Post-Christmas cookies

Yes, I know Christmas is over. And I meant to get around to making Christmas cookies before Christmas. But it just didn't happen this year. We got a little busy. Besides all the usual Christmas activities (parties, choir events, etc.), there are seven people in our family with birthdays in December. So the month gets crazy, and the non-essentials (cookies) get thrown out. And I've always been sort of a procrastinator anyway. It just worked out for me. I'm that person you hated in college, who wrote the papers the night (or hour) before they were due, and studied for tests when the person next to me said, "Hey, did you study for the test today?" at which point I realized there was a test that day, and pulled out my notes for the minute and a half it took the teacher to take attendance. And I managed fairly decent grades, and usually did better by cramming than I did if I worked ahead of schedule.

What was I talking about? Oh, cookies. So I decided to make cookies, because Wendy linked to a really good recipe on her blog and because I thought Judah would have fun helping. I baked them in the morning and Judah decorated them in the afternoon, and we had a blast.
Here's Judah holding up one of his masterpieces and wearing that funny smile he gets because he can't really manage to keep his eyes all the way open when the flash goes off. And yes, that is a star of David shape. My cookie cutter set, which has like 100 shapes, only has one five-pointed star, and it's big and the points are rounded, and I don't really like that. So we ended up with a bunch of the Jewish version.
The completed collection. I liked the blue ones best, because I got a little happy with the almond extract when I was making the icing and added (read: spilled) too much in, but they ended up tasting so good!
The last three cookies. Instead of dumping on more decorations, I had Judah just turn them upside down in the extra stuff on his decorating plate, and we both ended up loving them. I call them the uglies, like the leftover doughnuts in some book I read (I think it was The Vision of Emma Blau by Hegi, any help here Barbara? My books are still in boxes, too). These were the only ones Judah ended up liking to eat, probably because he could fit the whole thing in his mouth at once.