An ESL Christmas and Cornmeal Cookie Recpie

We made it to Christmas! Boy, did that go by fast or what?  December is a big month for our little school- lots of goings on.  One of the biggest things that happens is the annual ESL Christmas party, which my teammate and I organize for our students.   We started this party last year, when we realized that we were teaching "Christmas Around the World" but many of our students had never had Christmas themselves.  So we decided to give them a good American Christmas.

The party and was such a success that we had to do it again, especially with the newcomers we have- they were so excited to learn about Christmas in America!  Here are some of the highlights, aka the only pictures I was able to take!

20 bags full of gifts, my old Christmas tree, and blue and gold ornaments (our school colors).  

We set up the tables in our library "family style" and it works out great!

The big man in red came to see us! The kids had their mouths full of pizza and didn't know what to do - cheer or keep eating!!

Santa handed out the bags of gifts to the kids, then posed for pictures.  We'll print them out for the kids when we get back to school.  Here's my teammate and I, exhausted but happy from all the successful party planning!

We're headed up to see our families Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but I wanted to leave you with a little recipe that my mom and I have been making for a long time.  They are so easy to put together and I like them better than the traditional sugar cookies- they're great to dunk in tea or coffee!  I packed up a few bags for my neighbors- I know they'll love them.

Cornmeal Cut-Out Cookies

Source unknown...my mom cut it out of a newspaper a long time ago.

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Process

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease two baking sheets.  In a medium bowl, mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt together and set aside.  In another bowl, cream butter and sugar together, then add the egg and the vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix until a ball of dough forms.  Your dough may be crumbly at first- just keep mixing!  You can drop by teaspoons as-is onto the cookie sheets, but for roll-out cookies, pat into two discs, wrap with Saran, and refrigerate for a few hours.  Roll out using just a little flour.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on how crispy you like your cookies!  Let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Icing: 

3/4 cup powdered sugar

3 tbsp water

Mix powdered sugar and water together until desired consistency is formed.  Spoon over cookies and drop sprinkles on top. 

Buon Natale! Joyeux Noel! Feliz Navidad! I'm off to spend Christmas with my family, and hope you have a very merry one!