When I was a little girl, I always loved making Christmas cookies. It was one of my favorite traditions we did at my house every year. When I got married and moved out, I continued to make cookies to share with others because I loved doing it, and I dreamed of the day that I would make Christmas cookies with my own children. Now my mom did a lot of baking for the holidays, but when I say Christmas cookies, I’m mean the sugar cookies that you cut out with cute festive cookie cutters and then decorate with beautiful icing and sprinkles.
For the last two years, we have finally reached that stage I
always dreamed of- the one where we make Christmas cookies together. And I have had to learn something, it doesn’t
go EXACTLY how I dreamed it would. I
quickly had to realize that, while he does love to help in the kitchen, my (a)
doesn’t have the patience or attention span to both cut out AND decorate
cookies. I had to choose one focus. That was hard for me, as I have always been a
homemade kind of cook, and sugar cookies are no exception, but I had to give in
and realize that if I wanted this to be fun and successful, at least for a few
years I was going to need to retreat to the precut cookies I could purchase at
the grocery. That way he could still lay
them out on the cookie sheet (which is what he currently thinks is successfully
baking cookies) and feel very accomplished, but there was still excitement and
attention span left for the decorating part.
I also had to learn, that my idea of beautiful icing and sprinkles wasn’t
always his idea of the same thing. I
love for my cookies to look cute, festive, and appealing to eat. He loves to add icing of many different
colors and LOTS of sprinkles. I find
myself often wanting to “help” him, and he is quick to let me know he has it
covered just the way he is doing it.
Last weekend was no exception as we began our annual cookie
baking. I had to remind myself there are
important life lessons in cookie baking- you can’t control it all. Sometimes the end product doesn’t look
exactly how you want it to look, but that is ok, sometimes, even better than
you could have planned yourself. Sometimes,
you have to pick your battles and decide what is most important. While I prefer cutting out my own cookies, I
would rather have fun and maintain his interest and investment in the project-
so until he his old enough to handle it we will just keep using the precut
cookies, it is not a battle I am willing to pick.
But here is the good news, there are some parts of cookie baking that have been everything I ever dreamed of! He gets SO excited when the opportunity presents itself. Last weekend, our elf delivered our cookie making supplies on Saturday morning. Our boys are exceptionally early risers, so he was up by a little after 6 and was SO excited to find everything we needed that by 6:30 he was BEGGING to start our cookie project. He feels so proud and independent as he arranges all the precut cookies on the cookie stone the way he wants them, and he giggles as we ask Siri to set our timer (though he is frustrated she only responds to my voice, not his haha). As we work, we turn up the Christmas music in the kitchen and have our own singing/dance party, that usually finds us both in fits of giggles as we work. And the best part, is hearing him decide who he wants to share his cookies with. He often will finish one and announce “this one is for daddy”, “this one is for (b)”, or “I’m going to eat this one!” Last weekend, he was aware that our neighbor, who (a) loves, was recovering from some surgery, so he proudly announced he was going to take cookies to him. He carefully selected the ones he wanted to send over, and put them on a plate to deliver. I’m not sure who was more excited- (a) to give them, or the neighbors to receive them.
And after a successful cookie adventure like that, I
remember there are other important life lessons learned while making Christmas
cookies. Every project is better
with laughter, music, and dancing. Whether cleaning, doing yard work,
or cookie baking- turn up the music and dance until you laugh. Good things are better when shared with
others. The best part of the cookies is who you share them with.
It’s amazing how may life lessons a mom can learn by simply
making Christmas cookies.
“I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a
lesson from what I saw” Proverbs 24:32
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