I also realized that the reason my cookies don’t look pretty is because I shape them by hand. If I actually break down one of these days and buy a cookie dough scoop and/or a cookie cutter, that will help my cookies look prettier. I can use a glass to cut them out I suppose, but sometimes it’s nice to have something other than circular shapes.
Another reason my cookies don’t look pretty is because I don’t leave enough space around my cookies when I place them in the pan. That results in the cookies running together and instead of being round, I end up with squarish, odd-shaped cookies. LOL! From now on, I’m only going to put six cookies on a cookie sheet so they have plenty of room to spread without running into each other.
But hey…the good news is at least the cookies I made tonight tasted good!!! YAY!!!!! Progress at last!!!! 
And some of them actually turned out almost round! YAY again! LOL! Another step in the right direction!! Hip hip hooray!!! But why in the world did they turn out to be thinner than crackers? Cookies are supposed to be a little plump, fat, thick…you know…so you have something to sink your teeth into. Who wants a cookie that’s as thin as a potato chip? *sigh*
Well, here’s a picture of the sugar cookies I made.
They tasted great, and I loved how they were soft and chewy. But they were way too thin, and as you can see, they don’t exactly have the best shape. I cheated and put the prettiest one on top, but you can see how the one with the purple sprinkles has a sharp edge on the left. That’s where it ran together with another cookie and I had to cut them apart. *arrrrrrgggg*. Oh well, maybe next year I’ll make cookies pretty enough to give as gifts. Here’s hoping anyway.
Edit: I ended up taking most of the cookies I made to work because there were too many of them for us to eat. They were gone within minutes and everyone was telling me how delicious they were. They didn’t mind that they were odd shaped and thin because they tasted good. We still have a few cookies here at home, and two days later they taste just as good as the night I made them. They haven’t dried out or gotten hard. I will definitely make this recipe again. One gal at work suggested I refrigerate the cookie dough prior to scooping them. She that might make them less thin. It’s worth a try.
Chewy Sugar Cookies (Adapted from Linda McClure’s recipe that’s posted on foodnetwork.com)
