As always it is my pleasure and honor to partner with Disney Book Group to be able to share some of our favorite kids titles with you! All images, thoughts, ideas and opinions remain my own.
****
Every year around this time I get the Christmas itch. It can’t be scratched by all the Halloween mumbo jumbo (pass) and only gets more intense as we work our way through Thanksgiving with family and food and get closer to Christmas Eve! I LOVE L O V E love Christmas and everything that leads up to it. The decorating, shopping, planning, prepping, organizing, baking, cooking and eating… it’s my jam.
I’m sharing (affiliate link) Santa Bruce today, our favorite bear and mother and grump, along with my very most favorite way to make Christmas prep just a little bit easier come December. Whether you love Christmas like me or get through it like many, there is not denying the anxiety such a big to do list can bring. My prep tip today is going to help! More time for Christmas books and more time for cozy giggles and laughter as you read through Santa Bruce with freshly baked cookies in hand. Mmmm this tip is a yummy one.
Whats the “best” way to PREP REALLY EARLY for Christmas? Make tons of cookie dough and stash it in the freezer! Seriously. So many cookie recipes are freezer friendly but the ones I’m going to share today start with just one cookie base and get doctored up with yummy add-ins. Fair warning, this recipe makes a ton of cookie dough. Almost literally! (Ok not really)
Freezer Cookie Dough Recipe:
Ingredients:
4 sticks of salted butter, room temp
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 1/2 cups of brown sugar
4 1/2 cups of flour
In a giant bowl- cream together butter and eggs with an electric mixer. Add in vanilla and salt and mix. Add sugars and mix thoroughly. Add flour and baking soda last mixing slowly but thoroughly until a perfect giant bowl of cookie dough is formed. Separate the dough into three bowls.
Additions:
Macadamia nuts (Target sells a perfect little bag of them!) and white chocolate chips (1 cup)
M&M’s and chocolate chips
A dash of cinnamon, oatmeal (1 cup), and chocolate chips (1 cup)
Once your dough is made you can transfer it into gallon zip lock bags. Squeeze all that air out then press the dough out so it’s flat inside the bag (about 3/4 inches thick or so). When you want to bake you can just pull the dough out and let it sit on the counter for a bit, then use a pizza cutter to cut the flat dough into squares! So easy peasy. It’s like homemade break and bakes! Seriously a game changer. I recommend you bake the frozen or semi frozen dough at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Just keep an eye on them Incase your oven is different or your dough thicker or thinner or your cookie sheet different etc.
Then grab your cookies and snuggle up with all-the-books. If you do a Christmas Book Advent like ours every year, this title is one you are going to need to add to it. Poor Bruce gets mixed up in a case of mistaken identity- again! This time the creatures in the forest are trying to give Bruce their Christmas lists. Poor Bruce, he can’t catch a break!
Sally wants to read this one on repeat but so do the other girls. We read it together and then rotate who gets it in their bed each night. That’s how we know it’s a GREAT one. It can’t even make it to the shelf! Although I wish it could because Ryan T. Higgins did a really standout job with this one- the illustrations are my favorite. The expressions on Bruce’s face just get me every single time! I think I’m relating to this bear on a personal level, ha.
I hope you mix up some cookie dough this month to stash for December and add Santa Bruce to your Christmas Book list!
Xo
-J
Leave a Reply