No More Cookies

I have often said that if I die before the kids are grown, Hubby must marry someone else. Otherwise, he will only feed the kids meat and cookies. He loves cookies. Chocolate chip are his favorite kind, but really most will do. He gets this from his mother. She also ends the day with milk and cookies before bed, though she does eat her veggies during the day. I suppose she gets this cookie habit from her mother. I just returned from WV where we were cleaning Grandma's house. She has moved to assisted living and 60 some years of living had to be sorted. Among the items were these coupons (cupons). She had saved coupons with no expiration date. However, these weren't just any coupons. These were cookie ingredient coupons. Nestle, Reeses, Hershey's...I think Grandma liked chocolate, another family favorite.

Every Christmas for over 25 years Grandma made cookies. She would start mid-autumn, and freeze them as she went. There were common cookies like chocolate chip and pecan sandies. There were fancy thumbprint cookies with jelliies and nuts. Chocolate cookies with surprise candy bars or marshmallows in the middle were popular. She made decorated, cut-out sugar cookies, Russian teacakes, even cookies that went unnamed. Sometimes she would make 60 types of cookies!

Then in early December, she would gather with daughters and nieces to pack the cookies. They would cut out waxed paper circles the size of butter cookie tins, and begin layering the cookies around the tins. Cookies were layed out on tables, and an assembly line would form.

Cookies would be given to friends, church members, neighbors, co-workers, and especially family. For the grandsons and their families, there would be special cookie tins filled only with "devil dogs," chocolate cake cookies layered with frosting.

The hilarious part of this cookie baking frenzy was that Grandma didn't eat very many of them. Every year for Christmas she would receive Danish butter cookies in tins. Those are her favorite. The tins would be saved, returned by appreciative cookie eaters, and refilled next year.

But last Christmas there were no cookies. Grandma, now aged 93, could no longer bake cookies. Christmas just wasn't the same. I don't think we were disturbed as much by the absense of cookies as we were by the knowledge that a tradition had ended.

In our home we have a placard that reads, "Home Is Where the Story Begins". The home that began this cookie story has been sold, but that won't be where the story ends. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren alike will surely continue the story of sharing what you have in love and generosity. And those are some very sweet cookies.