the Troll family showed up, all eager to.....err.....help......
They were so enthusiastic about helping we simply couldn't refuse. So, hoping for the best, Mehitabel and I read the directions to the family. We told them to put the mix in a bowl and add the butter and eggs. 
We went to gather the rest of the ingrediants when we heard, "Okay children, throw in the eggs!" We rushed back to the bowl to try to stop the eggs from being thrown in!
The Troll family thought with all our frantic calls that we were simply cheering them on, and proceeded to throw the eggs and butter...wrapped...in the bowl.
They put the candy eyes for the gingerbread in next. We tried to explain the eggs have to be broken and eyes are added later. Gertie, the Troll mother, asked, "But when are you going to add the Newt eyes if you don't put them in now? It's the best time really." We explained the eyes were candy. Gertie was even more excited. "Candied Newt eyes! Wonderful! You really must put them in now!" We finally explained that the eyes were not Newt eyes, but simply candy eyes to put on the gingerbread men once they were baked. Gertie thought it most odd, but relented on the eyes. We tried to explain the butter must be unwrapped and the eggs cracked.
"Oh, why didn't you say so, my dears? Of course we can do that...children...smash the eggs, please!"
The troll girls, Emerald and Amethyst, immediately started to stomp on the eggs.
Mehitabel and I both screeched at the same time...
We politely suggested perhaps we could do the hard work of mixing the ingrediants and our guests could help with the fun part of decorating. The Trolls readily agreed, and Mehitabel and I mixed the batter....without the eyes and butter wrappers.
Gertie commented on how lovely the dough was and how it was....the perfect shade of mud. We politely thanked her for the...compliment.
Next, the troll family cut out the cookies. They were quite good at it, jumping up and down on the cookie cutter to press it into the dough.
We put the first batch of cookies in the oven, and a few minutes later, out they came. 
Many more batches followed....and finally, we were ready to decorate.
I demonstrated how to put the icing on the cookies.
The Troll family were thrilled to put the eyes on the cookies. They tried their hand at icing....
