Christmas cookies

These are my special cookies that all of my family love. I make them for a lot of the holidays and just use a simple cookie cutter and butter icing with sprinkles. The kids love to add the sprinkles when they are around and usually the whole kitchen gets sprinkled.

Sugar Cookies

Cream together:

1/2 cup crisco and 1/2 cup of softened butter or margerine

1 and 1/2 cup sugar

Add:

3 eggs

1 tsp. almond flavoring

2 tsp. vanilla flavoring

4 and 1/2 cups of sifted flour - may take a little less

Combine all ingredients; roll into 2 balls and wrap in wax paper; chill

When ready to cook remove from refrigerator and let sit at room temperature until it feels soft enough to roll out with a rolling pin ( a smooth glass makes a good rolling pin) Roll to approximately 1/4 inch or less thick. Cut out the cookies. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes

Butter icing

1- 1 pound box of powdered sugar

1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter or margerine

4-6 tbsp of milk

2 tsp of almond flavoring

1 tbsp. of vanilla flavoring

Cream butter and sugar; add milk as needed to make icing consistency

Add other ingredients. Spread on cookies and add sprinkles

Artificial coloring is made from coal tar and could be the cause of a variety of health issues.

I usually use white icing and then a small amount of sprinkles.

I recently tried a natural coloring but it did not much for the white icing. It did however make a very soft nice looking sugar when mixed with plain white sugar. That is not used in this picture. I ordered the natural flavoring from seelecttea.com