It is the official Christmas countdown here at the Smay household. The Bean had a sleepover with her GramBarb last night. I was awakened at 7:30 this morning with a phone call from my bean announcing that there are forty-two hours until Christmas. This announcement was followed by squeals, giggles, and more squeals. At that point, I had not even had a cup of tea, and I’m not sure if her math was correct, but I’m going with it. I love that kid’s excitement. I promised her that I would write to you, dear reader, then shower and go into GramBarb’s house to bake cookies.
Today, we will be baking sugar cookies and my grandmother’s soft gingerbread cookies. My grandma’s recipe is handwritten in her almost perfect script. Each year, I think to myself, “I should frame this,” and this year, I believe, will be the year I do so. I have these narrow useless shelves in my kitchen that I never know what to display on them. I believe I will take all the handwritten recipes I have and display them in coordinating frames. This way, they will be preserved for my bean. I hope she looks back at these cookie baking days one day and remembers them with a smile and a warm, fuzzy feeling.
I have been baking cookies with my bean since she was old enough to stand. She has always enjoyed the process of making cookies, mostly eating the dough. As part of my display, I will take all the pictures I have of her baking cookies with me over the years and add them to the display of handwritten recipes in my kitchen. I love looking back through her pictures and seeing how she has grown and changed, how she went from a flour-covered toddler sneaking bites of cookie dough with her tiny little fingers to a very serious and astute cookie connoisseur at the age of five or six. Now, at the age of twelve, she is a master cookie decorator and takes the job of creating beautiful cookies very seriously.
I am indeed looking forward to spending the day with my bean and GramBarb.I hope to remember to take pictures of them both today. For whatever reason, I am aware of how fleeting our time together is. I need to appreciate and document these moments for myself and Jordan. As always, my dear reader, stay safe, be smart, document these precious fleeting moments, and keep washing your hands.