&*$%@$*%%& Cookies !!

It's not Christmas without our traditional Christmas cookies at our house.   I come from a family of 4 sisters and 3 brothers.  My mother would spend hours and hours rolling dough, cutting cookies and decorating them.  At that time, she didn't have fancy decorating tools; she used a knife and a toothpick for the fine detail.  You could hear her cursing from the other room.  Until you take over this task yourself, you really don't know how exhausting it is.  You can imagine how much my mother appreciated it when we were old enough to really be a help to her. 

One year I called my sister Kathy and I said: 

"Chris is home and I'm going to mom's to do the cookies if you want to come down".  

She said, "Ok, I'll bring the icing".

"No need, I've got lots" 

 "Well, so do I, I'll just bring it with me" 

So we both load up our kids and all our cookies and ingredients and off we go. As we are about to set up, my other sister Deb shows up.  "Oh good, someone else to help with cookies" 

"I ain't helping, I hate doing those cookies!!  I'll do the clean up instead."

Then shortly after that, Pat just happens to show up.  Never before had all 5 sisters been home to decorate cookies at one time.  As we were about to get ready, Kathy pulls out her icing and I pull out mine.  I looked at hers and said, "That's cake icing, not cookie icing" 

"Well that's the kind of icing I make, why can't we use that?  I've got lots" 

"It won't work, it's got shortening in it."  

"So?" 

"So it won't work, it won't dry the same and it isn't self leveling" 

"But you don't want Santa's beard to be level, you want it to look fluffy"

"But if you make it fluffy and the icing is soft, then we can't stack them on top of each other to put in the containers and they'll all stick together" 

Then Mom pipes in: "You have to use the icing that's made with the milk so that it sets" 

"But I want the beard to be fluffy"

Deb cries out, "Oh for crying out loud, it's icing!" 

"But HERS won't dry."

"And HERS won't make fluffy beards.  Fine, You do yours your way and I'll do mine my way"

(It was quite comical and it reminds me of the story about Kathy and Pat and the race to see who makes it to the turkey pan first to make the gravy: You guessed it, one likes it made with flour and the other cornstarch)

At any rate:  Cookie Day was a great afternoon and our mother was in her glory!  So she decided since we had so many people, we needed more cookies ...so... out comes the flour and the rolling pin.  We were hours and hours decorating. Chris had never been home to participate in cookie decorating before so I think she was having the most fun.  We made Santas, and angels, and candy canes, and trees, and wreaths, and stars, and reindeer.  And then we made gingerbread men and they were decorated as Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Lion.  We had Fred, Barney, Wilma, Betty, Pebbles and BamBam.  The list goes on.

Cookie Day has never happened that way again since.  It's one of those rare moments that creates lasting memories. 

The tradition passed down to my girls.  Holly and Paige were excited because we were going down to gramma's that day to do cookies.  Niki and Sarah were in my kitchen and Aunt Deb popped in.  Niki said, "Aunt Deb, we are going down to gramma's to do cookies, you want to come with us?" 

"NO!!!  I hate making those &*$%@$*%%& cookies !!!"

Niki and Sarah were killing themselves laughing at - not only how bold Aunt Deb was in her statement, but also - I don't think Sarah ever heard that many swear words in one sentence let alone the fact that it came from Aunt Deb!!.  She was literally on the floor laughing. To this day, she still laughs about it.  We all do and they are no longer called Christmas cookies, they are &*$%@$*%%& Cookies.

So today, I share some of my cookies with you.  Grab a glass of milk and lets get started. 

There's a snow storm on my cooling rack.

It's not Christmas without a candy cane.

Of course...the fat man himself.

How cute and easy is this?
  Note: these reindeer are just gingerbread men turned upside down.

And for those of you who are fans of Team Canada .... 

Yes, that is supposed to be a maple leaf.

Any Maple Leaf fans out there??

And last but not least....for all those DEXTER fans out there !!! 

I have to say, that the Santa is my favourite cookie (next to Dexter)... but then again, who doesn't love Santa (or Dexter for that matter) - What's your favourite cookie?

So I say to the guy in the red suit, "Bring it on fat man, I'm ready for ya!" 

Bonnie