500. ALL THOSE SWEET THINGS
Traditions mean everything to me. The things I look back on in my childhood are the same things I want to introduce year after year into my children's lives. It doesn't matter how little or big these traditions are. It doesn't matter how silly or practical they are. No matter what, I want to give them everything I was given as a child, & more.
I can't remember a Christmas where my mother didn't bring out the cookie dough & all those fun cookie cutters (I swear, we had everything from Rudolph to the little elves in Santa's workshop) No matter how busy things got around the holidays, she always made sure we got covered head-to-toe in flour & were able to create a sugary treat of our own. My absolute favorite part was the actually cutting out of the cookies - choosing which cutter to use, & how many of that cookie I wanted to make. I wasn't actually a fan of the decorating (I will stress to you, after ALL these years, I'm STILL not a fan of icing & sprinkling those things!)
This year was the first year I tried to introduce my son into this tradition. As I rolled out the dough I thought to myself, "these cookies are going to look like blobs! but man, I can't wait to show everyone his masterpieces!" When everything was ready for the cutting I brought Daycen over to the table & started to show him what to do... to my surprise, he looked at me like I had lost my mind, turned & resumed playing with his cars on the floor. I'll be completely honest with you, I was SHOCKED! The kid who loves to mix the cupcake batter & watch me pour it into the little tins wanted nothing to do with the cookie making process. Hm, My little baker turned out to not be such a big baker after all.
It doesn't bother me though. I continued cutting out the cookies with my mother, all the while explaining my every choice in cookie cutter to my daughter who sat in her bouncer on the kitchen floor. She seemed rather interested. Than again, she's only a few weeks old, so pretty much everything is interesting. So, this is a tradition that I don't yet share with my children, but I know as they grow older they'll become much more interested in the process. Perhabs because it's something they'll do with their mother that they'll cherish their whole lives, or maybe it'll be for the sugary outcome. Either way, I look forward to spending each Christmas making cookies with them.
I may however, might not enjoy the sugar high they receive from eating those cookies.
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