Baking Christmas cookies is one of my favorite traditions of the season. It goes without saying that it is possibly the favorite Christmas tradition for my kids. It is, after all, an entire weekend devoted to cookies and Christmas movies (movies in case, you know, you need a break from eating cookie dough and frosting cookies). Each year, we assume that the process will get quicker and more efficient, because we have one year more experience, but it just never works out quite that way. And that’s okay, because our memories of these days are something that I always want to remember. Truthfully, I would love to think that this is something that we will repeat in our home for years to come, even when our kids come home from college or have chubby cheeked children of their own.
This year, we added our new favorite chocolate chip cookies to the standard sugars and ginger molasses cookies. I already have a couple new recipes in mind of cookies I want to add in 2015 (thumbprints and snickerdoodles, in case I forget). The schedule is that we spend Friday night making dough, Saturday baking and usually making more dough, Sunday decorating and bagging, and Monday evening delivering to our friends and neighbors. Tempting as it is to eat 500 Christmas cookies, our favorite part of the whole ritual is making the deliveries. In a small but significant way, we are getting to celebrate with each of our friends. The kids take turns walking up to the door and personally making the deliveries. This is one errand they never complain about running, no matter how cold or dark it is outside. The chance to present their friends with a treat that they helped to make all weekend long is an honor that they compete for at each stop along our route.
These are the tiny things that make up our season. It’s these tiny things, these everyday things, that I appreciate so much.
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