Christmas Cookies… ~ by Gabby Angel

I was looking at my cookie recipes last night.My recipe box is pretty well organized…So looking under the Christmas cookies section is easy. I realized how recipes I have and how many I haven’t made for years. It got me thinking of everyone liking a different sort of Christmas cookie. There are so many to choose from, also being half Italian we make different types of Italian cookies. I wonder how many people reading this do some Christmas cookie baking. I actually do know some people who buy all their Christmas cookies, they don’t want to be bothered.  For real, that’s what they do.

Doesn’t that take some of the fun out of the holidays? Well, maybe it takes some of the stress away from the holidays for them. Some people honestly don’t like to bake. Far be it from me to be judgemental, honest. Everyone has to do it their own way.

To be honest I don’t do as much baking for the holidays as I did while my husband Dave was still alive. His favorite cookies were ones with anything chocolate and peanut butter, also sugar cookies. Almost anything I baked! He was tall and thin he could pack those cookies away, too. I know my favorites are the Italian cookies and of course anything made with chocolate!

Sugar cookies, the cookie cutter kind are so much fun when you decorate them any way you choose. Back when Autumn and I were young, the younger sisters, too…We could get real wild and crazy with our decorating. Those were fun times, good memories and those innocent and simple days.

I know Autumn and I will be getting together to do some baking, hopefully Mom and some of our sisters. I need to ask you all a special favor, do any of you kind readers care to share what your favorite Christmas cookie is? Come on everyone, it will be fun don’t you think?

Just leave a comment with your favorite Christmas cookie, but only if you feel so compelled to do so. I don’t want  to seem pushy at all, since that isn’t my nature. It would be interesting to see the results, thank you for taking the time to read this. 🙂

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Helping Mom at the Bake Sale~by Gabrielle Angel

This one is a passing thought that popped into my head while working in my own kitchen. Making a couple loaves of zucchini bread, something I do for relaxation is cooking and baking. Usually to share with family and friends or even to freeze, but I do love to putter in the kitchen.

Anyway, as often happens I get these random thoughts and this brought me memories of a bake sale. I was laughing to myself just  thinking about this one. And it wasn’t just any bake sale, I need to say.  This was one when Autumn and I got to help our Mom at at a church bake sale. It was being held in the church basement, which was a good spot . Come rain or shine, the bake sale would go on.

We were about 6 years old and Mom (for whatever crazy reason) let herself be talked into the twinnies helping her out. It was going to be an all day long bake sale, so some of the ladies were taking turns. After all, it was only one short hour and what could possibly go wrong? 😉

OK, sometimes Autumn and I could be a handful but lots of time we were quite well behaved. Poor Mom, she thought this was going to be one of the well behaved times. We tried and it all started out so well…It really, really did. The first 45 minutes was great fun, busy helping Mom and chatting with all and any who stopped by.

We twinnies were far from shy, we enjoyed chatting to people from an early age. So, we were an asset of sorts to our Mom. Autumn and I were happy to talk everyone into buying something, after all it was for a good cause. 🙂

Mom was pretty calm, things had been gliding right along and going quite smoothly. Selling cookies, cupcakes, brownies, doughnuts and all that good stuff.

Everything was prewrapped for many reasons, so far Autumn and I hadn’t been tempted to tamper with or open anything. Well, that all went out the window when one of our favorite people stopped by…our Grandpa! Well, Grandpa was all smiles and greeted us with hugs and kisses. Our Grandma was off in the church kitchen chatting to some of her friends and helping out behind the scene, so to speak. Later Mom would reflect on that, why didn’t she herself stay in the kitchen? Autumn and I were so thrilled to have Grandpa as a customer, he was scooping up a few things that he was going to buy and getting ready to pay Mom.

He was catching on to the fact we twinnies were getting ready to act up. Oops, too late Autumn had torn open a nicely sealed bag of cookies! Each of us twinnies quickly had a cookie in our hand and trying to offer Grandpa a bite. I was getting huffy at Autumn because she had gotten to him first, so I started to howl. Before everyone knew it we twinnies had gotten quite loud and things turned ugly.

Poor Grandpa, poor Mom…They each grabbed up a twinnie. The half dozen cookies in a bag had gotten stomped on (by mistake) and we had created a small mess. Not to mention caused a small ruckus…In swooped Mrs L. to the rescue. She took over for Mom and another few ladies came to help tidy our mess. Those ladies were so fast, my could they all move quickly! Autumn and I were quickly helped into our coats and told to give Grandpa hugs and off to the car we went.

As usual a lecture and quite the talking to we got on our 5 minute ride home. Autumn and I very subdued and quiet as we walked with Mom to the door of our house. We were in trouble again, when we were really trying to be good, too. 😦  Dad greeted us with a big smile asking, “How was the bake sale girls?” We never got to answer, Mom sent us to our room! 😦