Am I so tired as I write this blog. My sister just left. I have collapsed into the desk chair. I am in a daze. It is one of the most wonderful exhausted conditions I have ever been in. We made over 250 Christmas, sugar, iced cookies today. We started at 10am and stopped only for a quick lunch and continued until 4pm. We went through two 5lb bags of plain flour, 3lbs of butter, 4lbs of confectioners sugar, food coloring galore, sprinkles of every color and cookies laid out on every surface space I have. My sister went out the door with four platters of cookies and I have five or six platters myself. This is the first time for my sister to do this with us. I have made the famous sugar cookies since I was married. I remember asking my mother if I could "borrow her fancy cake decorating stuff." I started making the cookies that first Christmas of our marriage and it became a tradition. Today was the first time my sister has ever decorated with the bags of icing and the different shapes that the icing squeezes through to make beautiful designs. I was the oven watcher and my daughter and sister were the cookie cutters. Tonight as I look at our handywork I feel so proud and fond of this tradtion. Sure it is time consuming. Sure it requires a complete mess of your kitchen. Sure it overwhelms one as you are mixing the dough, wondering how in the world you will get it all done. BUT, when that final cookie is decorated, when the platters of cookies are complete, when the final chore of vacuuming is done.....there my friend lies the beauty of a tradition. It is a sacrifice, it is tiring, it is a process, it is something that my children will remember. Sure you can buy the Pillsbury dough rolls. Sure you can make pretty cookies with the easier stuff but the real recipe for a true Christmas sugar cookie starts with.....butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs, flour flying, Christmas music playing and loved ones in the kitchen. There is no subsitute for the real stuff.
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