Easter Christmas Cookies

Yea for one week until Christmas break! Our friends, Clark and Joey, came over to celebrate Christmas by making homemade sugar cookies and watching a Christmas classic--Home Alone. Turns out our frosting was pastel colored, so we decided our cookies were Easter Christmas cookies. They were soft and delicious just as we wanted. It must've been Joey's expert measuring skills in conjunction with my narration as if we were on our own Food Network show (still dreaming...) Thank goodness we had Clark and James for the hard part of cutting out the shapes and placing them successfully in one piece on the cookie sheets. It's not as easy as it sounds.

SUGAR COOKIES
1 cup butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
4 Tbs. sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3 1/2 cups flour (plus more for dusting)

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream, vanilla, and mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Roll dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for a few hours (or overnight). Roll out onto floured surface and cut into shapes. Bake at 375 for 6-8 minutes. Cool on racks, then decorate.

FROSTING
6 Tbs. butter
6 Tbs. shortening (half a 3/4 cup)
2 1/3 cup powdered sugar
3/4 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
splash of water

Mix 1st three ingredients. Add the rest and beat until light and creamy. Add water until desired consistency.