It’s time once again for the Great Christmas Cookie Bake at Tom and Lisa’s house.
This year Addie turned out Candy Cane Kiss cookies and the family polished them off faster than Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster.
In an attempt at cookie preservation, Lisa squirreled away Addie’s batch of M&M Cookies for another day.
Coco, very intent on creating Mexican Wedding Cookies, which she calls Snowballs when cooked for the holidays.
Coco shaping the cookies for the oven.
Did You Ever Wait Impatiently to Lick the Bowl and Beaters?
And what is baking without the old kitchen ritual of licking the bowl and beaters? I always begged my mother to leave just a bit more batter in the bowl and on the mixer, so I could get a foretaste of the goodies about to go in the oven.
When I showed my friend, Lucy, the photos, she asked: “Do you know the difference between a good mother and a great mother?” I waited for the punch line. “A good mother let’s the kids lick the beaters; a great mother turns them off first.”
To encourage baking, the girls made a treasure trove of potholders, enough to fill an entire cabinet drawer.
A cedar tree cut from the farm made festive with ornaments and lights.
The tree is normally a precisely sharpened one bought from a local lot. But this year Tom, Lisa, and the girls (ax in hand) went in search of a tree from our farm.
The land is heavy in cedars, that smell good, but tend to be shapeless and less willing to hold ornaments than those grown and groomed professionally. Even so, when lovingly decorated it became a family art project.
Their potholders are pretty and brings back memories of me making them as a child.
I spent many an hour making those pot holders in that very same pattern. Great pastime for kids.