A Simple Truth!

I love this simple truth! 

Best Sugar Cookie Frosting Ever!

I love making sugar cookies for so many holidays- especially if I have a helper!

I have a great cookie recipe - there are many out there!   What I needed was help with the frosting.  Mine never got hard enough to be able to wrap the cookies or stack them without the cookies sticking together.  I finally came up with this recipe.  It is a glaze and has no butter, which is what keeps the frosting from getting firm.

Here is the recipe:

Cookie Glaze

1 cup Powdered Sugar

1 Tablespoon Milk

2 Tablespoons Light Corn Syrup

1 teaspoon Vanilla

Add Food Coloring after other ingredients are blended.

Mix ingredients until smooth.  Add more milk, if needed.  (You can use any kind of milk, including canned, evaporated milk). 

Jessie helping me with cookies on Valentine's Day-2013

My Favorite CHRISTmas Tradition!

This blog is about families and making childhood memories that will last and be passed on!  I hope we can share ideas and learn from each other.

I have to start with my favorite tradition.  This tradition is why I named my website and blog "Secret Good Deeds". 

When my children were young, I put out a small manger and a bag of straw at the beginning of the Christmas season.  I told them that we were going to start doing "Secret Good Deeds".  Every time we did something that helped someone and didn't let them know that we were the one who did the good deed, we got to put one piece of straw in the manger.  By Christmas morning, the manger was full because of our kind deeds, and it gave baby Jesus the gift of a warm bed.  Of coarse, we, also, know that Jesus is the Best Christmas Gift of All!

I love this tradition and I wanted to share it with other families and it took me many years to decide to write a story and put together a set with everything a family would need to start the tradition.  This was a bigger job than I ever imagined but what a feeling of acomplishment when I completed it!

This tradition helps families to think about the Real Reason for Christmas and helps them to look for ways to be kind, especially during the Christmas season!! 

When my children were young, we didn't really have a manger, we just had a small basket.  I'm not sure where I got the straw, and our baby Jesus was a cake decoration.  It didn't matter!  If you choose to find your own manger, straw and baby Jesus, that's great!  One of the reasons traditions bring families together is because it's their story and no other family has exactly the same story.  So make the traditions you choose for your family, your story! 

Some families choose to use a different color of yarn for each family member.  This makes it easy for them to see how their good deeds have played a part in giving a gift to baby Jesus (and to each other).

I hope this blog can be a place to share how you have used this and other traditions to create family togetherness and show God's love  Thank you for visiting!  I'd love to hear about your traditions!