Some of my favorite memories from childhood are of making sugar cookies with my mom: learning to measure out the ingredients, add them one by one into her trusty KitchenAid, roll out the dough, make frosting, and most importantly, decorate!

As an adult, I would make those same sugar cookies every year for my friends and roommates. When my mom upgraded to a new KitchenAid, she handed hers down to me. It’s 26 years old and still going strong. (Incidentally, my KitchenAid is also instrumental to how I met my husband.) Over the years, I have amassed an impressive collection of sprinkles and cookie cutters, and there was nothing I loved more than making, decorating, and devouring everything from gingerbread men to dinosaurs.

So when Andrea from Food Embrace announced the International Blogger Cookie exchange, I signed up right away. I knew exactly what recipe I’d share, and couldn’t wait to experience someone else’s holiday traditions vis a vis flour, sugar and butter.

I sent my mom’s famous sugar cookies off to Bobbi, and got my own present in my inbox: gingerbread cookies from Rachel at Hounds in the Kitchen.

Needless to say, I was thrilled. Rachel’s family loves decorating gingerbread, and that activity was right up my alley. Gingerbread is the perfect vehicle for a sprinkle explosion. Even better, the recipe was vegan, so I invited Jamie over to take a sugary trip down memory lane with me. (Because she’s in all those frosted memories, too.)

Recipe from Betty Crocker:

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable shortening (I used organic palm shortening, which has no hydrogenated fats in it. Thanks to Jessica for the suggestion!)
1 1/2 cup molasses
2/3 cup cold water
7 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Mix brown sugar, shortening, molasses, and water in a large bowl. Sit in remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheet lightly with shortening and prepare sheets with parchment.
3. Roll dough 1/4 inch thick on floured surface. Cut with floured gingerbread cutter or other shaped cutters. Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.
4. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until no indentation remains when touched. Remove fromcookie sheet and cool on a wire rack. Decorate with frosting.

Here they are being rolled out. This silicone rolling pin was a graduation gift from my college roommate, and it’s been near and dear to my heart and stomach for all these years.

Please forgive the blurry pictures—my camera took a nosedive onto some concrete while we were in Amarillo, and I’ve been stalling on replacing the lens.

A small selection of my cookie cutter collection:

Here they are, ready to go into the oven. Yes, that’s a brontosaurus and a stegosaurus. Yes, my cookie cutters are awesome.

Jamie gets busy with sprinkles:

And the finished products! As you can see, we’re more about having fun with color than, er, turning out something you’d see on Cake Boss.

Thanks, Andrea, for organizing, and to Rachel for giving me an excuse to bust out all my favorite baking supplies. I forgot just how much fun it is to play with Gingerbread Boy Mix and Haunting Mix (those are actually names of my sprinkles).

Did you grow up baking around the holidays? Any traditions you hang onto, year after year?