Decorating gingerbread cookies with a sense of humour

A couple of days ago, I made my traditional gingerbread cookie dough. It's thick and stiff and doesn't really roll out. Instead you kind of press is down with a rolling pin, then use cookie cutters, squeezing the edges of the cookie cutter together to keep the dough in the cutter to transfer it over to the cookie sheet, and then releasing it, hoping it doesn't fall apart. I won't even share the recipe, because if you have ever made gingerbread, you probably have a better recipe than this! However, here is a picture of a tray of them after being baked. (LOVE parchment paper, by the way).

Regardless of the difficulty of the dough, they do taste good, and if you are careful not to leave them in the oven too long, they are still a bit soft, which is what I prefer.

Tonight, when son was actually home (a rare thing these days) and husband and I had both had rather shitty days at work, I decided it was time to decorate. (Sorry, dear daughter, away in the city, normally you are part of this, but I will text you later and tell you to read this post, and hopefully you will laugh at us).

It all started in a traditional, reserved way (by me, I might add).

Pretty, don't you think? Certainly not professional, but acceptable. A present with a bow shape, a gingerbread man shape, and a round ornament shape. Nice, predictable, Christmas colours...

Ummmm, then son produced this masterpiece. (He is about a month away from being 19 years old, just so you know - he is not six years old).

We also had a Santa shaped cookie cutter. You would end up decorating the cookie something along these lines. Both are mine, and I admit the one on the left is pathetic. I got a bit better with practice.

It was then discovered that if you turn that same cookie, it looks a bit like a whale. Whale was what husband was going for. He thought it ended up looking more like a shark (?) and then I accidentally broke off the little round bit on the end of its tail. Stunning.

Things pretty much started going down hill from there.

Then came the variations on the gingerbread men (or "gingerbread people" if we are going to be all politically correct).

Here we have the unibrow gingerbread man.

We follow with the Santa and the skeleton gingerbread men.

If you turn the cookie upside down, you can turn it into a reindeer (if you squint, and use your imagination).

This is the Lieutenant Dan gingerbread man. (A Forest Gump reference). Son made this one.

Here we have the Black Knight. Not familiar?

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"It's just a flesh wound!"

And finally, nothing says Christmas like a grenade.

They will be put into the freezer to be taken out at Christmas when the rest of my twisted family will be here to enjoy them.