Colorful cutouts

Grandma & Papa Compan stayed the night after Noah's Christmas program, so I suckered Grandma into making sugar cookies with Noah the next day. I love to make sugar cookies—a long-honored tradition in the Compan house growing up—but it's not a task I ever tackle on my own.

My mom's a pro, so she led us through our morning of baking. First, we chose our cookie cutters. I own about 3–4 of the shiny shapers, so mom had to bring her bin of Santas, reindeer, stars and angels. Noah managed to find a dinosaur cutter he just had to use.

We made the dough—a classic, firm sugar cookie recipe—and mom rolled it out on her trusty old Tupperware mat.

Noah's favorite color is blue, so this is the only frosting he used in our five dozen cookies. For the safety of any partakers of our cookies: do NOT eat the blue ones. I repeat: do NOT eat the blue ones!



Our first batch turned out pretty colorful! We use a traditional powdered sugar frosting recipe, which gives the cookies a glossy, brilliant finish.

The finished products. Colorful, tasty sugar cookies to share! In fact, we'll have to share them, because ever since I was little, I've only liked the dough. A baked sugar cookie, to me, just isn't the same as stealing a glob of dough chilling in the fridge. But they sure do look fun!