We're going to have some friends come over, they're going to help us decorate,

And I'm going to teach you the recipe for the classic sugar Christmas cookie.

[Life in Japan Theme Song]

Daddy! Daddy!

Oh my goodness!

There's two kindergarteners today!

Hi Aiden! Hi!

How was school? Oh thank you!

Good.

Aiden, you're finally coming to our house! How cool is that?!

He likes to check it everyday.

Yea, I like getting mail.

This is where everybody hangs out.

You can use this shield too.

Hit it! Hit the shield!

It's going to protect you!

See! It protects you!

Very excited kids!

Going to get the cookies all ready to decorate.

Or all the icings ready, huh?

Yeah, and then I've got to color it.

We love to have friends over to enjoy the last step of making cookies,

decorating them with frosting and sprinkles.

Today we'll be decorating cookies with Joshua's friend and his family,

but tomorrow we'll start the process from the very start so you can learn how to do it.

Incredible!

Dozo mama!

It's good therapy. Oh my goodness!

OK I'm going to do a Christmas tree.

I'm doing a happy face. A happy face?!

That's a good idea.

Look at this, Daddy. Wow, cool dude!

Oh that's a good looking Christmas tree! We've got two of them!

Is it hard? No.

Gotta have some sprinkles.

Just some.

Whoa! Oh my goodness Joshua!

He's putting frosting on his!

Oh is he?

Oh, he's putting frosting on his... Fudge balls!

Big jump!

Mommy's making some dinner here... Here you go.

Kids are doing some dances.

Joshua's like "Yes, chomp chomp! I'm going to eat."

OK, so for the sugar cookies first of all you're going to need one cup of butter.

Mmmm, everything's better with butter.

A cup and a fourth of sugar.

You can do this with just a hand mixer if you don't have a huge Kitchen Aid mixer like I do.

Beat those together, cream them.

And add in one egg.

Look at that egg technique, oh!

Enviable.

And a teaspoon of vanilla.

OK, give the bowl a good scrape.

Make sure it all mixes.

Now we're going to add our dry ingredients which are our flour and baking powder.

So we need three cups of flour,

Pat and scrape.

A secret tip: I took out a half a cup of flour and I'm going to add half a cup of corn starch

It helps the cookies not spread so much when they're baking.

Now I need baking powder.

One and a half.

Then a little bit of salt.

Don't forget to always put salt in your sweets. It helps balance out that flavor.

OK, now we mix it. And that is the dough.

Then once it's all put together, we're going to roll it out between two pieces of parchment paper.

And stick it in the refrigerator for about ten minutes.

To get it nice and cold. It's easier to cut out the shapes if the dough is nice and cold.

Give it a good wipe down.

Wipe down the sides, make sure everything is incorporated.

And we are done!

It's a very easy dough, but the kids just love decorating it.

We end up giving away most of the cookies because if they stay at home, the kids will eat them all.

It's very moldable, it's kind of like play dough.

But anyway, we're going to go into the other room to open it up.

Got my parchment paper.

So you're going to divide the dough into — about in half.

Do half at a time.

You can roll it out as thick or as thin as you want

If they're too thin, they easier to break when you're transferring them.

But then you get more cookies, so it's kind of a... tossup.

How many years have you been making Christmas cookies?

Oh man!

Probably since I was 2 with my mom!

Everything I learned I learned from my mom.

That one's ready to be refrigerated.

[Sarah laughs]

Mommy? Tomorrow are we going to decorate it?

Maybe, I don't know.

Your edges will tend to get thinner than the middle

So make sure you keep everything the same size.

OK, that feels about even on all sides,

Now place them on a serving tray.

Stick them in my fridge for about 15 minutes.

OK, we'll be back in about 15 minutes.

Intermission

Are you guys ready to cut out some sugar-cookies-Christmas-cookies goodness?

I'm ready to eat the cookies!

Oh well, you have to make them first!

OK, let's pull this out.

Yeah!

OK, now try to lift it out of there like that.

