I grew up in a family of women who love to bake. Some of my earliest memories include standing on a chair in the kitchen “helping” my mom bake cookies. Mom would measure the ingredients and then let me dump them in the bowl as she mixed them up. Sometimes I would just volunteer to be the “Official Taste Tester” and other times I demanded to be in on the action. By the time I was 10, my mom had let me bake a batch of Chocolate Chip cookies completely on my own. (I think I burned the last batch and I’m nearly certain I didn’t clean up the mess I made.) I loved spending time with my mom in the kitchen while I was growing up and I treasure the cooking/baking tips I learned from her along the way.

Over the years we have always done more baking than usual around the holidays. Some years my sister and I, along with our mom, would get together with my grandma to make candies and other times we would just bake Christmas cookies. It was always fun and always something we looked forward to.

This year we started, what I hope will be, a new tradition. My brother’s new wife, Kalli, asked my mom, sister and I if we would be interested in having a cookie-baking day before Christmas. We quickly agreed and a date was set. Over the past couple of weeks we made plans and ironed out the details for getting enough ingredients, baking sheets, mixers, etc. together to make 8+ different kinds of cookies using only one oven and in only one day. Arrangements were made with HandyMan and my brother-in-law to watch the children and this past Saturday morning we arrived at my brother’s house ready to bake.

And bake we did. By lunchtime, we had made over 16 dozen cookies in at least 5 different varieties – sugar cookies, cream cheese brownies, raspberry cookies, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate peppermint cookies. We had talked, laughed, eaten cookie dough, and just enjoyed each other’s company while baking cookies.

My sister’s 2-year-old daughter hung out with us all day while we baked. She enjoyed helping cut out and ice the sugar cookies, but what she enjoyed most was licking out the bowls and eating the icing. It was fun to think that we are already passing on the baking tradition to the next generation.

By the end of the day we had made several more kinds of cookies and finished decorating the sugar cookies. As they cooled we began to clean up the mess (still my least favorite part) and divide the cookies. Everyone went home with several dozen different cookies and we still had plenty to take to our first family Christmas dinner that evening. We had a lot of fun baking together and I’m already excited about doing it again next year.

I also look forward to the day when Blue is old enough to stand on a chair in my kitchen and “help” me bake cookies. And maybe someday he will want to join in a on Christmas Cookie Baking Day!

~ guest post by MRS

Hungry for more? Related posts:
Baking Ahead for Thanksgiving
Skip Days & Comfort Foods
Blue, Snow & Christmas Trees