The other day, I had a baking ‘day’ with Mrs. Nye.  We started at 10:30 a.m. and didn’t finish until 4:30 p.m., so it was quite an endeavor.  We made three batches of cookies–traditional sugar cookies, soft sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies.

 

I actually don’t own a single Christmas-themed cookie cutter, and Mrs. Nye has enough to go around, so it worked out nicely.  Growing up, one of my mom’s big things at Christmas was to make lots of Christmas cookies, but we almost never made cut-outs or decorated them.  Her repertoire included those peanut butter-Hershey Kiss ones, the green cornflake/marshmallow ‘holly’ cookies, and some almondy-shortbread things covered in glaze and sprinkles.  And chocolate-covered goodies. LOTS of things got dipped in chocolate over the years: pretzels, Oreos…she even made her own chocolate candies with different flavor extracts.

 

So anyway, Christmas cookie-decorating isn’t necessarily a childhood memory of mine, but it sure felt like it when I was with Mrs. Nye in her kitchen!  I can’t believe I missed out on all that decorating fun.

 

And of course, the perfectionist in me had high expectations for how my finished cookies would look.  I can’t say any of them could be mistaken for something purchased in a bakery, but I was pretty pleased with myself for using multiple colors and sugars, etc…  And really, any aesthetic value is short-lived; they just end up eaten anyway.

 

Merry (almost) Christmas!