OK Whoa

Like this... you go like this

And you squeeze it together. I can't do it.

Whoa, it's going good there.

I did it! There you go, Sarah!

Anna, you're working on the fudge balls?

This is Joshua and my job.

Good job, Sarah.

In the fridge.

It all goes back in the fridge?

Between each one, or it's too soft

Yeah, every time you roll out a dough.

Excuse me, sir. Excuse me.

Not so tiny, not so big: normal. I think this is too tiny.

You'll preheat the oven to 180 degrees (C)

And you'll put in the cookies for about 10-12 minutes.

Until the edges start turning a little bit light brown.

You don't want to over bake them, because then they'd be crunchy.

Unless you like crunchy cookies, then leave them in there a little longer.

Once the sugar cookies come out of the oven,

You need to make sure they cool completely before you ice them.

Then to make the icing, all it is is powdered sugar and a tiny bit of water.

You just go mixing in the water until you get to the consistency that you want.

Once you get to that consistency, then you can divide up your batches of frosting

And add different food colors in it to make different colors of frostings.

And then let the kids have at it!

Ah Sarah, is this one of your favorite parts here?

Putting the chocolate chips in?

Ok, now hold it tight, tight!

There! There, good job!

Hang on. There you go, good job.

We're going to wait until Anna's done because we're going to role it all together in one dough this time.

How many times do you roll and refrigerate and repeat?

It all depends on how big you role it out the first time.

So probably about five times — well, no.

Seven. Seven or eight times.

How to make popcorn.

First, plug this in.

Open it.

Put this in about one and a half turns

And then you put 1/3 cup of popcorn in 2 times

One

Two

Put the lid on.

Then wait until it's all done.

Are we good up to this point?

Good?

There's still more to do, so come back in 5-10 minutes.

Becca, let's show Daddy the soccer game! Daddy, look at the soccer game!

Anna! Anna chan! Anna!

Before, we had a mattress here so we couldn't play,

But now... Cannonball!!!!

Start!

Up the hallway...

I can reach it because I don't really throw so high.

Cannonball! Up the hallway!

I think it's ready!

Turn it around,

And then you burp...

And then you put it in a big bowl...

There's so much stuck! I'll help.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

And this two times...

So good!

I like the noise.

You like the sound of the salt?

I lik the noise!

And then you do this!

And then you eat!

Is it good? It's good.

And then you do Mario Kart with Joshua!

Can somebody bring a bowl for Daddy chan?

Me! Yea!!

What about me?!

The next day Sarah's wish came true and her friend came over to decorate the cookies with her.

OK, we're making Christmas cookies with Sarah's good friend, Minori chan.

Sarah, do you understand Japanese? I understand.

Joshua, do you understand Japanese? I do.

OK, open it! You got a present from Minori chan?!

You made it? Yes.

She made those!

Becca and Anna... Puppet show!

What are you guys going to do? A puppet show.

A puppet show? With gloves.

OK, let's see.

Showtime!

I'm hungry! Brother, do you have something to eat?

Nope.

OK, let's go shop!

How can I help you?

Oh! I want this cake!

Please sit over here.

What would you like?

Sour cake, please!

This is so funny!

They want a sour cake. OK

What will sour cake taste like?

Maybe grape?

Go away!

Here's your sour cake.

What flavor do you think it is, brother?

Maybe strawberry, you think?

Wow, I hope it's grape.

What is it?

Ah! SOUR! AH!

I'm a grandpa! I've turned into a grandpa!

AH!

The End — thanks for watching!

Can we do it one more time?

Hey everybody! We have a special announcement!

In two weeks it's Christmas,

We're going to do our very first livestream as a family!

Open Christmas presents, tell the Christmas story, have lots of fun!

So mark your calendar for 7:00PM, Japan Standard Time on Friday, December 25 so you can join us live!

Hey, and if you tried any of these cookies, we'd love to see the pictures of how it turned out.

Send it to our instagrams, or comment below.

And until next time, we'll see you on Life in Japan. Everybody...

Bye bye!!