What a Life!

Another one of my favorite parts of Christmas is baking holiday goodies.

What I managed to get around to making this year is completely shameful and embarrassing. Like I said, I got into the spirit of things late, I was busy with work stuff, and with two little children underfoot, I just didn’t get much done. But in times past, making holiday goodies has been one of the highlights.

When I was a kid, we always made sugar cookies. Mom would make the dough, then she, Traci and I would cut out the cookies with the many cookie cutters Mom had. Mom would bake them, being careful not to get them out of shape when transferring to the pan. Then she would make up some icing. We would pick which decorating tips we wanted with which colors, and then the three of us would decorate them together. Not only were they fun to decorate, they tasted really good too. This is one thing, though, that I have never really done on my own – it just isn’t the same doing it by myself.

I’ve always wanted to make a Gingerbread House, and I saw people making them this year on various blogs. One of the interesting tidbits was that they were using real glue – they said it works better than icing, and if you don’t eat the gingerbread house, why not? I think Ben would really enjoy watching me make one. It’s kind of like cake decorating though. My mother did really well at that, but I am not an artist and I am afraid my drawing skills – you know, being able to cut square pieces and carve shingles on the roof and all – would adversely affect not just the finished product but my enjoyment of the project as well. Someday, though, I shall find a recipe that looks easy enough to me and I’ll make one.

We made other cookies, too, when I was a kid. Peanut Blossoms. My mom had a recipe for fruit cookies – they were made with the same fruit used in fruitcake but tasted much, much better. They make a huge recipe, though, so if you’re making them for yourself (as I have done in the past), you need to make them once every four years or so or you’ll be really tired of them. My Grandma Hagele always made Date Pinwheels and Chocolate Caramels. [Now there is something I made this year: Chocolate Caramels – twice.] When we went to South Dakota for Christmas, Auntie Ann would make Caramel Popcorn. [I bought the ingredients for that this year, but still haven’t gotten around to making it.] I also love Fudge. The Christmas when Steve and I were dating, I made Truffles and gave them to everyone in nice tins as gifts (those were the days!).

When people talked about their Advent calendars [where you open up the item for that day and it gives you an activity to do so you do a little bit of celebrating every day] on various blogs this year, one of the things I thought I would include if I made one was baking cookies. My theory was to make one batch every week – that way I could rotate which kinds of cookies I made every year, and have enough to enjoy without being overwhelmed by holiday goodies. Ben loves watching me bake, so it is a way to celebrate the season that I could easily do with him (and possibly even Joey next year).

Next year I really want to make one of those Advent calendars, and one of the activities will be baking cookies – at least once a week. Another note to self…