games together.
We make Christmas tree shaped Rice Krispie bars
We like to watch Christmas movies together.
I like making cookies and candy with my girls. We also cook almost every day together. Thank you!
My kids and I enjoy cooking together often. Some of our favorite things to make are pizzas, breads, muffins, and cookies.
I like to bake cookies and make candy with my girls. We also cook together almost every day. Thank you!
playing board games.
I get my nieces together and teach them a family recipe so they will be able to pass along the family history.
My grandson and I love to go to the movies together.
My son and I like to go to the water park together and make cupcakes.
My kids and I like to watch movies, work on crafts and go on nature walks.
Definitely decorating cookies. We also love decorating the tree remembering all the handmade ornaments they made in the past and creating new ones
we like to bake Christmas cookies
We like to cook and bake together. Go to the movies and go hiking.
We like to look at the lights, make candy and cookie platters to give out, watch movies, play games and just spend time together.
I like to take my daughter to the Kroc Center, movies, wunderland and Get Air.
We make sugar cookie cut-outs every year that our kids decorate. They even decorate their own cookie to leave out for Santa. To them, this is as much of a tradition as decorating Easter eggs or carving pumpkins.
We like to make pizzas together.