…..but it sure smells like it inside!
Mom and I have been baking Christmas goodies in my kitchen almost non-stop for the past three days. We haven’t done this in years. I can’t tell you how much fun we are having!
Mom’s snowballs are so delicious and simply melt in your mouth. Can’t you almost taste their buttery-sweet goodness?
We’ve made sugar cut-out cookies, date nut coconut balls, endless batches of spritz cookies, peanut butter fudgies (we call them Reeses Pieces), ginger snaps with white chocolate drizzle, rice krispie treats, and more. Tomorrow we are going to frost the cut-outs and make our traditional holly (think: corn flakes, butter, marshmallow and green food coloring.) Then we’ll be finished. But, oh, the memories we’ve made….
Thanks, Mom. Love you.
Just about 11 years ago, I was downsized from my job. I was fortunate to have another one in the works, but I chose to take the time beween Thanksgiving and News Years off before starting that new job. My mom, who had been a prolific baker, was slowing down & was no longer able to produce the batches and batches of cookies she used to. I had a big kitchen, 2 ovens and a Kitchenaid mixer. She came to my house every day for a week and we baked and baked and baked. And talked. The cookies were wonderful, but to tell you the truth it wouldn’t have mattered if we had been baking dog biscuits. It was the time we spent together that was magic.
Mom has been gone for 5 years, but I will always have the memory of that December bake-a-thon. Seeing your mom rolling out those thin sugar cookies brought back that memory. She’s rolling them out thin, just like my mom used to. Sooooo thin you really had to watch that the edges didn’t burn. And we had those very same cookie cutters, including the Santa with the pack on his back.
Let’s hear it for all those moms and daughters keeping that tradition alive!! And for all of the beneficiaries of those hours in the kitchen.
Pat — Thank you for sharing such a lovely, personal memory of your time with your Mom. It brought tears to my eyes. My Mom is 83 and while she is still pretty active and spry, I make sure to treasure all our times together in the here and now. Wish you were here with us. You’d fit right in between the flour up to our elbows, giggles, and food coloring everywhere.
Got excited seeing the pictures of you making all those cookies! I didn’t show your brother the snowballs…I was afraid he might druel on my computer 🙂
Glad you are enjoying your baking! It is raining…with a “huge” threat of 1″ of snow and they have closed the schools at 10am. At least they get to count the school day…otherwise, they would have had to go to school on Wednesday before Christmas. It is so funny to watch what a PANIC there is for this little bit of RAIN!