This is Matthew's first time helping make G.G.* cookies. He has a little baggie of the cookies he formed and put on the baking sheets...he hasn't quite got the "don't put your fingers - or the cookie dough - in your moth" rule down yet. Eww.
These are pretty labor intensive cookies. The dough is hand rolled into spirals (snails) or flattened ovals (logs) and the "recipe" (I use that word loosely, there are only quantities for a few of the ingredients) makes more than 12 dozen cookies. More, actually, because after several trays of the traditional shapes, we break out the flour, rolling pin and mini Christmas cookie cutters and go to town on tiny little cutouts.
But. Tradition. We only make them for Christmas (and Easter), and everyone expects them, and well, it wouldn't be Christmas (or Easter) without them. And now that I have 2.5 helpers, it goes a lot faster! (Actually, with 2 helpers it goes a lot faster. That 0.5 helper slowed things down a bit. But by Easter he'll be more helpful, and by next Christmas he'll be a pro!)
*G.G. was my great grandma, and these were her signature cookie.
