Christmas is Coming

I love Christmas ! Everyone in the family says I get as excited as a small child about the coming of the holiday. My shopping is done, a few presents are wrapped and now its time to have some fun making decorations. Today was Cinnamon Dough ornament making day. I made "GingerBears" Gingerbears are so important to our family Christmas celebrations. If you look in the December 05 archives you will see a few posts about them with pictures about them.

here is the first post about them http://morningramble.blogspot.com/2005/12/my-oldest-daughter-is-living-many.html

http://morningramble.blogspot.com/2005/12/here-are-some-pictures-of-our.html

and here is the link to the beginning of our Gingerbear Story

http://morningramble.blogspot.com/2005/12/way-back-in-1983-when-our-oldest-was-3.html

Cinnamon Dough Recipe
1 1/2 cups ground cinnamon
1 cup applesauce
1/4 cup white school glue (like Elmer's)
Bowl
Plastic food wrap
Rolling pin
Wax paper
Cookie cutters or a knife
Ribbon or yarn for hanging
Straw Mix cinnamon, applesauce, and glue together in a bowl.The dough should be as thick as cookie dough. Add a bit of water if the dough is too stiff.
Remove from bowl and knead. Put it back in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for at least a half hour.
Remove the dough, knead again to make sure it's smooth. Flatten/roll the dough between waxed paper until it's between 1/4" thick and 1/8" thick.
Cut out desired shapes, use a straw to punch a hole for the ribbon to hang. The circle of dough will pull out with the straw.
Gently place the shapes on a piece of clean wax paper. They will take 3-5 days to dry, and you will need to turn them over a couple of times a day for them to dry evenly and flat.
Don't be surprised to see that the ornaments get smaller during the drying process. Keep this in mind when you pick out the cookie cutters for your designs. You will also notice that if you do not turn the ornaments over often enough while they are drying, the edges of the ornaments will curl.
When dry, thread a piece of ribbon or yarn through the hole to hang.

http://crafts.kaboose.com/cinnamon-dough-ornaments.html