When In Doubt, Make Cookies

So, I was pretty sad yesterday. I told my girls that our friend J.B. had died and they got pretty sad, too.

And then, Jane (7) had one of those ideas that will one day make her famous. (Apparently, the kid was born knowing the exact right response to sadness.) She said, "Mama, you know what we should do?"

"No, what?"

"We should make Christmas cookies."

So we did.


Naturally, the whole cookie-making process brought me face-to-face with yet another of my OCD manifestations. Because, see, it turns out that over the years? I have amassed quite the cookie cutter collection.

Ahem. (Ana's shirt says, "No Pictures, Please.")

(With me as her mother--as if. Silly girl.)

Now, 26 of those cookie cutters are the alphabet so you can't really count THOSE.

Although, what I was thinking I'd spell out in COOKIES, I have no idea. I mean, by the time you've spelled out "Too Many Sweets Will Make You Sick" you've pretty much made everyone sick, right? A simple A or J would surely have been enough.

But, (shocker) I digress. Anyway, I have a ton of cookie cutters but my girls are only just now able to really have the fun of making cookies. Up until now, I've mostly used them to cut their peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches into shapes.

Dudes, the things I do to get my kids to eat.

Here is a very popular combo: the squirrel and the acorn bigger than his ENTIRE BODY:
House and key (Key is LIFE SIZE because apparently, I have a little problem with scale):
The entire ocean food chain: (As always, you can click to enlarge the photo and then you will see that the whale is smaller than the trout.) (Why yes, that IS a trout. What?)

I think this is supposed to be a cloud but I used it as an amoeba:

Here's the state of Indiana. Which, um, I've never called home. (One of my very best friends is from Indiana and she gave that to me.)

It is interesting to note that I do NOT have a state of Texas cookie cutter, although I DO have THIS:
And of course, I have some livestock. (Note issue with SCALE again.) (Because everything is bigger in Texas! Except COWS!)

I also went through this very perplexing FRUIT phase.
And for some reason, I thought I needed every single fruit ever eaten in both large AND small.
Grapes. Although, if you look at it from another direction, it looks just like a tree being blown in the wind. I mean, doesn't it? Isn't that what you thought, too?

That last one made me laugh out loud because, dudes, how are you supposed to tell what that thing IS?
For the record, I think it is a Mango. But it might be a Rock.

There was also a bit of redundancy. Like I have the moon in profile several times. See? But then, I also have THIS:

Let's face it, all we really needed was the one that made these:

J.B, we will miss you.