Sugary Sweet Moments

What could possibly be sweeter than eating sugar cookies at Christmas? Easy. Savoring the moments that come while making them.

I love the Christmas season. I love hanging the stockings and decorating the tree. I love singing carols and wearing warm, snuggly hats and scarves (or at least I did when I lived in New York. It was 68 degrees in our part of Virginia today). I love reading all the stories of Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph and, most of all, baby Jesus. I love the fact that Christmas makes us stop and show our appreciation for the things that matter most in life- our Lord, our families, and our friends.

I also love sugar cookies.

When I bake a batch, using the old cookie and frosting recipe that my mom handed down to me, it instantly transports me back to Christmases as a little girl. I’m there sitting around the table with my sisters and brother, in that cramped, cozy, cabin of a house, with one eye on my mom baking in the kitchen and the other on my dad setting up train track in the living room, and listening to the crackle of a real log fire in the fireplace and some classic Bing Crosby on the record player, while inhaling the distinct aroma of a fresh cut pine tree mixed with sweet sugar cookie dough. Yep, those were the good old days. Log fires, record players, pine trees- things that are few and far between in today’s world of electric flames, iPods and plastic, pre-lit Douglas firs. Wow, do I sound old or what? I’m not even 30 yet! But, in a rapidly changing world the surefire way for me to capture the magic of Christmases past is to bake sugar cookies.

Baking cookies with 17 month old Josie 

So every year, without fail, I dig through my recipe box and pull out that hand scribbled piece of notepad paper. I pull up a chair so that I can reach my tub of cookie cutters on the top shelf. I grab the rolling pin and spread out the table mat. Then we bake!

The story is the same year after year: Little chubby fingers grabbing handfuls of flour from the bag and dumping them on the table top.

Thick white clouds puffing up into the air, covering tiny shirts, chubby cheeks and cute button noses.

Christmas tree, snowman, stocking, and candy cane shapes.

“Mommy, can I help?"

And countless warnings not to eat too much dough “or else you’ll get a tummy ache,” all to no avail.

Beep, beep, beep! Timer rings. Warm, gooey cookies come out of the oven and go straight to the wire racks to cool while wide eyes peer over the countertop in adoration. Next is frosting- a whole two pound bag of powdered sugar and the entire tube of die in order to get a real bright Christmasy red. Lots of little finger licks.

Then sprinkles, sprinkles, sprinkles….and more sprinkles.

Laughs and smiles and hugs and kisses.

Without a doubt, this is one of the things I love most about the Christmas season. The only thing sweeter than baking sugar cookies with my kids is making sugary sweet memories with them. Someday in the future, if the good Lord is willing, I may be reminiscing with them about these good old days- the days of electric flames, iPods, plastic, pre-lit trees and sweet sugar cookie moments.